DAZZLING: Riverside’s Mission Inn is illuminated with 5 million holiday lights for the 27th Annual Festival of Lights celebration.
By Rylan Christensen, Staff Writer
One of Riverside’s most beloved holiday traditions is the Festival of Lights. For five weeks, Downtown Riverside features millions of Christmas lights, appearances from Santa Claus, and freshly fallen snow, along with vendors selling goods from sweet holiday treats to handmade jewelry, candles, and more. Horse drawn carriages can also be seen trotting around downtown during this time of year, carrying joyful festival-goers. USA Today even named Riverside’s festival the “Best Public Holiday Lights Display in the Nation.” People come from all around Southern California to experience this holiday extravaganza, and for Riverside residents, the festival is a yearly tradition that will always hold Christmas magic. “[The Festival of Lights] is a really nice way of bringing the community together. It always puts me in the spirits and it’s one of my favorite holiday traditions,” (Jaiden Pekar 11).
The festival takes place at Riverside’s Mission Inn, a historical hotel with its own rich backstory. The inn, run by Frank Miller, started as just an adobe boarding house in 1876, and transformed into a hotel in the early 1900s, growing more and more throughout the years until it became the inn we know today, taking up an entire city block. Miller’s family managed the hotel after his death until the 1950s, when it changed owners multiple times and was in danger of being demolished. The Mission Inn was rescued when it was purchased by Duane and Kelly Roberts in the late 1980s. They spent 55 million dollars on a seven year renovation, then opened the Mission Inn as it is today in 1992. They have held the Festival of Lights annually since, as a gift to the community.
The Festival of Lights is only one of Riverside’s many holiday traditions. The Fox Theater is hosting the Cirque Dreams “Holidaze” show December 3rd and 4th, which features Broadway performers singing original holiday music. There is even more holiday music to enjoy at the Riverside County Philharmonic on December 14th. For a more laid back night, Chapman Street always has their beautiful Christmas card lawn display to drive by. There is Christmas spirit all around in Riverside this year, so make sure to go out and experience some of it before the holiday season is over!