OAHU
The Waikiki Holiday Parade takes you from one holiday to the next literally overnight.
Set each year on the Friday after Thanksgiving (November 27 this year), it heralds the start of the Christmas season on Oahu while honoring survivors of the December 7, 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor and other World War II veterans.
Photo credit: Gateway Music Festivals & Tours
The festive Waikiki Holiday Parade makes its way down Kalakaua Avenue on the day after Thanksgiving.
Traversing the route from Fort DeRussy to Kapiolani Park beginning at 7 p.m. will be military units, hula dancers, local and Mainland bands and decorated vehicles carrying Honolulu dignitaries.
The parade was founded in 1998 by Jake Peppers, who was the marketing director for the Hula Bowl, a post-season collegiate football game in Honolulu in the late 1980s. Although he now lives in Townsend, Tennessee, he continues to help organize the Waikiki Holiday Parade, inviting bands from high schools and colleges across the country to participate and learn valuable lessons in U.S. and Hawaiian history.
At Ward Village, you’ll experience “Mele Kalikimaka” in a big way!
Santa’s Beach House will be open daily except Thanksgiving from November 21 through December 24, providing a colorful backdrop for photos with jolly Saint Nick.
Pets will even get their chance to do this on November 21 and 22 during Santa Paws, a fundraiser for the Hawaiian Humane Society.
Photo credit: Ward Village
In the evening from December 6-30, the Honolulu City Lights Trolley Tours cruise past Ward Village’s Holiday Light Show and the dazzling displays in downtown Honolulu.
You can also look forward to concerts every weekend in December and the Keiki Courtyard Cinema on December 16, where a sing-along version of the Disney blockbuster Frozen will be screened. This event starts at sunset with educational activities led by staffers from the Hawaii Children’s Discovery Center.
In the Islands, there’s no need for Rudolph and his reindeer friends because Santa arrives by outrigger canoe!
Photo credit: Hugh Gentry
Bring your camera to the beach fronting the Outrigger Waikiki Beach Resort at 9 a.m. on December 12 and the Halekulani hotel at 4:30 p.m. on Christmas Eve to snap “only-in-Hawaii” photos to show your friends and family.
Photo credit: Halekulani
At the Halekulani, Santa’s helpers will pass out candy canes to the kids, and his appearance at the Outrigger Waikiki Beach Resort will include a keiki (children’s) hula performance and complimentary photos with visitors in the lobby.
It’ll be easy to find the opening-night activities for Honolulu City Lights on December 5: Just look for crowds of people with big smiles!
Photo credit: Hawaiian Airlines
Food booths and carnival rides will open at 4 p.m. surrounding Sky Gate (the abstract 24-foot-high steel sculpture near Honolulu Hale, the city’s government seat).
At 6 p.m., the Electric Light Parade of floats, marching bands and decorated city vehicles (including a bus, an ambulance and a refuse truck) will start making its way from Aala Park to Honolulu Hale.
There, Honolulu Mayor Kirk Caldwell will flip on the lights adorning a towering Christmas tree at 6:30 p.m., and exhibits of beautiful wreaths and trees will open. The evening will wrap up with a 7:30 p.m. concert at Sky Gate by the popular band Kapena.
Several other Honolulu City Lights events are planned, including an ornament-making activity (December 12, 6 p.m., Civic Center grounds on the east side of Honolulu Hale), picture-taking with Santa (December 18 and 23, 7 p.m., Honolulu Hale courtyard) and a movie night (December 19, 7 p.m., Civic Center grounds).Come New Year’s, usher in the Year of the Monkey at the Ohana Festival in Moiliili from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on January 10.
Activities at the Japanese Cultural Center of Hawaii include demonstrations of bonsai, origami, karate, kendo, the tea ceremony and kumihimo (Japanese braiding).
There will also be a craft fair, bake sale and free admission to the Okage Sama De historical gallery.
At nearby Moiliili Neighborhood Park (1115 Isenberg Street), the celebration will continue with keiki games and inflatables/bouncers, mochitsuki (mochi-pounding) demonstrations and food booths selling goodies such as sushi, Waffle Dogs and okonomiyaki, Japanese pancakes containing a variety of savory ingredients).
Taiko and Japanese and Okinawan dance groups will perform at both locations.
Photo Credit: Brian Y. Sato/Japanese Cultural Center of Hawaii
MAUI
In 1924, Maui banker Charles Dexter Lufkin built a lovely two-story clapboard house with 10-foot ceilings, beveled glass doors and ohia and eucalyptus wood floors as a wedding gift for his new daughter-in-law.
On the Hawaii State Register of Historic Places, the house is now an award-winning bed-and-breakfast that proprietors Tom and Janice Fairbanks named the Old Wailuku Inn at Ulupono.
Lei of Aloha is the annual fundraiser the couple holds at the inn for the Pau O Hiiaka halau hula (hula school).
On December 5 from 1 to 4 p.m., visitors can tour the historic home and enjoy music, hula performances, poetry readings and lei-making demonstrations.
Etched glassware, lilikoi (passion fruit) butter and handmade lauhala ornaments will be among the many gifts for purchase; browse as you nibble on ono (delicious) homemade refreshments, including Janice’s famous chicken salad. Tickets are $30 per person.
Upcountry Maui is the place to be on December 12 from 4:30 to 7:30 p.m. That’s when MauiWine will host its second annual Holiday Tree Lighting at Ulupalakua on its beautiful, tree-shaded grounds.
The event will begin with the lighting of a 22-foot-tall pine, followed by a family-friendly movie (to be announced) under the stars.
Also planned are live music, activities for the kids and beverages and treats for purchase prepared by Ulupalakua Ranch Store & Grill.
Admission is free, but please bring a can of non-perishable food as a donation for the Maui Food Bank. And don’t forget your jacket as Upcountry nights can get very chilly.
KAUAINormally laid-back Lihue will leap to life at 6:30 p.m. on December 4, when the Lights on Rice Parade delights spectators lined up along Rice Street, the town’s main artery.
More than 60 units with 2,000 participants will be sharing holiday cheer this year — the most ever.
The parade ends at the Historic County Building (4396 Rice Street), where there will be caroling, entertainment, a craft fair, food booths, photos with Santa and the Festival of Lights, a whimsical exhibit of ornaments, figures and decorated trees primarily made from discards; for example, bottle caps, egg cartons, Styrofoam cups, Spam cans and plastic water bottles.
It will be open from 6 to 8 p.m. Fridays through Sundays in December as well as on Christmas Eve and December 26.
Over on the west side, the town of Waimea plans a memorable celebration of its own.
The Waimea Lighted Christmas Parade begins at 6:15 p.m. on December 19. It’s a joyous grassroots event; floats created by families are just as fun and elaborate as the ones sponsored by businesses.
Arrive early to check out the gift items, ornaments and fresh wreaths for sale.
Food booths will be selling yummy local favorites that this community is known for: smoked meat, hulihuli chicken roasted on a rotisserie (huli means “turn”) and the flying saucer, a bun filled with a sloppy joe-and-cheese mixture that you’ll find only on Kauai.
The after-parade party at Hofgaard Park will feature Wally Rita and the Los Kauaians playing kachi-kachi dance music until midnight. Kachi-kachi is a term Japanese immigrants coined to describe the scratchy sound produced by the guiro, a Puerto Rican percussion instrument.
HAWAII ISLAND
Now in its 55th year, the Waimea Christmas Twilight Parade brings the whole community together to celebrate a Kold Kountry Christmas (that theme isn’t misspelled — it’s a play on words: Waimea is cold during the holiday season).
Photo credit: Waimea Parade
Set for December 5 starting at 5:30 p.m., this parade is famous for its brigade of lighted trucks; there are often as many or more trucks as there are total units.
In recent years, there have been 40 to 50 units and 40 to 50 trucks! Residents appreciate the truckers for hauling all the “regular goods” to rural Waimea as well as the equipment and materials needed for ranching, logging and farming.
Before the parade, shop for wonderful gifts at Christmas fairs from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Waimea Center (65-1158 Mamalahoa Highway, 808-989-1821) and from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Parker Ranch Center and the Thelma Parker Gym (67-1209 Mamalahoa Highway).
After the parade, Santa will be greeting and taking photos with kids at Parker Ranch Center’s Fireside Food Court.
You’re also invited to the Winter Stargazing Party from 7 to 10 p.m. at the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope’s Waimea headquarters where astronomers and members of the West Hawaii Astronomy Club will be hosting an open house with refreshments and “Ask An Astronomer” talks.All events raise awareness for the Big Island Giving Tree’s efforts to brighten the lives of seniors, the homeless and families in need during the holidays.
The Kailua-Kona Community Christmas Parade will make its way through the seaside town of Kailua-Kona starting at 5 p.m. on December 12 with 80 entries (2,200 participants) providing their interpretations of the theme “Na Mele O Kalikimaka: Songs of Christmas.”
Highlights include bands, of course, as well as hip-hop dancers, a Toys for Tots train, pets wearing Santa caps and tinsel garlands, and a float featuring Santa, Mrs. Claus, elves and Rudolph and his reindeer friends.
While you’re at the parade, in the giving spirit of Christmas, bring a few canned goods for the Menehune Holiday Food Drive. Donations can be dropped off at the eight announcers’ stations along the route or given to marchers accompanying the entry for the drive’s beneficiary, the Food Basket, a nonprofit organization that feeds the hungry on Hawaii island.
Contributions will also be accepted at supermarkets from Captain Cook to Waimea on the day of the parade.
Mochi pounding has been a New Year’s tradition at Akiko’s Buddhist Bed and Breakfast for 18 years.
From just a few dozen people, mostly neighbors, participation has grown to about 700 people, both visitors and kamaaina (Hawaii residents).
This year’s mochitsuki will be December 27 from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Everyone, young and old, takes turns pounding glutinous rice into the sweet, round cakes that, according to Japanese custom, are eaten for good luck.
Adding to the festivities will be craft sales, fortune telling, massage, I Ching readings, storytelling, taiko drumming, Hawaiian music and hearty food for sale.
