Hospitality Night Gets Its First Year on the Permanent Promenade on Forest

Hospitality Night lands on Friday, Dec. 4, and this year it centers on two stages. Santa lights the tree in the Peppertree Lot at 6:10 p.m. Twenty minutes later, Anneliese School opens the Main Stage on the Promenade on Forest, and music runs there from 7 to 9 p.m. while the Peppertree Lot concert continues until 7:30. That stage now belongs to a finished plaza, not a temporary one. The city opened the permanent promenade on Sept. 25, 2026.

This is the first holiday season with the work finished. For anyone who spent most of 2026 squeezing past construction fencing on lower Forest Avenue, Dec. 4 is the first big public night the plaza was designed to host.

A pandemic stopgap that turned into a venue

The promenade began in 2020 as a pilot to help downtown businesses get through pandemic restrictions. Over time, city officials pushed to close the lower part of Forest Avenue to cars for good, from Glenneyre Street to Coast Highway. In January 2026 the City Council awarded a $5.5 million construction contract to Superb Engineering. The Daily Pilot reports the full conversion cost at about $7.3 million. The Orange County Register put the project at $7.2 million.

Shops and restaurants stayed open through construction, with narrow walkways threading past the fenced work zone. The project also went before the Coastal Commission, which found no substantial issues with it.

Two long-running Forest Avenue businesses marked anniversaries at the opening. Bushard's Pharmacy celebrated 80 years and Moulin celebrated 10. Diners ate at Alessa under the new umbrellas while the 133 Band played after the ribbon-cutting.

Mayor Mark Orgill told the Daily Pilot the plaza offers something the town's seated venues don't. "You go to the [Laguna] Playhouse, you're in seating," he said. "At the promenade, you can listen to music and you can socialize at the same time." Hospitality Night has always worked that way. You hear the carols while you're walking between open houses. Now the street has the stage and the gathering space for it.

What the finished plaza holds

The city's project page lists what went in once the asphalt came out:

• Brick paving from end to end, with trench drains and storm drain systems underneath
• Two specimen oak trees and ten 48-inch-box eucalyptus
• New planting and irrigation
• Light poles and dining umbrellas
• Bollards at the edges
• A/V and electrical conduits running under the plaza

The Register's coverage describes a fountain inspired by a kelp forest, along with specialty brick, furniture and new greenery. Local tile artist Marlo Bartels was at the opening with one of his creations. The approved design also set aside specific areas for temporary performances.

Those performance areas already have a track record. This past summer, the city's Promenade on Forest Stage program ran live music from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. every Friday, Saturday and Sunday from July 10 through Aug. 30. Lodging establishments and the city paid for it. The summer series used the space a little at a time. Hospitality Night will put it to its biggest test yet.

Dec. 4, read as two overlapping stages

The city's tentative schedule for Hospitality Night 2026 begins in the Peppertree Lot and ends on Forest.

1. 3 p.m. Downtown street closures begin.
2. 4 p.m. Free trolley and neighborhood on-demand service starts, running until 11 p.m.
3. 5 p.m. The Thurston Middle School Band plays the Peppertree Lot. Holiday crafts open there and run until 7:30. Business open houses begin downtown and go until 9.
4. 5 to 7 p.m. Laguna Beach Presbyterian hosts its Art Market, with La Playa Tamales, homemade cookies and cider, caroling and an open sanctuary.
5. 5:30 p.m. Ukulele Academy performs in the Peppertree Lot.
6. 6:10 p.m. Santa arrives at the Peppertree Lot and lights the tree.
7. 6:15 to 7:30 p.m. Laguna Community Concert and JaZz Band plays the Peppertree Lot.
8. 6:30 p.m. Anneliese School performs on the Main Stage on Forest Avenue until 6:45. Santa moves to his Beach House and hears children's wishes until 9.
9. 7 to 9 p.m. Music on the Main Stage on the Promenade.

There's one stretch to plan around. Between 6:15 and 6:45 p.m., the Peppertree Lot band and the Anneliese School set on Forest overlap. Families with a child in either group will pick their spot by that. Everyone else can stay for the tree lighting, catch part of the jazz set, and still reach the Main Stage before 7.

The city labels this schedule tentative, so check the Hospitality Night page the week of the event.

Getting downtown when the parking map has already shrunk

Turning Forest into a permanent plaza removed 48 parking spaces, according to the Daily Pilot's 2025 report on the Coastal Commission approval. The same report noted that 30 spaces on library property open to the public on weekday evenings and Saturdays, and all day on Sundays. On Hospitality Night, the Peppertree Lot is closed to cars, along with parts of Forest, Ocean Avenue, Beach Street and Glenneyre.

Here's how the nearby city lots stack up that night, using the city's public lot listing:

For anyone who lives within reach of a stop, the trolley is the easier choice. The city runs free trolley and neighborhood on-demand service from 4 to 11 p.m. on Hospitality Night. On a regular off-season Friday, the free Coastal Route runs from 7:30 a.m. to 10 p.m., every 20 to 30 minutes, connecting North Laguna, downtown, South Laguna and Dana Point. Laguna Local, the free on-demand neighborhood service, doesn't follow a fixed route or promise a pickup time. On a night when half the town is heading downtown at once, request your ride early.

The Friday also opens a Sawdust weekend

Sawdust Art Festival's Winter Fantasy runs Nov. 20 through Dec. 20, 2026. It's open five three-day weekends, Friday through Sunday, from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. The third of those weekends starts on Friday, Dec. 4. That makes it possible to spend the afternoon at Winter Fantasy and be downtown by the time the Thurston band starts at 5. The other four weekends, Nov. 20 to 22, Nov. 27 to 29, Dec. 11 to 13 and Dec. 18 to 20, have the promenade to themselves. Those are good weekends to see the fountain and the new brickwork without the crowds.

Another downtown-adjacent project is close behind. The city is replacing the west-end beach stairs at Anita Street and rebuilding the sewer lift station there, adding viewing platforms, landscaping and a permanent lifeguard tower. Its schedule targets completion in December 2026. Until it reopens, the city lists Oak Street and Thalia Street as the alternate beach access points.

If you're hosting family for Hospitality Night and want a quiet conversation about what the new downtown means for your corner of Laguna, the team at Tyler Brown & Associates would be glad to sit down with you before or after the holidays. Book a private consultation.