Fifty Parades on Private Money: How the Los Altos Festival of Lights Gets Built

"Folks who want to have a small parade on Thanksgiving evening." That is how Ken Haukom, then working for the City of Los Altos Department of Public Works, remembered the request that reached him in 1977. In the Los Altos Town Crier's 2024 parade preview, he recalled roughly four or five push floats, all built by volunteers.

On Sunday, November 29, the 50th Los Altos Festival of Lights Parade steps off at 6 p.m. from First and State streets. The parade has grown a great deal since that first year. The way it's paid for has stayed close to the 1977 setup. The City of Los Altos closes and polices the streets. Everything that lights up on them comes from neighbors with garages, toolboxes and checkbooks.

Four or Five Floats, Then an Association

According to the Town Crier, the parade began as the idea of three downtown merchants, Hope Higbee, Marion Jackston and Jack Huston, along with friends Bob Grimm, Ed Hilton and Ted Johnston. Huston's daughter, Maridee Huston-Charlton, marched in the first parade as a toy soldier. "I was going to college at Foothill and dad roped me and my best friend Diane into being soldiers," she told the paper.

The Los Altos Village Association ran the event for a few years. In 1981 it became an all-volunteer production under the newly formed Los Altos Festival of Lights Association. The date moved too. The 1977 parade was a Thanksgiving-evening event, and today it runs on the Sunday night after Thanksgiving.

The growth since then is easiest to see in numbers:

• 1977: roughly four or five hand-pushed floats
• 40th anniversary: the Town Crier counted 1,400 participants, including six high school marching bands and 75 costumed characters
• 2024, the 48th parade: organizer Nancy Schneider listed 62 entries, including eight marching bands and 23 floats
• 2025: more than 150 volunteers worked on parade night, co-president Nora Haley told the Town Crier

All 23 of those floats come from a volunteer board. The association's board page lists the jobs those volunteers handle: float construction and maintenance, costume design and repair, fundraising, volunteer coordination and managing the parade's content.

Where the City's Share Ends

The Los Altos City Council made the parade a Heritage Event. According to the Town Crier, that means the city provides police, infrastructure and waste management services. The line between city and volunteer work is spelled out on the parade's FAQ page: "construction, repair, and renovation of all the amazing floats and costumes are funded solely by private donations." The association's About page describes its funding as community grants and spectator donations.

The parade also needed a place to keep everything. Haukom told the Town Crier that early floats sat in volunteers' garages until 1992, when a warehouse opened at the city's corporation yard and the big floats could be stored there year-round. That gave the floats a permanent home. Building, repairing and lighting them stayed a volunteer job.

What a Float Actually Takes

The association's sponsorship page shows how the costs scale:

1. Push float: $500
2. Small tractor float or marching band: $1,000
3. Large tractor float: $1,500

Those sponsorships pay for a float's place in the parade. The bigger costs are labor and time, and these stories show what that looks like:

The Alice in Wonderland float, introduced for the 48th parade in 2024. It was directed by set designer Christine Edwards and included the Mad Hatter's hat and a tea-party setting. Board member Nancy Schneider told the Town Crier that work began in January and called it one of the brightest push floats. Edwards had also refurbished the Santa sleigh float in 2020.

Santa's sleigh. The Town Crier reported that an update to the sleigh was paid for with grants from the Los Altos Community Foundation, the Rotary Club of Los Altos, The Grimm Family Fund and the Koster Family. Santa is still the main event. After the 2025 parade, Haley told the Town Crier that he "received the biggest and loudest response from kids of all ages watching the parade."

The Emerald City float, 2022. High school student interns and the association's float committee built it from recycled materials, including 4,000 water bottles and 3,500 LED lights, according to the Town Crier.

Older floats came from the same kind of local know-how. For the 27th parade, the lead Snow Queen float was designed by Joe Ragey, technical director of Foothill College's Smithwick Theater. That year, events like Rock Back the Clock and the Antiques and Collectibles Faire raised money for float construction and renovation, the Town Crier reported.

In the Town Crier's 2025 recap, Haley described volunteers on parade night checking that every float system was "go," pushing and driving floats, wearing costumes, helping characters into them, checking each costume's lights, and handling setup and cleanup. In the same article, she said that for the 50th the community "can look for some truly special touches throughout the parade." The anniversary fundraiser is called $50 for 50, and its donation page is managed by the Los Altos/Mountain View Community Foundation.

The Viewing Rules Come From the Same Setup

Most of the parade's spectator rules exist because volunteers do the work. Here is what to know for the 29th and why each rule is there:

• Glow sabers and necklaces are a fundraiser. The FAQ calls novelty sales one of the parade's biggest fundraisers. Local volunteer service groups sell them, and 100% of profits go back to the parade. Buy from volunteers or tables with the official "Festival of Lights Volunteer" lanyards, since other sellers offer similar products.
• Mark your spot with a blanket. Volunteers and city staff have to clean up chalk and tape, and ropes and chairs can block sidewalks and cause trips.
• Don't save space before noon. The viewing guidelines don't allow reserving public space before noon on parade day. Watch from the sidewalks or intersections and stay out of the parade roadway.
• The rain call comes at noon, and there's no backup date. If rain is in the forecast, the association will post on its website and social media by noon whether the parade will go on. A canceled parade is not rescheduled.
• Leave dogs at home. The sidewalks are crowded, the music is loud, and the FAQ says floats have been known to backfire.

Sunday, November 29, Hour by Hour

The association calls these times estimates. In 2024, the route ran down State Street to Main Street, across First Street, down Whitney and across Third Street. The FAQ says the least crowded viewing is near the end of the route along Whitney Street, where you can often get a good view even if you arrive at the last minute. Since the last floats reach the end as late as 7:45, viewers there wait longer for the first floats.

Accessible parking is in Plaza North between Third and Fourth streets, behind Wells Fargo. Enter from Edith at Third Street, and don't try to cross Main Street. If you missed last year, the parade's homepage links to a replay of the 2025 parade.

Before and After the 29th

Downtown has two more holiday events around the parade. The Los Altos Village Association's 23rd annual Holiday Stroll is Friday, November 13, from 5 to 9 p.m. On Friday, December 4, the association's Holiday Tree Celebration runs from 6 to 8 p.m. at Veterans Community Plaza, at Main and State streets. Plans include local student performances, trolley rides and photos with Santa.

The parade also needs more hands than it has, and the association runs a volunteer sign-up for people who want to push a float or work a costume. For future years, groups and businesses can apply to enter. Returning entries in good standing get priority, and spots for new entries are limited.

If you're a downtown neighbor wondering how parade weekend affects a showing or a move-in date, or you just want to talk about Los Altos traditions like this one, Alexander Kalla is happy to help in English, Spanish, Italian or Hindi. Let's Connect.