Del Mar's Holidays Run on Two Calendars: One Sunday in the Village, Seven Weeks at the Fairgrounds

Del Mar's holiday season this year runs on two schedules. At the Fairgrounds it opened last Friday with the first post time of the Bing Crosby racing season and goes until Dec. 26. In the Village, the whole holiday program fits into one Sunday afternoon, Dec. 6, which builds to a 5 p.m. tree lighting with hot chocolate served until 6. The two schedules barely overlap, so the easy and crowded weekends between now and Christmas follow a pattern you can plan around. The busiest weekend in town comes more than two weeks before anyone lights a tree on Camino Del Mar.

The Fairgrounds runs in long blocks

The Fairgrounds calendar starts with racing. The Bing Crosby season runs Nov. 6 through Nov. 29, with a 12:30 p.m. start time listed on its race days. Racing runs four weekends: Nov. 6–8, already done, then Nov. 13–15, Nov. 20–22 and a four-day stretch from Nov. 26 to 29. That last block starts on Thanksgiving Day.

The other events start partway through racing and keep going after it ends:

From the Village, the Fairgrounds holiday season isn't one event. Different crowds come for different reasons over seven weeks, and the main lot holds a Christmas tree lot for nearly four of them. The Purdy Tree Farms listing shows trees, wreaths and garlands, plus delivery, in the Main Parking Lot from Nov. 20 through Dec. 15.

Nov. 20–22 is when the blocks stack

The calendars overlap most heavily on the weekend before Thanksgiving. The Fairgrounds' event calendar has three things running on Friday, Nov. 20: racing, SnowJam's first day and the opening of the Purdy tree lot. Saturday, Nov. 21 adds a Houndmouth concert to racing, SnowJam and the tree lot. Sunday, Nov. 22 has racing, SnowJam and the tree lot again, plus Clara La San.

Three days in a row, the afternoon racing crowd, a snow event and the first wave of tree shoppers all share the grounds, and a concert crowd arrives on top of them on two of those evenings. No other weekend on this year's calendar has that much happening at once. If you want to beat the crowd to a tree, the lot is open from Monday, Nov. 23 through mid-December.

The Thanksgiving block, Nov. 26–29, has four straight race days, and the tree lot is open the whole time. No concerts or SnowJam are on the calendar that weekend, so it stacks less than the week before even though it's longer. Racing ends Sunday, Nov. 29.

The Village fits its season into one afternoon

The Del Mar Village Association does things the other way around. Everything it has planned for the holidays happens on Sunday, Dec. 6, between 1 and 6 p.m. Here's how the afternoon unfolds, based on the North Pole by the Sea schedule:

1. 1 p.m. Activities start across the Village. On 15th Street, Monarch Ocean Pub hosts a holiday VW bus photo spot, and the Rad Hatter party-hat craft table is set up for kids.
2. 1 to 4 p.m. St. Peter's Episcopal Church brings in real snow for kids. It's free and open to everyone. 1312 Camino Del Mar hosts kids' crafts, a photo spot, holiday movies and music.
3. 1 to 5 p.m. At Del Mar Plaza, you can write letters to Santa on the ocean-view deck and drop them in a North Pole mail room. Carolers and costumed holiday characters wander the Village all afternoon.
4. 4 to 6 p.m. The Jim Watkins Amphitheater at L'Auberge Del Mar serves hot chocolate for kids and sells drinks for adults, and you can take photos with the holiday characters.
5. 5 p.m. The annual lighting of the downtown tree takes place at the amphitheater.

The ticketed adult event runs at the same time as the family activities. The Winter Taste & Sip goes from 1 to 4 p.m. that Sunday. Tickets include food from Village restaurants, drinks at "Sip Stops" set up inside downtown businesses, live music around the Village and a commemorative GoVino tasting glass. The participating restaurants include Adelaide, Board & Brew, Coral, Harry's, High Marea, Il Fornaio, Jake's, Monarch, Queenstown, Sbicca, Tamarindo, The Cottage and Viewpoint Brewing.

Because both programs share the same three hours, a family can do the snow at St. Peter's and the 15th Street crafts while adults in the group do the Taste & Sip a few blocks away. Everyone ends up at the amphitheater by 5. On Dec. 6, the Village's holiday events all happen inside a few blocks of Camino Del Mar and finish within one afternoon.

Dec. 6 lands in the quiet stretch between

On the calendar, the Village day falls in the quietest part of the Fairgrounds season. Racing ends Nov. 29, and Coastal Christmas doesn't open until Dec. 11. Between those dates, the Fairgrounds has the Purdy tree lot running through Dec. 15 and two concerts, Young the Giant on Dec. 8 and Cannons on Dec. 9.

So from Nov. 30 to Dec. 10, the Village has its biggest day of the season while the Fairgrounds has its fewest events. If you want to pick up a tree and stay in town for the tree lighting the same day, Dec. 6 works well. The tree lot is open that day, and racing is over.

Once Coastal Christmas opens, the Fairgrounds becomes the nighttime holiday spot in town. The Fairgrounds' Coastal Christmas page says the Holiday Light Trail has millions of lights, along with an eco-friendly Glice skating rink, private igloos and fire-pit tables that come with a server for drinks. It's set up in the Paddock, Plaza de Mexico and the West Parking Lot. It runs on select nights from Dec. 11 to 26. Tickets and parking are both sold through Coastal Christmas, so plan on buying both before you go.

A stop on the Plaza level

Del Mar Plaza is one of the busiest spots on Dec. 6, since the letters-to-Santa table is up on the ocean-view deck. The Plaza also has a dessert shop that wasn't there last holiday season. Desserts By Clément took over the former Paris en Rose space at 1555 Camino Del Mar, Suite 304. It sells French pastries, baked goods and coffee, and it's open daily from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., according to Del Mar Plaza. SanDiegoVille covered the opening as the shop's second San Diego location. With those hours, it's open well past the 5 p.m. tree lighting and through the Coastal Christmas evenings later in the month.

The bluff walk south of 15th Street

The VW bus photo spot and the kids' craft table are on 15th Street, which is also where SANDAG's bluff stabilization zone begins. SANDAG reports that Phase 5 of the Del Mar Bluffs Stabilization project is complete, with work done between 2024 and fall 2026 along the stretch from 15th Street south to North Torrey Pines Road. According to SANDAG, the longer-term LOSSAN rail realignment is a separate project that's still in its environmental phase. For this holiday season, the bluff stabilization work south of the Village is finished.

Here's the full calendar for anyone working out their weekends:

• Nov. 13–15: Racing all three days, plus the Susan G. Komen 3-Day on Friday and DJ Meredith Marks on Saturday.
• Nov. 20–22: Racing, SnowJam, the tree lot's opening weekend, and concerts on Saturday and Sunday nights.
• Nov. 23–25: Tree lot open, no racing. Good weekdays to buy a tree.
• Nov. 26–29: Four days of racing starting Thanksgiving Day, with the tree lot open.
• Dec. 6: Winter Taste & Sip, North Pole by the Sea and the 5 p.m. tree lighting in the Village.
• Dec. 8–9: Young the Giant and Cannons at the Fairgrounds.
• Dec. 11–26: Coastal Christmas on select nights. Purdy Tree Farms closes Dec. 15.

Racing traffic, tree-lot weekends and a crowded Village Sunday all shape how much buyer traffic a listing gets in late fall. If you're thinking about whether to list before the holidays or wait for the new year, Klinge Realty Group can go through your timing with you, weekend by weekend. Schedule a Free Home Strategy Consultation and we'll fit your plans to Del Mar's calendar.