Winter can be a hard time of year for me as for many people; the early darkness where I look at the clock and think it must be 9 pm and it’s only 6 pm; the long winter nights, the way my garden slumbers in a uniform green instead of the bright splashes of summer color. It’s a time for hibernation, for planning, for cocooning inside your home. Sometimes it feels like it can last forever. But….then there are the Christmas lights! The festivals! A reason to go outside in the cold winter and actually use a scarf, hat and gloves in sunny San Diego!
Last night I had the opportunity to go to December Nights in Balboa Park, an event attended by more than 100,000 people. Now, normally that would stop me in my tracks before I even got started, but one of the great things about Balboa Park is its size; it’s huge, enccompassing 1200 acres right in the middle of a bustling city. So there’s plenty of room to spread out.
I love the vignettes that local artists set up around the park; the unusual use of color and ornament combinations.
I love the use of blue lights with a white background on this; in the dark it looked as if it the lights were twinkling on snow. This reminded me more of a winter landscape than a holiday landscape. This is what I mean by the magical use of color in a dark winters night.
Here’s also what I mean; the glow of thousands of tiny lights shows up like a beacon of hope and community and a safe harbor in the inky darkness of a December night. Balboa Park comes alive with lights, carolers, the sound of buskers hawking their wares at the food and product booths. This is in Spanish Village, and in the background were the sweet, ethereal notes of a hammered dulcimer providing a magical soundtrack to the square. Just an FYI if you are looking for amazing unique holiday gifts, you need to check out MadArt studios in Spanish Village . They only take cash or checks (I know!) but their glasswork is amazing, and we have seen their art all across the USA costing 2-3x as much! Plus you are supporting local artists. They are very reasonably priced for museum-quality art glass, and their work is a burst of joyous color.
Balboa Park is blessed with fantastic architecture. Grand buildings in the Spanish Colonial Revival style, which is a richly ornamented mixture of Spanish and Latin American influences. The buildings are beautiful during the daylight hours, but lit up at night they take on an almost old-world feeling, again in the middle of a modern American city. During December Nights you can go to any museum for free from 5-9…which can mean extraordinarily long lines. Ernie and I were planning to go see The Horse exhibit at the Natural History Museum, but the lines wound around the building, and we decided that we would come by during the week when the rest of the world was at work and we could slip out. So instead we went to the Air and Space museum, where Ernie, an aviation afficianado, was my tour guide through the history of flight, from The Wright brother’s first flight through WWI and WWII, the Spruce Goose and the Space Program.
There were music programs of every style, from young Morman men singing Christmas carols outside the Botanical building, choirs backed up by the amazing Spreckels outdoor pipeOrgan to Cajon Zydeco to Gangman Style. Quite the eclectic mix. Ernie and I sat and listened to Cajun Zydeco and Jazz while enjoying a Karl Strauss IPA and deep fried green beans with ranch dressing inside the Prado square. It was really a magical evening.
Overall a lovely night, and one I would highly recommend, despite the crowds.
Susy's Musings 