"I still miss the little parade they used to hold down Main Street," Kurt Bunch wrote this month in Chula Vista Living, remembering the small procession Otay Ranch Town Center once ran before its tree lighting. That parade is gone, and the tree lighting that took its place turns 20 this year. Chula Vista's best-known holiday parade still runs on Third Avenue, several miles west, on a different day of the week and in a completely different format.
That gap is the whole story of the season here. Chula Vista doesn't have one holiday calendar. It has three, set by Otay Ranch Town Center, Village Walk at Eastlake and Third Avenue Village, and each one starts in its own week, on its own kind of night. On the 2026 schedules, only one date puts headline events in two districts at the same hour, Saturday, December 5, and even then the afternoon passes from one side of the city to the other almost to the minute.
Otay Ranch goes first, on a Tuesday
The eastern side starts earliest, and on a weeknight. Otay Ranch Town Center's 20th Annual Tree Lighting is Tuesday, November 17, from 4 to 7 p.m. on Main Street at 2015 Birch Road, and admission is free.
Tuesday follows from how the center already runs its week. The Main Street Farmers Market sets up every Tuesday from 4 to 8 p.m. with local sellers and farms selling produce, prepared foods and pantry staples. The tree lighting falls on one of those regular market nights and adds a Holiday Farmers Market of local merchants, gifts and seasonal treats. Bunch describes the street food from the market drifting over the crowd while kids bounce around before the countdown.
The center's event listing lists the rest of the night:
- Free holiday giveaways for kids
- Cookies and hot chocolate while supplies last
- "Magic snowfalls" and a life-size snowglobe photo station
- Roaming holiday characters, live entertainment and music
- Santa's grand arrival and the lighting of a Main Street tree with more than 17,000 lights, at 7 p.m.
The center itself has spent all of 2026 marking its own 20th anniversary, so the tree lighting and the shopping center are the same age. General Manager Tim Kilcourse told Chula Vista Living, "We are thrilled to welcome everyone out once again for a night filled with magic and excitement."
After the 17th, Santa settles in. The center's Santa photo page puts him in the Fireplace Lounge with online booking. The booking portal says walk-ups are welcome daily until closing and already offers appointments for November 27, the day after Thanksgiving. Otay Ranch's season is the one that runs on ordinary days, so Santa can fit around a weekday errand.
Eastlake builds a season you can repeat
Twelve days after Otay Ranch's tree lighting, Village Walk at Eastlake starts the opposite kind of season. Instead of one big night, it runs a show that repeats on a set schedule.
The free Dazzling Holiday Light Show & Snowfall opens Sunday, November 29, at 884 Eastlake Parkway, with shows at 6 and 7 p.m. On opening night, the Discovery Charter School Choir sings at 5:30 p.m. and again between the two shows. After that, the same 6 and 7 p.m. shows run every Friday, Saturday and Sunday through December 20, and kids get free Magic Glasses that turn the lights and falling snow into assorted colors. According to Village Walk's events page, each show lasts 15 minutes and combines music, choreographed lights and snowfall.
Counting opening night, that comes to ten show nights and twenty shows between November 29 and December 20. On any single evening, Eastlake's show is the easiest of the three events to skip, because another one follows within the hour and three more nights come every weekend. That flexibility matters on December 5.
December 5: one Saturday, two ends of the city
This is the only day all season when two districts schedule headline events against each other. They line up in sequence more than they collide.
Village Walk starts at midday. From noon to 3 p.m., Santa arrives on the Holiday Express Train. The afternoon includes free visits with Santa in his sleigh, free train rides, a free jingle bell bracelet craft for children 12 and younger, and holiday activity books handed out by Santa's elf. Photos are taken on your own camera or phone.
At 3 p.m., when Eastlake's Santa hours end, the Starlight Parade & Festival opens on Third Avenue. The official festival schedule sets the evening this way:
| Time | Village Walk at Eastlake | Third Avenue and Memorial Park |
|---|---|---|
| Noon to 3 p.m. | Santa on the Holiday Express Train, train rides, craft | Nothing scheduled |
| 3:00 p.m. | Santa hours end | Holiday Market & Festival opens; photos with Santa begin |
| 5:30 p.m. | Nothing scheduled | Tree Lighting Ceremony |
| 6:00 p.m. | First light show and snowfall | Starlight Parade |
| 7:00 p.m. | Second light show and snowfall | Parade evening on Third Avenue |
The real conflict comes at 6 p.m., when Eastlake's first light show starts at the same moment as the parade. Village Walk runs the same show at 7 p.m. that night, again on Sunday, and on two more full weekends after that. The parade happens once a year.
The Starlight Parade's homepage gives the 2026 theme as "Where Traditions Shine Bright" and frames the day as the City of Chula Vista's invitation to residents. KPBS's event listing places it on Third Avenue from E to H streets, free and open to all ages, as a South Bay tradition that has drawn families for more than six decades. The festival portion has expanded children's activities, live entertainment and free photos with Santa before the tree lighting. Once the sun goes down, floats, marching bands, dance groups, classic cars, community organizations and local cultural performers take over the street.
The vendors are local, too. Visit San Diego reports that the Starlight Holiday Market is curated by Third Avenue Village Market and Las Jefas Market, with entertainment on the Memorial Park stage. The festival page still lists the entertainment lineup as TBA.
Parking for the parade
Parking is free all day on December 5 at every City-owned lot, and the festival page names them:
- City-owned ACE parking lots near Third Avenue
- The City Parking Structure at 340 F St
- Chula Vista Public Library, 365 F St
- City Hall, 276 4th Ave
- The Rec Center, 385 Park Way
- South Bay Community Services' Ken Lee Building
The parade's parking FAQ warns that parking near the venue is limited and suggests carpooling, rideshares, bicycles or public transportation. If your day starts at Eastlake's noon Santa visit and ends at the parade, you'll be driving across town in mid-afternoon. Getting into the F Street structure or the library lot soon after 3 p.m. puts you ahead of the dinner-hour crowd that comes for the 5:30 tree lighting.
Organizers note that event dates and times can change without notice, so check the festival page the week of the parade.
The Sunday after, on both sides
December 6 shows the same east-west split at a slower pace, with nothing scheduled against anything else.
On Third Avenue, the Downtown Chula Vista Farmers' Market runs as it does every Sunday, rain or shine, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. next to Memorial Park, the same park that held the festival the night before. The Downtown Chula Vista Association runs it with Catt Fields White and San Diego Markets.
Village Walk fills the late afternoon. From 4 to 6 p.m., its Life-Size Photo Frame and a costumed Frosty are set up, and professional photographers take free photos on your own camera or phone, which works well for holiday cards. The two 15-minute light shows follow at 6 and 7 p.m.
So the Sunday runs in order: a Third Avenue market in the morning, Eastlake photos in the afternoon, and Eastlake snowfall after dark.
The rest of the season, district by district
With December 5 sorted out, the other dates fall into place:
- Tuesday, November 17: Otay Ranch Town Center's tree lighting and Holiday Farmers Market, 4 to 7 p.m., tree lit at 7.
- Tuesdays through the season: Otay Ranch's regular Main Street Farmers Market, 4 to 8 p.m.
- Daily, starting by November 27: Santa in Otay Ranch's Fireplace Lounge, walk-ups welcome until closing.
- Sunday, November 29: Village Walk's light show opens, choir at 5:30 p.m., shows at 6 and 7.
- Fridays through Sundays, December 4 to 20: Village Walk light shows at 6 and 7 p.m.
- Saturday, December 5: Village Walk Santa noon to 3; Starlight Parade & Festival from 3.
- Sunday, December 6: Third Avenue farmers market 10 to 2; Village Walk Frosty photos 4 to 6.
- Sundays year-round: Downtown Chula Vista Farmers' Market beside Memorial Park.
The weekends of December 11 to 13 and December 18 to 20 have only Eastlake's light shows and the regular markets on the posted schedules, so they're the easiest weekends for hosting family from out of town. The parade weekend is the busy one, and Otay Ranch's best night falls on a Tuesday.
If the holidays have you thinking about what your home in Otay Ranch, Eastlake or western Chula Vista could be worth in 2027, the team at Fine Properties San Diego will put together a clear, current picture of your home's value, timed to your plans. Request a Complimentary Market Valuation, and we'll have it ready before the new year starts.
