The Holiday Parade Is Back on State Street, and It Walks the Whole Way

At 6:30 p.m. on Friday, Dec. 4, the 68th Downtown Santa Barbara Holiday Parade will start in front of the Arlington Theatre and head down State Street to Ortega Street. The parade first ran in 1934, and this is the first time it has used State Street since 2019. The State Street Christmas tree will stand on the 1300 block, near the starting line. Consumer Fire Products, Inc. is donating it for the 13th year.

The parade looks different this time. There will be no floats, motorized vehicles or golf carts. The largest rolling entry is a decorated wagon or wheelbarrow no bigger than four feet by four feet, and every participant walks the full route. The street changed while the parade was away, and the parade had to change with it.

Six years, and what stood in the roadway

The first cancellation was about crowds. In 2021, KEYT reported that COVID concerns ruled out an event drawing about 100,000 people, so organizers held smaller holiday events instead.

After that, the reason was the street itself. Once State Street became a car-free promenade with outdoor dining in the roadway, the city recommended in September 2022 that parades stay off it while the master plan was worked out. A Santa Barbara Police commander told KEYT the department had "extreme concerns with the parklets in the roadways," since parade participants would have to "ebb and flow around" them and around pedestrians on the sidewalks. In December 2023, the Montecito Journal reported that the parklets were still keeping the downtown parade from returning.

This summer the City Council settled the street's layout for the near term. On June 30, Council voted 5–2 to reauthorize Title 31 and keep the promenade in its current car-free configuration until the master plan is carried out. According to KEYT, members also "appeared confident that parades could return in the future" under a flexible plan. Robin Elander, executive director of the Downtown Santa Barbara Improvement Association, told the council that night, "This tug of war needs to stop."

A parade sized to fit the promenade

The DSBIA rules are written for a street shared with pedestrians:

• Walking only. No motorized vehicles, floats or golf carts.
• Small wheels. Decorated, non-motorized wagons or wheelbarrows up to 4 feet by 4 feet.
• Quiet sound. Sound systems must stay under 50 decibels.
• Limited entries. Entries cost $275 and are capped under the city's special-event permit, first come, first served.

Registered group coordinators receive check-in times, numbered staging stations and disband instructions the week of Nov. 16. According to the DSBIA, the parade has drawn more than 60,000 spectators in past years. A crowd that size will see a downtown that looks different from the one it saw in 2019.

What the route passes, block by block

Walking from the Arlington down toward Ortega, the parade passes several storefronts that changed hands or closed this year.

1. 1300 block. The Arlington Theatre marks the start, and the State Street tree stands nearby.
2. 1230 State. According to Noozhawk, Pascucci served its final meal on Sept. 19 after more than 30 years. In May, The Restaurant Guy reported the owner's plans for a new concept in the space with lighter after-show fare.
3. 1213 State. As The Restaurant Guy reported, Esther, a breakfast house, is moving into the former Bibi Ji space, which was once a McDonald's. It comes from the team behind Beau.
4. Elsewhere on the 1200 block. Santa Playa Mariscos closed in the third quarter, according to the storefront report covered by Edhat.
5. 1129A State. Beau, the "storytelling bar," is the sister business to Esther.
6. 1117 State. Satellite, the wine bar, closed after 10 years downtown, as Noozhawk reported.
7. 1105 State. State Street Trading Post is a collective of more than 30 vendors. According to Noozhawk, it was already open in October and scheduled a grand-opening celebration for Nov. 7.
8. 918 State. State of Mind Café signed a lease here. It is a coffee shop designed to serve and accommodate the disability community.
9. 801 State. The former Brat Haus building is now four ground-floor commercial spaces with three residential units upstairs.
10. 706 State. The Antique Alley building, near the Ortega finish, sold to an owner-user.

The newest arrivals on these blocks, a membership breakfast house and a 30-vendor collective, are designed to give people a specific reason to come downtown.

Fewer empty windows, and the walk-in question

Edhat covered the third-quarter storefront report on Oct. 29. It found that available storefronts on State Street had reached a seven-year low. Vacant storefronts held steady at 22, a perceived vacancy rate of 8.84 percent. In the same quarter, four well-known restaurants on the parade route closed. According to the report, several departing operators named a lack of local customer traffic as a main reason.

The new business at 1213 State is built around that problem. Starr Hall, one of Esther's founders, described the approach at a friends-and-family night, as reported by The Restaurant Guy:

"For anyone going into hospitality, opening a restaurant, bar, or coffee house, if you depend on foot traffic, you're dead. And that is why our model is not on foot traffic. It's dependent on membership and events."

Esther plans to serve breakfast seven days a week. It will serve dinner only on Friday and Saturday, with monthly guest-chef supper clubs and breakfast for dinner on the other nights. Members get a monthly food credit, a separate line to the counter and 15 percent off every visit. State Street Trading Post works on a similar idea, bringing 30-plus vendors together under one roof so the space has many reasons to visit.

The holiday parade fits the same pattern at a much larger scale. It is a fixed date that brings tens of thousands of people downtown on purpose, on a Friday night, to the blocks where operators have said everyday traffic falls short.

The plan that would rebuild the route

The current promenade is meant to be temporary. On Sept. 1, Council adopted the State Street Master Plan by a 6–1 vote, with Mayor Randy Rowse dissenting, as reported by the Santa Barbara Independent. The plan covers the 400 through 1300 blocks. The city's agenda report estimates the cost at about $96 million in 2026 dollars, or roughly $9 million per block. It lays out two sidewalks of about 30 feet each around a 20-foot central travel corridor. Retractable bollards would allow vehicles onto individual blocks at times to be set in the plan's first phase. The city's State Street page says Santa Barbara is now looking for funding to build it.

The corridor, bollards and movable furniture are meant to make room for events. Parade routes would still go through the special-events permit process, and staff would study parade clearances and staging during design. The walking-only parade on Dec. 4 is an early example of the kind of event the plan expects State Street to host.

A referendum petition challenges the plan's approval and asks for a public vote on reopening State Street to cars. Noozhawk reported in mid-October that it was submitted with 8,700 signatures, against 5,483 required, and that the city clerk had sent it to the County Elections Office for verification. If it is certified, Council must either repeal the related ordinance or put it on the ballot, at a special election or the November 2028 election.

The rest of the season's fixed dates

The downtown parade is one of several December events with set dates. For a few seasonal stops, the Visit Santa Barbara December guide lists the Miracle holiday bar at Pearl Social from Nov. 13 through Dec. 31 and Lane Farms' Christmas Patch from Nov. 27 through Dec. 23.

This year's Parade of Lights theme is "Hawaiian Holiday." The human-powered paddle parade starts at 2 p.m., and Winter Wonderland runs on City Pier from 3 to 5 p.m. Illuminated boats follow at 5:30 p.m., with fireworks at about 7 p.m. Stearns Wharf closes to vehicles at 3:30 p.m. The Arlington is busy too. It anchors the start of the downtown parade on Dec. 4 and hosts The Nutcracker eight days later.

If your family is weighing a move into or out of the Santa Barbara area, or managing a second home that sits empty through the holidays, Native Real Estate can help plan the timing around the local calendar. We know these blocks well, and we would be glad to talk it through over coffee downtown. Schedule a Consultation whenever it suits you.