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Holiday Traditions on the Central Coast
Updated: 2 days ago
People who move here from colder places sometimes worry that December will not feel like December without snow. Then they stand on the Morro Bay Embarcadero watching a parade of boats strung with lights glide past Morro Rock, and the worry goes away. Central Coast holiday traditions have a character of their own, and they are as much about the towns as the season. This is how the holidays actually feel across San Luis Obispo County.
THE EMBARCADERO · MORRO BAY HARBOR
The lighted boat parade in Morro Bay
Start with the one that surprises newcomers the most. Every December, fishing boats, sailboats, and whatever else floats in Morro Bay's working harbor dress up in lights and parade along the waterfront while people line the Embarcadero with hot drinks and blankets.
It is cold by Central Coast standards, the air smells like the harbor, and it is unmistakably a fishing-town event rather than a tourist show. If you are considering a home near the water, this is a good night to see what the community looks like when it gathers. Our guide to life in Morro Bay's working waterfront town explains why the harbor is still the center of everything there.
CAMBRIA PINES LODGE · MOONSTONE BEACH
A Christmas market in the pines
Cambria takes the holidays seriously. The Cambria Christmas Market, held on the grounds of Cambria Pines Lodge, turns the property into a lantern-lit village of vendor stalls, food, and an extraordinary number of lights strung through the Monterey pines. It runs for weeks, it draws visitors from well outside the county, and it has become one of the defining events of the town's year. Pair it with a walk on the Moonstone Beach boardwalk in the afternoon and dinner in the East Village, and you have the version of a Cambria December that makes people decide to buy there.
That said, if you are house hunting in Cambria, notice that December is also one of the town's busiest visitor periods. It is worth understanding both the peaceful weeks and the crowded ones before you commit, which we talk about in living in Cambria: pines, fog, and a pace of its own.
VINE STREET · CITY PARK · TEMPLETON
Victorian streets and downtown parades in North County
Paso Robles has one of our favorite small-town traditions in the Vine Street Victorian Showcase, when the historic homes along Vine Street decorate for the season and open the street to a single evening of walking, carolers, and neighbors on porches. It is free, it is crowded, and it is the kind of thing you cannot manufacture. The downtown City Park also hosts a tree lighting that brings the whole town out.
Templeton and Atascadero each have their own holiday lighting events and parades, scaled to their size. Atascadero's downtown, with the Sunken Gardens in front of the historic City Hall, is especially pretty lit up. If you are weighing the North County towns against each other, the way each celebrates is a small but honest window into their personalities.
HIGUERA STREET · MISSION PLAZA · THE FREMONT
Downtown SLO, the parade, and the market
San Luis Obispo's holiday parade closes downtown for an evening of floats, marching bands, and every youth group in the county. The Thursday night farmers market keeps going through December with holiday touches, and the Mission Plaza and Higuera Street shops stay open late enough to make an evening of it. The Fremont Theater and the Performing Arts Center at Cal Poly host holiday concerts, and the Madonna Inn does its own over-the-top version of the season that is worth a walk-through at least once.
The thing about SLO in December is that the town gets quieter, not louder. Cal Poly's students go home, downtown parking eases, and the whole city feels like it belongs to the residents for a few weeks. If you have been reading about downtown SLO living and what condos are really like, this is the season that shows you the calm side.
PISMO PIER · CAYUCOS · AVILA
The beach in December
What nobody from out of the area expects is that December is one of the best months to be on the beach. Storms roll through, but between them the days are often clear, the crowds are gone, and the low winter sun makes the whole coast glow in the late afternoon. Locals walk the Pismo pier on Christmas morning, take the dog to the beach in Cayucos, and gather at Avila for a bundled-up sunset.
A few coastal traditions to know:
Cayucos on New Year's Day. The polar bear plunge off the pier is a genuine tradition, with hundreds of people running into the cold Pacific to start the year. Watching is almost as fun as participating.
The monarchs in Pismo. The butterfly grove at Pismo State Beach is at its fullest in the heart of winter, and a December visit is a quiet, almost meditative counterpoint to the holiday rush.
The elephant seals at Piedras Blancas. The pupping season begins in December, and the rookery gets busier through January. It is a memorable day trip up Highway 1 with visiting family, and it is free.
Storm watching. When a winter system comes in, the coast from Montaña de Oro to Shell Beach puts on a show. Bring a jacket and stay well back from the bluffs.
Our holiday tradition is simple: the boat parade, one Christmas market, and a beach walk with the dog on the morning of the twenty-fifth. It has not gotten old.
Making the traditions your own
If this is your first holiday season in San Luis Obispo County, our advice is to pick one event in each part of the county and go. You will learn more about where you want to live from an evening on Vine Street or the Embarcadero than from a dozen listing photos, and you will meet people. The towns here are small enough that the same faces show up at the same events year after year, and being one of them is most of what living here is about.
For the relocating clients we work with, we often time a December visit to line up with a few of these traditions and a day or two of showings, because the county at its quietest is a fair picture of what you are buying into. Our post on living on the Central Coast in winter covers the rest of the season, and if you would like us to build a visit around the holidays and a short list of homes, tell us what you have in mind.
Talk With Kim & Kristen
We are Kim San Jule and Kristen Gentry, Broker Associates with Real Broker, serving San Luis Obispo County and the Central Coast. Whether you are buying, selling, or simply thinking ahead, we are glad to be a resource.
Kim San Jule · Broker Associate, DRE 01948144 · 805-345-8303 · kimsanjule@gmail.com
Kristen Gentry · Broker Associate, DRE 01968754 · 805-441-4618 · kristengentryslo@gmail.com
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