Costa Mesa's Holiday Lights Contest Ends on Snoopy House's Final Night

In 1966, a holiday display went up on the front lawn of the Jordan family's home on Costa Mesa's Eastside. The Daily Pilot's history of the tradition credits former mayor Willard Jordan and his family with creating it, and says his son Jim kept it going. It started as one family's yard on Santa Ana Avenue. Sixty years later it is the city's own holiday event, set up on the City Hall lawn.

Today, Costa Mesa's two homegrown holiday traditions both start with displays residents build at home, and this year they finish on the same night. The Holiday Lights Display Contest takes entries from front yards and front doors across the city. Voting happens during Snoopy House week, and the winners are announced at Snoopy House on Friday, Dec. 18, 2026. If you want your house to be part of Costa Mesa's holidays this year, Dec. 18 is the date to plan around.

From a Santa Ana Avenue yard to the City Hall lawn

The display stayed at the family's home for more than four decades. In 2011, after city officials learned the display's future was uncertain, Costa Mesa began hosting it at City Hall, according to a city retrospective written for the display's 50th year. It has been a civic event since then. The city's event calendar lists the location as the City Hall Front Lawn, 77 Fair Dr.

That history explains the contest. Snoopy House started as one family's decorated yard and grew into a citywide event. The Holiday Lights Display Contest takes that idea to every block. Any Costa Mesa household can enter, and the whole city votes on the results.

The 2026 calendar, laid out against Dec. 18

The city has set the contest and Snoopy House dates so they overlap. Here is how the weeks line up, along with the two bigger events that open the season in the same part of the city.

Contest registration closes Sunday, Dec. 13, which is the first weekend Snoopy House is open. Voting starts the next morning and runs Monday through Friday, the same five weekdays Snoopy House is on the City Hall lawn. A household that enters on the last weekend goes straight onto the ballot while the city's own display is lit.

Entering the contest from your front yard

The Holiday Lights Display Contest page offers two categories, so you can enter without decorating the whole house:

• Outdoor Holiday Home Display, for the full yard-and-roofline effort
• Holiday Door Display, for a decorated front door

The entry form asks for a name, a Costa Mesa address, an email and a phone number. You need to upload at least one high-quality photo of your 2026 display, and you can add up to five. Entries are judged by their photos, so the camera stands in for the people walking past. City staff confirm each entry, and the public vote picks the winners. The form is in English and Spanish, and the city also posts a direct link to the 2026 application.

Since the photos are the entry, timing matters. If the lights go up the weekend after Thanksgiving, you have about two weeks of evenings to get a good shot before registration closes on Dec. 13. If you wait until the last weekend, you will be taking photos and decorating at the same time.

Last year's results show how far the contest reaches. The city lists its 2025 winners on Senate Street, Salvador Street and Kerry Lane. All three are residential streets, and none is a main boulevard. That is close to how Snoopy House itself began.

What Snoopy House week looked like last year

The city calendar has Snoopy House running eight evenings this year, Friday, Dec. 11 through Friday, Dec. 18, from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. Last year it followed the same pattern a day later on the calendar, Dec. 12 to 19, 2025, with the same hours.

According to the Daily Pilot's coverage of the 2025 event, the week included Santa photos, stage performances, letters to Santa and snow sledding, with local school bands and choirs on stage. The paper's Around Town column added train rides to that list and named the 2025 food vendors as Dezzertaholic, Family Pizza and Dragon Dog. That was last year's lineup, and the city's Snoopy House page is the place to check this year's.

The light display stays open in bad weather, but the activities can be canceled, and the city posts schedule changes on the Snoopy House page. Questions go to the recreation office at (714) 754-5300 or [email protected]. If it rains on a night you planned for sledding, the lights will still be on even if the sledding is canceled.

The Friday, Dec. 18 visit is the one to plan carefully. That evening is Snoopy House's last, and it is also when the city has said it will announce the contest winners. If you entered, or a neighbor did, that night at 77 Fair Dr. is when you find out how the vote went.

The two big events that open the season

Costa Mesa's holiday season starts before Snoopy House, with two large events run by other organizations. They are worth fitting in around the contest dates.

The first is on Thursday, Nov. 19, one week after this post goes up. The Segerstrom family hosts South Coast Plaza's traditional tree lighting and Santa's arrival at 7 p.m. in Town Center Park, next to The Westin South Coast Plaza. Admission is free. The South Coast Plaza holiday page lists performances by members of Pacific Symphony, South Coast Repertory, the American Ballet Theatre William J. Gillespie School at Segerstrom Center for the Arts, members of Pacific Chorale, Orange County School of the Arts and Arts & Learning Conservatory. Those are many of the arts groups that call Costa Mesa home, on one stage on one night.

The second opens the day after Thanksgiving. Winter Fest OC, a PSQ Production hosted at the OC Fair & Event Center, runs Nov. 27 through Jan. 3, 2027, in Lot A. It has ice skating, ice tubing, falling snow, more than 30 carnival rides and attractions, live entertainment, and a tree-lighting ceremony every night. Ticket prices vary and parking is $15.

Winter Fest's hours change through the season, so check them against your other plans:

1. Nov. 27 to 29: Friday 5 to 10 p.m., Saturday 4 to 11 p.m., Sunday 4 to 10 p.m.
2. Dec. 3 to 5: Thursday 5 to 10 p.m., Friday 4 to 11 p.m., Saturday 4 to 10 p.m.
3. Dec. 10 to 13: Thursday and Friday 5 to 10 p.m., Saturday 4 to 11 p.m., Sunday 4 to 10 p.m.
4. Dec. 17 to Jan. 3: weekdays 5 to 10 p.m., Saturday 4 to 11 p.m., Sunday 4 to 10 p.m., with New Year's Eve running 5 p.m. to 12:30 a.m.

The published schedule skips Monday, Dec. 14 through Wednesday, Dec. 16. Those are three of Snoopy House's eight nights and the first three days of contest voting. Those evenings belong to the City Hall lawn. On the Friday of Snoopy House's opening weekend and on its closing Friday, Winter Fest is also open from 5 to 10 p.m. If your family wants both on Dec. 18, Snoopy House's 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. window and the winners announcement come first.

Snoopy House shows how far one decorated yard can carry. If your house or front door makes this year's ballot, we would love to see it before Dec. 18. Our team at The Gipe Group is always glad to talk about the homes behind Costa Mesa's best displays, any time of year.