The Brief

Over its 105-year history, Altadena’s Christmas Tree Lane has fallen dark only in extraordinary times — as World War II raged and during a national energy crisis in the 1970s.

This year, as Altadena weathers its greatest test post-Eaton Fire, the thought of keeping the storied lane unlit was considered.

But only briefly.

“We did talk about whether it would be depressing because of what was lost,” said Scott Wardlaw, president of the Christmas Tree Lane Association. “But people were urging us to do it again and saying ‘Please put the event on and put those lights up.’”

Starting Saturday, more than 20,000 lights will roar back on the deodar cedars towering over a nearly mile-long stretch of Santa Rosa Avenue, right on the edge of the burn scar.

Visitors from around Southern California drive under a canopy of lights on Christmas Tree Lane, a 105-year-old tradition in Altadena.

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Some of the holiday lights, which still wrapped around the trees at the time of the fire, were damaged along with branches — not by embers but by the windstorm that fanned January’s fire. At the northern end of the lane, some homes were scorched.

But miraculously, not one of the 153 deodars, some as high as 130 feet, were lost.

“This will be a symbol of Altadena's rebirth, and us coming together again as a community,” Wardlaw said.

A homecoming

Celebrated as the country’s largest and oldest outdoor lighting display dating back to 1920, the spectacle is created entirely by volunteers painstakingly stringing up lights with ropes and pulleys over the course of several months.

Every year, thousands of visitors from all over Southern California travel to Altadena from December into early January to drive under the canopy of lights.

“It's just the simplest thing ever — just lights in a tree,” said Mikayla Arevalo, who coordinates volunteers for the association. “I feel like that's what made us so special. We're not bright. We're not flashy.”

Volunteers and members of the Christmas Tree Lane Association string lights on the ground before hanging them in the deodar trees along Santa Rosa Avenue in Altadena.

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This being the lane’s first lighting after the Eaton Fire, organizers expect turnout at Saturday’s kickoff event at 6 p.m. will be larger than usual.

“We wanted to use this celebration as a moment for community members to come back to Altadena to see their neighbors and their friends, as many people are in different areas now and no longer together,” Arevalo said.

The ceremony will include new elements, including a moment of silence for the 19 Altadenans who died in the fire.

And Altadenans whose families have long volunteered on Christmas Tree Lane will take part in the switch-on of the lights alongside L.A. County Supervisor Kathryn Barger, who represents Altadena in the 5th District.

Brighter than ever

When the lights come back on Saturday, return visitors may notice the display glowing brighter than ever before. A donation of an undisclosed amount from the Walt Disney Co., which has employees from Altadena, was used to pay for thousands of extra lights.

Each tree now carries five to six long strings of clear, red, blue, green and yellow lights, up from four or five.

Many of the residences along Christmas Tree Lane get in on the holiday cheer with their own decorations.

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Immediately after the fire, there were questions whether it’d be safe for volunteers to string lights on the trees amid the ash and debris.

But the tree lighting association said it got the all-clear from the county, which also gave volunteers more than 400 protective suits as they embarked on another round of installations in mid-September.

Leaders worried that they wouldn’t get the same number of volunteers as they did in past years because much of the town had been forced out by the fire. But they saw close to 200 volunteers who showed up on weekends over several months to get the job finished before the 10 weekends it typically takes.

A tradition that endures

That kind of community resilience fits a tradition that has anchored Altadena for more than a century.

Christmas Tree Lane owes its beginnings to the Woodbury family, early Altadena settlers, according to a documentary about the tradition created by the association, Altadena Historical Society and the Altadena Libraries.

After returning from Italy, younger brother John Woodbury became enamored with the deodar cedar and ordered seeds from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to plant along the family’s access road — now Santa Rosa Avenue.

By the early 1900s, the trees had matured into a green corridor, drawing visitors who strolled and drove beneath the shade.

The idea to illuminate those cedars came in 1920, when the newly formed Pasadena Kiwanis Club adopted it as one of its first civic projects.

Within a matter of years a regional sensation was gaining national attention. In 1937, a live radio broadcast of the lighting was broadcast to listeners across the country.

A sign points visitors Christmas Tree Lane, which is listed on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places and is designated as a California Historical Landmark.

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The lane’s evolution continued in 1956 as volunteers formalized into the Christmas Tree Lane Association, which worked year-round maintaining the lights, caring for the trees, and raising money for repairs.

The lane’s long history shows that interruptions have been the exception.

During World War II, the lane went unlit as part of mandated blackouts ordered by the government to prevent enemy ships and planes from locating targets.

In 1973, the lane fell dark again amid a national energy crisis that saw President Richard Nixon discouraging the use of ornamental outdoor lighting.

But during another difficult juncture for the country during the height of the pandemic in 2021, the light display returned thanks to committed volunteers self-distancing as they decorated the trees.

Now after the Eaton Fire, the display is back because some of those same volunteers refuse to let the lights go out.

“The thing that's impressive to me, that symbolizes Christmas Tree Lane — it's the people,” Wardlaw said.

As Los Angeles homeowners grapple with the expense of rebuilding after last year’s devastating fires, an L.A. City Councilmember is putting forward an idea that could lower some costs.

Councilmember Traci Park, who represents the Pacific Palisades, has introduced a motion to explore waiving part of the city’s portion of the local sales tax for fire victims who purchase rebuilding materials in the city.

The 1% of the local 9.75% sales tax that goes into the city’s general fund would be given back to consumers under the proposal. The waiver could apply to lumber, appliances and other rebuilding goods purchased within the city.

The motion, introduced Friday by Park and seconded by Councilmember John Lee, says: “The City should do everything within its power to alleviate the financial burden for these residents and businesses in order to facilitate their return and stabilize the Pacific Palisades community.”

Would it make much of a difference? 

Economists told LAist the proposal could help many homeowners mitigate the high cost of rebuilding, but likely wouldn’t tip the scales for under-insured, under-resourced property owners.

“It wouldn't hurt if it's very well designed and easy to use,” said Alexander Meeks, a director at the Santa Monica-based Milken Institute. “But I'm not sure if it's really going to tackle the scale of the financial challenge that survivors are facing.”

Meeks noted that the tax waiver wouldn’t lower up-front costs such as environmental testing, architectural design and permitting. And it may not help homeowners sourcing raw materials from outside the city.

Zhiyun Li, a UCLA Anderson School of Management economist, said the waiver could help some homeowners justify the additional cost of rebuilding more fire-safe structures.

“Homeowners must typically pay out of pocket to upgrade to IBHS+ standards, which are more stringent,” Li said. “The tax waiver could encourage upgrading to IBHS+ standards or investing more in mitigation, thereby reducing future risk and improving the likelihood of maintaining insurance coverage.”

What’s next for the proposal? 

The proposed tax relief would not be available to properties that have been sold since the fires started in January 2025.

The motion has been sent to the City Council’s budget and fire recovery committees. If approved by the full council, it would require the city administrative officer, the Office of Finance and the city attorney to report back to the council within 60 days on options for crafting a tax relief plan.

The motion calls for the report to consider factors such as how to minimize the burden of administering the tax relief, what documentation homeowners would have to submit and what it would cost the city to oversee the program.

Senate and House Republican leadership have resurrected a stalled plan to fund the Department of Homeland Security after a record 47-day funding lapse.

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., and Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., said in a joint statement on Wednesday that the House will take up a measure passed by the Senate last week to fund most of DHS except Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol through the end of September.

Republicans would then attempt to fund ICE and Border Patrol for three years using a party-line budget reconciliation bill that would not require support from Democrats.

"In following this two-track approach, the Republican Congress will fully reopen the Department, make sure all federal workers are paid, and specifically fund immigration enforcement and border security for the next three years so that those law-enforcement activities can continue uninhibited," Thune and Johnson wrote.

The agreement comes nearly a week after House Republicans dismissed an identical plan, refusing to take up the Senate-passed measure and instead passing a 60-day short term funding bill for all of DHS that had little chance of overcoming Democratic opposition in the Senate.

Johnson called the agreement a "joke" and President Donald Trump declined to publicly endorse the deal. Trump had previously resisted any package that did not include his push to overhaul federal elections known as the Save America Act.

"I think any deal they make, I'm pretty much not happy with it," Trump told reporters last week.

Democrats welcomed the agreement as in line with their pledge not to give ICE any more money without reforms after immigration enforcement agents killed two U.S. citizens in Minneapolis. But the deal does not include any of the policy demands Democrats are pressing for, such as a ban on masks for immigration enforcement officers and requiring warrants issued by a judge, not just the agency, to enter homes.

"For days, Republican divisions derailed a bipartisan agreement, making American families pay the price for their dysfunction," Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., wrote in a statement Wednesday. "Throughout this fight, Senate Democrats never wavered."

Trump seemed to bless the revived plan earlier Wednesday, writing on social media that he wants a party-line bill to fund immigration enforcement on his desk by June 1.

"We are going to work as fast, and as focused, as possible to replenish funding for our Border and ICE Agents, and the Radical Left Democrats won't be able to stop us," Trump wrote.

Despite the shutdown, ICE has been minimally impacted because Republican lawmakers approved $75 billion for ICE through another party-line budget reconciliation bill last year.

Congress is on a two-week recess, but the Senate and House could move to fund all of DHS except ICE and CBP as early as Thursday using a procedure known as unanimous consent that allows the chambers to circumvent formal voting as long as no member objects.

Even during a recess when most members are not in Washington, this could be unpredictable, especially in the House, where many hard-line conservatives oppose a deal that does not fully fund DHS.

"Let's make this simple: caving to Democrats and not paying CBP and ICE is agreeing to defund Law Enforcement and leaving our borders wide open again," Rep. Scott Perry, R-Pa., a member of the ultra-conservative House Freedom Caucus, wrote on X. "If that's the vote, I'm a NO."

If a member does object, that could require waiting for another vote when all members are back from recess.

Claudia Grisales contributed reporting.
Copyright 2026 NPR

California clocked its second-worst snowpack on record Wednesday, a potentially troubling signal ahead for fire season.

It’s an alarming end to a winter that saw abnormally dry conditions briefly wiped from California’s drought map in January, for the first time in a quarter-century.

Though precipitation to date has been near average, much of it fell as rain rather than snow. Then March’s record-breaking heat melted most of the snow that remains. The state’s major reservoirs are nevertheless brimming above historic averages and are flirting with capacity, and a smattering of snow, rain and thunderstorms are dousing last month’s heat wave.

But experts now warn that California’s case of the missing snowpack could herald an early fire season in the mountains.

On Wednesday, state engineers conducting the symbolic April 1 snowpack measurement at Phillips Station south of Lake Tahoe found no measurable snow in patches of white dotting the grassy field.

“I want to welcome you call to probably one of the quickest snow surveys we’ve had — maybe one where people could actually use an umbrella,” joked Karla Nemeth, director of the California Department of Water Resources. “We’re getting a lot of questions about are we heading into a hydrologic drought? The answer is, I don’t know.”

State data reports that California’s snowpack is closing out the season at an alarming 18% of average statewide, and an even more abysmal 6% of average in the northern mountains that feed California’s major reservoirs.

Only the extreme drought year of 2015 beat this year’s snowpack for the worst on record, measuring in at just 5% of average on April 1st, when the snow historically is at its deepest.

“I think everyone's anticipating that it will be a long, busy fire season,” said Lenya Quinn-Davidson, director of the UC Division of Agriculture and Natural Resources Fire Network.

“Without a snowpack, and with an early spring, it just means that there’s much more time for something like that to happen.”

‘It’s pretty bizarre up here’ 

In the city of South Lake Tahoe, which survived the massive Caldor Fire in the fall of 2021 without losing any structures, fire chief Jim Drennan said his department is already ramping up prevention efforts.

“It's pretty bizarre up here right now. It really seems like June conditions more than March,” Drennan said. “People are already turning the sprinklers on for their lawns.”

Without more precipitation, an early spring may complicate prescribed burning efforts. But Drennan said fire agencies in the Tahoe basin can start mechanically clearing fuels from forest areas earlier than usual.

“That means we can get more work done,” he said.

It also means homeowners need to start hardening their homes now, said Martin Goldberg, battalion chief and fuels management officer for the Lake Valley Fire Protection District, which protects unincorporated communities in the Lake Tahoe Basin’s south shore.

Goldberg urges residents to scour their yards for burnable materials, create defensible space and reach out to local fire departments with questions. The risks are widespread — from firewood, wooden fences, gas cans, plants, pine needles — even lawn furniture stacked against a house.

“In years past, I wouldn't even think of raking and clearing until May,” Goldberg said. “But my yard's completely cleared of snowpack, and it has been for a couple weeks now.”

‘A haystack fire’

Battalion chief David Acuña, a spokesperson for Cal Fire, said fire season is shaped by more than just one year’s snowpack.

Climate change has been remaking California’s fire seasons into fire years. And California’s recent average to abundant water years have fueled what Acuña called “bumper crops of vegetation and brush.”

“Most of California is like a haystack. And if you’ve ever seen a haystack fire, they burn very intensely because there's layers of fuel,” Acuña said.

Like Quinn-Davidson, Acuña wasn’t ready to make specific predictions about fires to come.

But John Abatzoglou, a professor of climatology at UC Merced, said the temperatures and snowpack conditions this year offer a glimpse of California in the latter decades of this century, as fossil fuel use continues to drive global temperatures higher.

How this year’s fires will play out will depend on when, where and how wind, heat, fuel and ignitions combine. But it foreshadows the consequences of a warmer California for water and fire under climate change.

“This,” Abatzoglou said, “is yet another stress test for the future in the state.”

This article was originally published on CalMatters and was republished under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives license.