PERFECTLY PEANUTS: We're not making assumptions about how exactly you approach the holiday season, but we will guess that there are particular touchstones and traditions and songs and sights you like to revisit and enthusiastically engage in, all to summon the spirit of the occasion. If "sights" is a big category for you, then you might be awaiting your neighbor's annual snowmen yard extravaganza, or the menorah in front of your local restaurant, or your cousin's hilarious Christmas card. And if you live near Costa Mesa? One such season-revving sight could very well be the...
SNOOPY HOUSE, which has been an Orange County Decembertime display for just over 50 years. Thousands of locals have enjoyed seeing the nostalgic line-up of painted figures over the years, figures inspired by the characters so charmingly created by Charles Schulz some seven decades ago. Fans of the Snoopy House first encountered the lovingly handmade display when it showed up in front of an area family's home in 1966 and then at Costa Mesa City Hall beginning in 2011. (The city partnered with the family to continue the tradition after "difficult financial times" meant a possible end to the seasonal staple of cheer.)
HAVE YOU EVER SNAPPED YOUR PHOTO... of your family at the Snoopy House? Or taken your children or grandkids by to admire its colorful Peanuts-esque panache? You can again, in 2017, from Thursday, Dec. 14 through Saturday, Dec. 23 at Costa Mesa City Hall. There's a kick-off on Dec. 14, and Santa will make time to stop by, but if you can't be there for the opening night do visit this long-running OC merry must-see from 5:30 to 9 p.m. during its week-plus run. Also on the docket for that run? Tunes each night, played there, as well as "free train rides for children." Do you have the "Linus & Lucy" theme in your head now, the one that the kids dance to in "A Charlie Brown Christmas"? Vince Guaraldi's much-played ditty is definitely upbeat, as is spying this large-scale display cheering visitors over yet another OC holiday season. Also upbeat? It's free to see. No "drats" or missed football kicks here; only smiles, sparkle, and Snoopy.
