What to Know
- Wednesdays through Dec. 30 at 6 p.m.
- $12 general public; $8 members
- See famous landmarks, well-known streets, and Southern California homes dressed in their Christmas best during the virtual presentation
When it comes to traveling through time during the holidays, it can be very handy to have the Ghost of Christmas Past's personal digits, or at least a quick way to get a hold of the on-the-go spirit.
For this particularly wise wraith famously swept Ebenezer Scrooge back to his youth, giving him a chance to see the celebrations of his childhood, his old friends, and how his world looked decades ago.
But for those of us who consider ourselves un-Scrooge-like and yet still interested in how the times before us appeared during the holiday season, there is the Los Angeles Conservancy, which possesses its own magical portal to the past.
And that portal? It's opening each Wednesday evening in December, all to give people at home the chance to celebrate a "Vintage LA Christmas."
The event, dubbed "A Live Virtual Tour," will whisk viewers through their screens, at least in spirit, to long-gone holiday seasons.
(And "in spirit" is, of course, the best way to travel come Christmastime.)
You'll drop by Altadena's famous Christmas Tree Lane, a century-old spectacular that is still glimmering today, and you'll visit the lovely Las Posadas processions of Olvera Street.
Ye olde department store windows will get their dazzling due, too. And the tour will take in some of the kitschy lawn looks that popped up in front of LA homes 60 or 70 years ago.
Historic photographs will help to illuminate these visual memories, as will the informative guidance of your LA Conservancy host.
Do register for the Zoom tour in advance. It's $12 for the general public and eight dollars if you're a member of LA Conservancy.
So, is no Ghost of Christmas Past needed? Not when we have a great preservation organization like the Los Angeles Conservancy on our Zoom dial.
The group continues to gleefully connect us with the times before us, all to give us an idea as to how SoCalers celebrated the season before we arrived on the scene.
