In 1977, Ken Haukom worked for the City of Los Altos Department of Public Works when he got word "about folks who want to have a small parade on Thanksgiving evening." He told the Los Altos Town Crier that he remembers roughly four to five "push-floats," built by volunteers and moved down the street by hand.
On Sunday, Nov. 29, the 50th Los Altos Festival of Lights Parade steps off at 6 p.m. from First and State. It is the largest night on the downtown calendar, and it works differently from every other event around it. Downtown merchants and their association run the Holiday Stroll, Small Business Saturday, the tree celebration, and the December markets. The parade has been run by an all-volunteer group of residents since 1981. That 1981 handoff is the main reason Los Altos has a 50th parade to watch.
Three merchants started it, and it got too big for them
The Town Crier credits three downtown merchants with creating the parade: Hope Higbee, Marion Jackston and Jack Huston. Their friends Bob Grimm, Ed Hilton and Ted Johnston helped. In the beginning it was a family effort in the plainest sense. Maridee Huston-Charlton, a Foothill College student at the time, told the paper, "dad roped me and my best friend Diane into being soldiers." She marched as a toy soldier in the first parade.
After that, the Los Altos Village Association ran the event for a few years. According to the Town Crier's history, the parade soon grew so large that community members took over its management. They founded the Los Altos Festival of Lights Association in 1981. The association still describes itself as a nonprofit, all-volunteer community organization, and it names the parade's theme as "A Child's Holiday Fantasy."
The schedule has also changed since 1977. The parade no longer happens on Thanksgiving evening and now runs on the Sunday night after Thanksgiving, which is why this year's date is Nov. 29.
The floats spend most of the year at the corporation yard
A volunteer-run parade has to store its floats somewhere. For its first fifteen years, that meant volunteers' garages. Haukom told the Town Crier the floats lived there until 1992, when a warehouse opened in the city's corporation yard and the large floats could stay indoors all year.
That warehouse is why a parade that lasts under an hour takes all year to prepare. A Town Crier magazine feature describes volunteers designing, repairing and building floats, sometimes with Boy Scout troops. It reports that a new float can take a year or more to develop. So any new float on the street Nov. 29 has likely been in progress since at least last winter.
The city's part is support work. The Los Altos City Council has designated the parade a Heritage Event, so the city provides police, infrastructure and waste management services. The Town Crier describes these as services organizers "could not do without." Volunteers still do the designing, building, costuming and pushing.
What the volunteer count looks like now
The two most recent parades show how much that volunteer work has grown since the push-float years. For the 48th parade in 2024, organizer Nancy Schneider told the Town Crier there would be 62 entries, including eight marching bands and 23 floats. A new float that year was based on "Alice In Wonderland." She said more than 125 volunteers worked behind the scenes. They moved floats to staging, repaired lights, maintained costumes, did makeup for costumed characters, managed entrants, and pushed or drove the floats.
A year later, after the 49th parade, association co-president Nora Haley told the Town Crier that more than 150 volunteers helped on parade night alone. She described the jobs this way:
"We had community members who prepped the floats prior to the start of the parade (checking that all systems were 'go'), pushed and/or drove the floats, wore the costumes and those who helped the characters into their costumes, checked the lights on each of the costumes, and helped with overall set up and clean up."
People still push the floats, nearly fifty years after the first four or five. Haley also said "the community can look for some truly special touches throughout the parade" for the 50th. The association has not published the details on its site.
How residents are paying for year 50
The anniversary has its own small fundraising campaign. On its $50 for 50 page, the association links donations to a fund managed by the Los Altos/Mountain View Community Foundation. The foundation's designated funds page says the fund supports the parade and invites donors to "Mark 50 years of community light with a $50 gift!" The pitch fits the parade's history. Fifty dollars from each of many neighbors is how a volunteer-run event pays its way.
Parade night, hour by hour
The association's schedule lists these as estimated times.
| Time | What happens |
|---|---|
| 4:00 p.m. | Downtown triangle closes to traffic |
| 6:00 p.m. | Parade begins at First and State |
| 6:20 to 6:30 p.m. | First floats reach First and Main |
| 6:45 to 7:00 p.m. | First floats reach the parade end |
| 7:20 to 7:45 p.m. | Final floats reach the parade end |
The 4 p.m. closure covers the triangle bordered by San Antonio Road, Edith Avenue and First Street. Access into downtown from Foothill Expressway at Main Street also closes, according to the association's street closure page. Anyone driving in for dinner should arrive before then or plan to walk the last stretch.
The association posts this year's route as a map image. For comparison, the 2024 route described by the Town Crier ran down State Street to Main, across First, down Whitney Avenue and across Third Street. Because the schedule says floats reach First and Main 20 to 30 minutes after the start, viewers farther along the route have a little more time to settle in.
Weather is the one thing volunteers can't control. The association's FAQ says rain decisions are announced by noon on parade day, and a canceled parade has no rain date. If the anniversary night is rained out, the 50th doesn't move to another day.
If you can't make it in person, the association keeps a video page with past coverage, including the 2024 celebration. The welcome page links a replay of the 2025 parade.
The merchant-run nights around it
Everything else on the downtown holiday calendar comes from the Los Altos Village Association, the merchant group that ran the parade briefly in its early years. LAVA says it represents more than 150 retail, dining, service and professional businesses and is celebrating its 60th year. Its events calendar lists these dates for the rest of the season:
- Friday, Nov. 13, 5 to 9 p.m. The 23rd Annual Holiday Stroll, with lights, strolling carolers and shopping specials downtown.
- Saturday, Nov. 28. Small Business Saturday, the day before the parade.
- Sunday, Nov. 29, 6 p.m. The 50th Festival of Lights Parade, the volunteer-run night.
- Friday, Dec. 4, 6 to 8 p.m. The Holiday Tree Celebration at Veterans Community Plaza, Main and State streets.
- Thursday, Dec. 10, 4 to 8 p.m. Holiday Market on State Street.
- Thursday, Dec. 17, 4 to 8 p.m. The final Holiday Market on State Street, with live music and visits with Santa.
The Downtown Los Altos Farmers' Market ended its 2026 season with Fall Fest on Oct. 29, so State Street's Thursday evenings are quiet until the December markets. Saturday, Nov. 28 and Sunday, Nov. 29 fall back to back, giving downtown a two-day weekend with shopping on one day and the parade on the next.
Volunteers will be pushing floats past storefronts on Nov. 29 for the 50th time, much as Haukom saw four or five of them move down the street in 1977.
Fifty years of the Festival of Lights is the kind of local history the Lyn Jason Cobb Team follows closely, from who built the first floats to which streets close at 4 p.m. If you're new to Los Altos, or you've watched this parade for decades and are thinking about your next move, we're glad to talk it through. Schedule a Consultation.
