Deck the Palms - Holiday Decor on Hollywood Boulevard
Hollywood Boulevard as Santa Claus Lane. Courtesy Bison Archives.
Every year since 1928, Hollywood Boulevard has been transformed into Santa Claus Lane - and the decor has included both real and metal Christmas trees, stars & bell draped across the Boulevard, and wreaths with photos of popular celebrities in the center.
Courtesy Bison archives
The earliest lighting and decorating on Hollywood Blvd was done by Otto K Olesen. If his name sounds familiar, it’s because he’s the guy responsible for lighting the Hollywood sky with Klieg lights for premieres!
The tradition of changing the name of Hollywood Boulevard to Santa Claus Lane in the area of Vine Street to La Brea during the Holidays is credited to Harry Baine, part of the Hollywood Merchant’s Association. The idea was partially a stunt to boost Christmas shopping on Hollywood Boulevard - hopefully while people were out seeing the sights they’d do some shopping in the district!
Over 100 trees were imported from Big Bear Valley in 1928 for display and lighting along Santa Claus Lane, and were to be transported to the Hollywood Bowl after the season. Live trees strung with electric lights were the first decorations, but they died due to lack of water and were hit by cars. Also, this amount of lighting was a huge fire hazard.
They next tried metallic tinsel trees but they tarnished in the weather, which we actually have in December here in Hollywood, and got caught on passing buses. The weather also put a damper on the paper mache decorations that were attempted.
A paper mache Santa gets drenched in a Southern California December downpour. Courtesy Bison Archives.
The ultimate longest-lasting decor were conical trees in a variety of designs with colored light bulbs. These lasted from the 1930s until the 1950s, although many of these metal trees disappeared in the 1940s, melted down in service of the armed forces during WWII.
Metal Christmas tree adorning a light post. Courtesy Bison Archives.
Today the newest innovation in lighting Hollywood Boulevard for Christmas is LED lighting in trees along the Boulevard. The light colors can be programmed to any color of the rainbow, so its red and green for Christmas!
I’d love to time travel to see some of these decorations, but because that’s not possible I’ll post more photos on Instagram - Merry Christmas from Hollywood!