Solana Beach lights two city trees this December, one week apart. The first is at Fletcher Cove on Sunday, Dec. 6. The second is at La Colonia Park on Sunday, Dec. 13. Mayor Lesa Heebner and the City Council flip the switch at both, and at both Santa is scheduled to arrive at 5:20 p.m.
The two parks are also the two places the town grew from. Fletcher Cove is where Col. Ed Fletcher's 1920s Solana Beach got its first way down to the sand. La Colonia de Eden Gardens is older still: it's the neighborhood the city calls its oldest. This is also the city's 40th anniversary year, since it incorporated in 1986. That makes the week between Dec. 6 and Dec. 13 a fitting time to go to both.
The first lighting is at the notch Fletcher cut into the bluff
When Fletcher subdivided the land that became Solana Beach, there was no easy way to the water. According to the Solana Beach Civic & Historical Society, you either scrambled down a cliff or walked around the bluffs from one of the two lagoons. The fix was a fire hose. One man spent three months breaking up the hardpack with water coming over the spillway at Lake Hodges Dam. A steam shovel loaded the loose sand, and trucks hauled it to the surf line. The beach opened on July 4, 1924, with horse races.
Some of the park around that notch came from somewhere else. The Fletcher Cove Community Center started out as a Civilian Conservation Corps barracks and was moved from Vista to Solana Beach in 1944. Local artist Betsy Schulz made the ceramic pieces that line the curved paths to the sea.
The walk down from the tree has also changed this year. In April 2026 the city marked the completion of its Fletcher Cove beach access project. The work added a newly paved ramp and sidewalk, stainless steel handrails on the ramp and stairs, two shower stations, and a dissipator grate that slows stormwater heading for the ocean so the beach keeps more of its sand. Measure S, the city's 1-cent tax, paid for it.
Dec. 6 is the 21st annual Holiday Tree Lighting at Fletcher Cove, hosted by the city and its Parks and Recreation Commission. It's free. Festivities start at 4:30 p.m. with sweets, hot cocoa and cider, and Santa arrives with a fire-truck escort at 5:20 p.m. This year adds something new: a snow hill for sledding and a snow-play area, on a bluff top above the Pacific.
The second lighting is at the older neighborhood
The tree on Dec. 13 stands in a neighborhood that predates the cove. The historical society dates La Colonia's start to 1919 and 1920, when it was built for Mexican workers who tended the large citrus groves in Rancho Santa Fe. The city's history page says those first residents lived in tents before they built their own homes, which were mostly single-level adobes. It also says many people living in the neighborhood today are direct descendants of the first families.
One family links the two founding stories. E. C. Batchelder, Fletcher's brother-in-law, came up with the name "Solana Beach." Eugene Batchelder also registered the name "Eden Gardens" for a 1923 subdivision next to La Colonia. After a 1944 expansion the name went back to La Colonia, and the neighborhood is now called La Colonia de Eden Gardens. Batchelder worked on that land with Edwin and Jennie Stevens. Their 1887 house is the oldest house in Solana Beach, and it now sits in La Colonia Park as the Solana Beach Heritage Museum.
The park also holds the Tree of Life tile wall at the La Colonia Community Center. The San Diego Union-Tribune reported in July 2025 that the wall honors the names of the Mexican families who first lived in the neighborhood more than 100 years ago, and that the city would work with the community on a long-term plan for it while the park's master plan moves forward. The park's newest piece is the tot lot, rebuilt for about $1.1 million and reopened in May 2024 with inclusive play equipment and a rubberized surface, according to The Coast News.
The Dec. 13 lighting runs from 5 to 7 p.m. at 715 Valley Ave. The city co-hosts it with the La Colonia Community Foundation, and the menu includes Mexican hot cocoa. Santa arrives with his elves at 5:20 p.m. The city's event page calls the date a Sunday in one sentence and a Saturday in the next. Dec. 13, 2026, falls on a Sunday.
La Colonia has already marked the 40th anniversary once this fall. The Oct. 18 Día de los Muertos celebration, co-hosted by the foundation, took the anniversary as its theme. It displayed photos from across the city's history next to more than 40 altars, with music from Mariachi Del Mar and a classic car show by the Viejitos Car Club.
Six weeks, two parks
The city's calendar from now to mid-December keeps moving between the same two parks. Add in the Heritage Museum's open hours, 1 to 4 p.m. on the first and third Saturdays of each month, and the dates fit together neatly.
| Date | Event | Where |
|---|---|---|
| Sat., Nov. 7 | Heritage Museum open, 1–4 p.m. | Stevens House, La Colonia Park |
| Wed., Nov. 11 | Veterans Day ceremony, 11 a.m.–noon | La Colonia Park, 715 Valley Ave. |
| Sat., Nov. 14 | World Kindness Day blood drive, 9:30 a.m.–3 p.m. | Fletcher Cove Park parking lot |
| Sat., Nov. 21 | Heritage Museum open, 1–4 p.m. | Stevens House, La Colonia Park |
| Sat., Dec. 5 | Heritage Museum open, 1–4 p.m. | Stevens House, La Colonia Park |
| Sun., Dec. 6 | 21st annual Holiday Tree Lighting, from 4:30 p.m. | Fletcher Cove |
| Fri., Dec. 11 | Santa's Sleigh Ride, from 2:30 p.m. | Starts and ends at the fire station, 500 Lomas Santa Fe Dr. |
| Sun., Dec. 13 | La Colonia Holiday Tree Lighting, 5–7 p.m. | La Colonia Park, 715 Valley Ave. |
| Sat., Dec. 19 | Heritage Museum open, 1–4 p.m. | Stevens House, La Colonia Park |
The city's events listing also puts a clothing swap, a Fix-It Clinic and a City Hall Gallery opening reception on Nov. 14, the same day as the blood drive. The sleigh ride on Dec. 11 carries Santa through town with Fire, Sheriff and Marine Safety personnel. The city publishes a route map with estimated times on its Santa's Sleigh Ride page and asks spectators to stay on the sidewalk as he passes.
Putting the founding week together
The way the calendar falls, both founding sites fit into one December weekend, and the second tree comes the Sunday after:
- Saturday, Dec. 5, 1 to 4 p.m. Start at the Stevens House in La Colonia Park while the Heritage Museum is open. It's the oldest house in town, and the family who lived there helped develop the neighborhood around it. The Tree of Life wall at the community center is in the same park. The historical society's book "La Colonia and Solana Beach: Spring Up from Colonel Ed Fletcher's Running Water" is sold through the society and at Tony's Jacal Restaurant.
- Sunday, Dec. 6, from 4:30 p.m. Head to Fletcher Cove for the snow hill and the lighting. The newly paved ramp leads down from the park to the cove Fletcher's crew cut in 1924. Before or after, Encore Sushi opened in October at 112 S. Cedros Ave., in the space Kai Ola Sushi left in June. The Union-Tribune quoted chef James La describing a counter where "every piece is cut the moment it's ordered."
- Sunday, Dec. 13, from 5 p.m. Go back to La Colonia Park for the second tree and the Mexican hot cocoa, and close out the founding week where the town's oldest neighborhood began.
The city recommends arriving at the start of each lighting. Santa's 5:20 p.m. arrival comes less than an hour after festivities begin at Fletcher Cove and 20 minutes after they begin at La Colonia.
Our team at LUXRE Realty cares about the history behind the coastal towns we work in, from the cove Fletcher cut into the bluff to the adobe neighborhood that came before it. If you'd like to talk about owning a home near either of Solana Beach's founding sites, contact us and we'll share what we know about this town.
