DuPlessis Family Christmas Display, 8222 Burnlake Drive, in Burnaby | nightly from 4:30pm til midnight, through until January 10th, 2021

In the 1980s with my two children, Jude and Megan, we’d begin our holiday lights tour in Burnaby, and wend our way back to Vancouver hitting all the spots you’ll find listed on the holiday light display tour, and before heading into Stanley Park for Bright Nights and a ride on the Christmas train, we’d stop in at the (now closed) White Spot on Georgia Street — after which we would continue our tour, alighting at each stop to admire the light display, the children placing monies into the various donation boxes along the way.

During our annual holiday lights tour, in most instances we would forego paid displays — such as the annual Van Dusen Festival of Lights (currently postponed), to which we would dedicate a whole night out at some point during the holiday season — and stick to home-style family light displays.

By the time Megan hit 9 years of age, being the decided personality she is (read: Megan must always get her way … everyone who knows her accepts that as a fact of life), Megan decided that while our annual Christmas Lights Tour would begin in Burnaby, and after completing our tour of Dundarave, West and North Vancouver, and Trinity Street, we would next head out to Coquitlam, and then out to Surrey — which meant that the holiday lights tour wouldn’t end until somewhere around 3 a.m. Then it was home.

Three of the city’s most popular seasonal events — the VanDusen Botanical Garden’s Festival of Lights, the Capilano Suspension Bridge Park’s Canyon Lights, and Stanley Park’s Bright Nights, and the Christmas Train — have all been cancelled this COVID year.

For the purposes of this year’s Holiday Lights Tour column, we are going to limit ourselves to writing about holiday light displays and attractions in Vancouver, and West and North Vancouver — offering you the opportunity to enjoy a socially safe distanced tour that is filled with much light, and even more joy — while linking to posts made by other media that go farther afield. In the main, in 2020, we have relied on the good folks at News1130, and their holiday lights tour guide — although, we organized our tour in a logical manner as if your are driving in a vehicle, and making your way around the Metro Vancouver region.

Now onto the 2020 Holiday Lights Tour …

VanRamblings’ 2020 Holiday Lights Tour column will focus on Vancouver, and West and North Vancouver. We’ll publish links to columns published by others in the media who go farther afield, into Burnaby, Coquitlam, Pitt Meadows, Maple Ridge, Surrey, North Delta, and Richmond. No one says that the Holiday Season Lights Tour must be a single-night event — if you were of a mind to, you could do a two, three or four night holiday lights tour, at a pace that is comfortable for you and your family.

We’re going to begin our Holiday Lights Tour on Vancouver’s east side.

3288 East 27th Avenue

Rupert Street and Price Street
16th and Waneta Place

Kaslo Court and Kaslo Terrace, 2765 Co-operative Way, just off the Grandview Highway, nearby the Italian Cultural Centre
Lakewood and East 5th Avenue

Gravely Street and Salsbury Drive
Grant Street and Salsbury Drive
Grant Street and Semlin Drive
Victoria Drive and East 1st Avenue
Victoria Drive and East 4th Avenue

Victoria Drive and East 7th Avenue

Victoria Street and East 8th Avenue
Commercial Drive and 6th Avenue

12th Avenue and Semlin Drive

Ontario and East 17th Avenue
Quebec and East 17th
Quebec and East 18th
Ontario and West 14th
Manitoba and West 14th

Columbia and West 13th
Columbia and West 15th

Manitoba and West 11th
And further afield, close to the Fraser River, in the southeastern part of the city, in the Marpole neighbourhood, there’s 2597 East Kent Avenue North.

Now, we have some good news: the Canuck Place Children’s Hospice, celebrating its 25th anniversary, is open to the public, so that’s definitely on the 2020 Holiday Lights Tour. Canuck Place is located at 1690 Matthews, which is about three blocks south of 16th Avenue and Granville — just turn right onto Matthews, drive a couple of blocks, and voilà, the spectacular, not-to-be-missed Canuck Place Children’s Hospice Christmas Lights Display!

Canuck Place Children’s Hospice Christmas Lights Display, 1690 Matthews Avenue.

After walking around Canuck Place we’ll stay on Vancouver’s west side, driving into the Arbutus Ridge area …

King Edward and Valley Drive, near Arbutus Village

Next, it’s to VanRamblings’ home neighbourhood …

West 12th Avenue and Blenheim Street, NE corner

West 12th Avenue and Blenheim Street, NW corner

On Waterloo Street, east side of the street, near West 12th Avenue

Near West 11th Avenue on Waterloo Street, in Kitsilano.

Next, it’s a drive down to Jericho Beach, to see the Royal Vancouver Yacht Club all lit up.

And then for a walk down Point Grey Road, also all lit up.

The photo below, Chip Wilson’s home, along Point Grey Road.

Both of the photos directly above were taken by photographer Elvira Lount, who tells us there are great many more holiday lit homes along Point Grey Road

And now doubling back a bit to return to Waterloo Street, at 5th Avenue …

West 5th Avenue & Waterloo Street, across the street from McBride Park

West 5th Avenue and Balaclava

West 5th Avenue at Stephens Street, in the heart of Kitsilano. Photo credit: Elvira Lount.

West 5th Avenue and Stephens

Next, on the second leg of the 2020 Holiday Lights Tour (it breaks down into four parts), we drive down the hill to enjoy Granville Island’s Festive Lights Display, with a drive around the Island.

After Granville Island’s Festive Lights Display, we’ll drive over the Burrard Street bridge, and head over to …

Bute and Nelson (and you’ll want to see St. Paul’s holiday lights, too)

Hotels: In the EVO car we’ll be renting this year, as we have in past years (we can’t wait until they start adding electric vehicles to their low emission fleet), we’ll park — for free, cuz that’s the deal EVO has cut with the city — somewhere near Sutton Place, kitty corner to the Scotiabank Cinema at Burrard and Smithe, and embark on our tour of the downtown hotels.

The Sutton Place Hotel (formerly Le Meridien), on Burrard Street

In years past, back in the nineties, when we were an arts and entertainment editor for various newspapers and magazines, we discovered that the downtown hotels go out of their way to put up first-class holiday displays in their lobbies … so, as we’ve done for the past quarter century, we’ll start off at the Sutton Place Hotel on Burrard, and then saunter down to the Hyatt Regency, at Burrard and Georgia where there’ll be trees but unfortunately, due to COVID-19 restrictions there’ll be no gingerbread displays made by students at public and private schools, and post secondary institutions, as in years past.

Gingerbread Lane at the Hyatt will return during the holiday season, in 2021

Next, it’s over to the Hotel Vancouver, and then up the street to the Rosewood Hotel Georgia, and then back to our EVO car.

We’ll then drive to the Pan Pacific / Fairmont Waterfront Hotel. As much as we love wandering through both those hotels, the real rationale in parking near those hotels comes with 2 engaging features: the walkway along the west side of Canada Place, and the annual Woodwards windows displays — which, sad to say, is not happening this year due to COVID-19 restrictions.

After we’ve enjoyed the nippy air along the Canada Place walkway, we’ll wander over to the Pan Pacific and Fairmont Waterfront, before heading out again.

Ordinarily, we’d drive next to Poole Plaza for the Christmas Market, but it’s been postponed to 2021, so instead we’ll drive next to English Bay to see the lights city staff place on the trees along Pacific Avenue, after which we’ll drive along Denman Street towards Stanley Park, for a drive around the park. As well, each year we’d stop off at the Vancouver Fire Department’s Burn Fund Bright Nights Display (with a $10 bill ready to put into the pot) — but that’s not happening in 2020 due to COVID-19.

All and all, Bright Nights is very popular, and just jam-packed, so it seems that it’s fitting that it’s closed in 2020 … so a leisurely drive around Stanley Park (stopping for awhile at Brockton Point) it’ll be, moving onto the roadway just this side of Prospect Point to get onto the exit leading to the Lions Gate Bridge, after which we’ll take the enjoyable drive out to Horseshoe Bay, where we can see the lights of the Metro Vancouver region. In years past, at Megan’s insistence, we’d also enjoy the holiday light displays in the British Properties (little wonder, I sometimes think to myself, that Megan has turned into such a bougie woman, mother & wife at 43 years of age).

On the way back from Horseshoe Bay, we’ll take the lower road, to enjoy the closeness to the water. VanRamblings employs the royal “we”, but in fact for the first time in 50 years, “we” may consist solely of Raymond Neil Tomlin, given the exigencies of the COVID-19 pandemic, and our ever smaller bubble — which, sad to say, does not include my children.

Alas.

Next up, it’s the Dundarave Festival of Lights, which as the good folks at The Daily Hive point out “offers BC’s biggest outdoor display of Christmas trees.” By this time, we’ll be famished, so it’ll be time for a bite to eat. Last year, on our Christmas Eve lights tour, a friend and I stopped off at the Park Royal Cactus Club Cafe, where we shared mini burgers, yam fries, with me enjoying a cup of clam chowder, and my friend a small Caesar salad.

By now, it’ll be about 8:30pm (we began our holiday lights tour trek just before 2:30pm, from our west side Kitsilano home), and we’re patting ourselves on the back for having completed legs two and three of our annual, of late, spectacular and revivifying four leg holiday lights tour.

Reporter Elisia Sleeber at the North Shore News has compiled a definitive of the 2020 holiday light displays in North Vancouver.

1279 Keith Road
1382 Wellington Drive, Lynn Valley
1512 Ross Road
423 East 10th Street
2308 Hoskins Road
3698 Sparrow Lane
2235 Badger Road

You can create your own multi-address route guide by clicking on this video to discover how, which is what we did with the addresses directly above.

The Trinity Street Light Festival and competition in East Vancouver stretches six blocks across the Hastings-Sunrise enclave of Burrardview, the often dazzling light displays strung up by neighbours has been a glowing holiday fixture since 2000. A must-not miss.

Now, it’s over the Ironworkers Memorial Bridge to Trinity Street, on Vancouver’s east side, near the waterfront — depending on how tuckered we are, we may walk the entire length, rather than drive along the street.

There are many, many more light displays across Vancouver, and throughout Burnaby, New Westminster, the Tri-Cities, Surrey, North Delta and Richmond, all of which material may be found in the links below.

VanRamblings will update the 2020 Christmas Lights Tour a couple or three times a week through month’s end, as we become aware of more family Christmas light displays across Vancouver and the North Shore.

News1130 | 2020 Christmas Lights and Virtual Events Spotter.
Vancouver Sun | Vancouver Sun’s annual holiday lights map
To Do Canada | Christmas Lights & Holiday Displays In & Around Vancouver

Tonight at sundown, the Jewish holiday of Hanukkah (also spelled Chanukah), an eight-day winter “festival of lights,” begins, and continues through Friday, December 18th. The first candle is lit on the menorah on this date. All the years my children were growing up they enjoyed both Chanukah (a new “present” every night!), and dancing at the Jewish Cultural Centre (and all the Jewish delicacies that were available), followed by Christmas, with even more presents and more food!

The central feature of the observance of Hanukkah is the nightly lighting of the menorah, an eight-branched candelabra with a place for a ninth candle, the shammes, used to light the others. One candle is lit on the first night of Hanukkah, an additional candle is lit on each successive night, until, on the eighth night, the menorah is fully illuminated.

Hanukkah, as we write above, is called the Feast of Lights or Festival of Lights due to the importance of the candle-lighting.

VanRamblings’ best to all of our readers during this most festive season. May you survive, and perhaps even thrive, over the course of this most unusual pandemic holiday season, and find much love in your life.