 -It's one of the premiere holiday events in the nation, and a perfect way to kick off the Christmas season in Texas. Welcome to the Corpus Christi Harbor Lights Festival, an exceptional community-oriented annual affair that has grown in size and popularity down through years, attracting over 30,000 participants last season alone.
Highlighting the event is the annual lighting of the Bayfront, a long standing tradition in the Sparking City By The Sea. Corpus has one of the most beautiful skylines for a city its size, and when viewed from the harbor with the sun sinking in the background, it's a breathtaking experience any day of the year. But in the Christmas season, when the entire skyline is adorned with holiday lights and Bayfront shoppes, hotels and restaurants compete to outdo each other in dressing out for the season, it becomes an extra special spectacle to behold. The Corpus Christi harbor and marina join in and the majority of commercial boats and private yachts anchored there also go "all out" to add to the lighting feast, and what you get is enough "cheer" to warm your bones right through the New Year.
But what really makes the local enthusiasm of the season into a festival goes beyond the twinkling lights and dancing palm trees along Shoreline Boulevard. There's the annual children's parade, an Optimist's Club sponsored children's activity area, a main outdoor stage where school choirs, church groups and community singing clubs perform as holiday frolickers join in.
There's the floating stage at the Marina Basin offering live entertainment and a staging platform for the annual Illuminated Boat Parade, one of the best in the country. Boat captains spend days preparing their vessels for this special parade of lights. You'll see plenty of luxury motorboats, sailboats, shrimp boats, tugs, Coast Guard Cutters, kayaks and windsurfers as they float through the Marina while their captains and crews sing carols to entertain spectators and wow the judges along Shoreline Drive. Special awards are presented to the winners in various categories.
 In an air-conditioned tent back on Shoreline there's the Gingerbread Village to enjoy, an exhibition of gingerbread houses and shops constructed by local businesses and civic groups. Free cookies for everyone!
But that's not all! There's the annual Christmas fireworks display over the bay and a new favorite in recent years, a special holiday laser light show that fills the night sky with dancing space age illumination expertly choreographed to your favorite Christmas tunes.
But we still haven't got to the best part, the one thing that crowns a grand celebration with that extra measure of being something really special. It's the way it's done.
With the cooperation of local businesses and residents, all lights will remain off as the sun sets in the Western sky. As dusk approaches and slowly turns into twilight, the switch is thrown and suddenly in the rich night air, almost silent in spite of the gathering crowd, there's is an overload of visual sensory. There are more lights to see than one can see in a given moment, as 30,000 spectators erupt in audible good cheer, only to remain fixated on the twinkling meagerie of hypnotic color before them, unable to take their eyes from the unfolding season.
The event has become a popular one down through the years, evolving from a pioneering effort to the remarkable spectacle it has become. Each year there are more lights, more activities, and more people, a family event that brings out the old and young alike.
The 26th Annual Harbor Lights Festival takes place this year on Saturday, Dec. 2nd, with activities getting underway with the Children's Parade around 2pm. The event is free to the public and you'll find many vendors offering food and drink along the bayfront.
Where To Stay
There are so many good hotels and condos along Shoreline where you could hang your hat and walk to all the festivities. One of our favorite downtown is the BayFront Plaza Hotel, directly across from the basin. For a romantic and charming bed & breakfast, we would recommend Villa La Casita just off Shoreline in the historic Del Mar section of downtown. Make reservations early!
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