Huntington Harbour holds two December traditions that turn 64 this year. Both depend on the same thing: the lights residents string along their homes, decks and docks. The volunteers who run the Huntington Harbour Boat Parade on December 12 and 13 describe it as a thank-you to the neighbors who decorate. The Cruise of Lights, December 19 through 23, sells seats on narrated boat tours past those same homes, and the money pays for youth music programs across Orange County. Neither event works without the decorated houses. The date that shapes the whole season comes first, on Monday, November 30, when home entries are due for the decorating contest.
One committee, one goal, two events
Both traditions come from the same group of volunteers. The Huntington Harbour Philharmonic Committee supports the Philharmonic Society of Orange County, which the committee calls the county's oldest nonprofit music organization. The committee has six member groups: Admiralty, Islander, Marina-Windjammer, Sandpiper, Seal Beach and Trinidad.
On its own site, the committee says plainly which event pays for the work. "Our main funding project is the annual December Cruise of Lights," it writes. The same passage asks Harbour neighbors to decorate their homes and join the decorating contests "so that we can carry on the spirit of the Cruise of Lights."
So the parade and the decorating contest feed the ticketed cruise. The contest gives homeowners a reason to put up a full display. The parade thanks them for it. The cruise then runs guests past those displays for five nights.
The committee also points out what the boat parade is not. In its words, it "is not produced or managed by a marina company, City, or Chamber of Commerce. It is an entirely volunteer effort."
The season on a calendar
Counting from mid-October, here is how the dates fall in order.
| Date | What happens | Who it's for |
|---|---|---|
| Monday, November 30 | Home and condo decorating entries due | Harbour homeowners and residents |
| Tuesday, December 1 | Boat parade entries due | Boat owners |
| Saturday–Sunday, December 12–13 | 64th Huntington Harbour Boat Parade, rain or shine | Public viewing from the beaches |
| Saturday–Wednesday, December 19–23 | 64th Cruise of Lights, three sailings a night | Ticketed guests |
| Monday, December 21 | Special-value night with lower ticket prices | Ticketed guests |
The contest deadline comes almost two weeks before the parade and almost three weeks before the first cruise. Displays judged in the contest stay up for the paying guests who come later in the month.
How the decorating contest works
The 2026 entry form sets up three groups of house awards, and one of them is open to homes that aren't on the water. Waterfront homes and off-water homes each compete in seven categories:
- Sweepstakes
- Best Tribute to Theme
- Most Beautiful
- Judges Special Trophy
- Best Tribute to the Holiday Season
- People's Choice
- Most Religious
Waterfront condominiums and townhomes have their own smaller group, with Sweepstakes and Best Tribute to Theme. The awards are trophies.
The judges come from outside the neighborhood. According to the committee's judges page, it recruits professionals from Los Angeles, Pasadena and Hollywood who work in interior design, floral design, movie set design and the design of floats for the Rose Parade in Pasadena. They score "good design structure, beauty, symmetry and originality."
The 2026 theme is "America 250 Music / To The Moon & Back." Displays can lean into the theme or not. Best Tribute to Theme and Best Tribute to the Holiday Season are separate awards, so a classic holiday display still has a category to compete in.
December 12 and 13: the parade
The 64th Huntington Harbour Boat Parade runs both nights, rain or shine, with Norman Huniu as grand marshal. The organizer pages we reviewed didn't list a 2026 start time. In 2025 the parade started at 5:15 p.m., but that was a different weekend, so check hhboatparade.org for this year's schedule before you plan dinner around it.
Organizers say the public can watch only from the beaches, and parking is very limited. The site says the public viewing areas "fill up quickly." Its own suggestion is that "one of the best ways to see it is to be in it by entering your boat." The Orange County Register's 2025 guide gave the same kind of advice for Huntington Harbour: come early, expect parking to be hard, and dress warmly.
You can also follow the parade without a spot on the sand. The organizers link to a live route tracker from their homepage. In 2025 they streamed the parade on Facebook, with a virtual awards presentation the next morning. People's Choice votes for boats were cast by "liking" a boat's number on the parade's Facebook page, and voting closed at 8 a.m. the next day. The 2026 details haven't been posted yet, but last year's setup lets anyone with a phone take part, not just the people at the water's edge.
December 19 through 23: the cruise
A week after the parade, the Cruise of Lights takes ticketed guests through the Harbour's waterways. The Philharmonic Society describes it as a 50-minute narrated tour past "thousands of lights on boats, decks, docks and homes." Sailings leave at 5:30, 6:30 and 7:30 p.m. each night.
Tickets are already on sale. The 2026 prices are $28 for adults and $20 for children ages 2 to 12, and children under 2 ride free. On Monday, December 21, the special-value night, prices drop to $26 and $18. The official ticket page says space is limited. We found no record of a past year actually selling out, but five nights with three sailings each is a fixed number of seats.
Getting to the boat takes a few steps:
- Park free in the rear lot of Huntington Harbour Mall, 16889 Algonquin St.
- Arrive at least 15 minutes before your sailing to catch the shuttle.
- Ride about five minutes to Huntington Harbour Yacht Club, 3821 Warner Ave., where boarding happens.
Guests with a valid, displayed California disabled parking placard can skip the shuttle and park at the yacht club. Everyone else is sent to the mall. The tour is wheelchair accessible, but power chairs aren't allowed. Printed and digital tickets both work. Tickets bought by phone within seven days of the cruise are held at Will Call at the mall. Questions go to the committee's Harbour office at 714-840-7542.
Where the ticket money goes
The cruise is a fundraiser for the Philharmonic Society of Orange County's Youth Music Education Programs. The Society says these programs bring concerts, instrument demonstrations and other music experiences to more than 100,000 students across Orange County each year at no charge. Committee members volunteer in those programs as well as raising money for them.
That changes what a lit-up dock or a garland along a condo railing actually does. Each display is part of what an adult guest pays $28 to see. The parade thanks the people who put the displays up, and the contest gives them an outside panel of designers to impress. All three run on the same supply of lights, and that supply gets settled weeks before the first boat leaves the dock, when home entries close on November 30.
For the rest of the season, from late-fall events to quieter weekends downtown, our Huntington Beach fall calendar covers what comes before December.
If you own a home in the Harbour, holiday photos of your decorated dock are some of the best marketing material your property will ever have, even if selling is years away. AceEstate works with Harbour homeowners in English and Vietnamese. If you're curious what your waterfront home is worth this season, get your free home valuation.
