Elaborately decorated houses and grand Christmas trees are definitely staples of the holiday season, but there’s something to be said for the understated simplicity of the luminaria.
A luminaria, or farolito “” the Spanish word for “little lantern” “” is a brown paper bag weighed down with sand and illuminated from within by a lit candle during the holiday season. Luminarias originated in New Mexico and were traditionally displayed on Christmas eve to guide the spirit of baby Christ to one’s home and heart.
On Plumosa Drive in Loma Portal, this tradition has been going on for years and is known as the Plumosa Park Festival of Lights.
Depending on whom you ask, the tradition began 33 or 50 years ago.
Bill Settles, a Plumosa Drive resident, assures that the tradition has hit the half-century mark. Settles said his mother, Caryl Settles, began the festival in 1956 after reading an article in Sunset Magazine.
Caryl gathered some of the neighborhood kids, including her son Bill, who was 8 years old at the time, and Roger Showley, now a writer for the Union-Tribune.
“She drove us down to Ocean Beach and we filled up a couple pails of sand,” Settles said.
He explained that the luminarias were lined along the sidewalk of the park and up the walkway of each house approximately 2 feet apart.
“It was a big job for a little kid,” Settles said. “It was a Norman Rockwell sort of thing. We thought it was really cool, but really when we were putting them all out no one knew how nice it would look.”
After the first year, residents were responsible for setting up their own luminaria. And according to Settles, not a year has passed that they were not present on Plumosa Drive.
Dell Schroeder, another Plumosa Drive resident, recalls the power crisis of 1973 as the inception of the official Plumosa Park Festival of Lights, or at least the year that it became a community event.
“Nobody was supposed to put up lights,” Schroeder said. “[The luminarias] were the only thing that made Christmas fun that year because otherwise we were all in darkness.”
The display has since expanded to all flower-named streets, including Hyacinth, Amaryllis, Azalea, Narcissus, Jonquil, Poinsettia and Lotus, as well as portions of Elliott.
While the luminarias started out as simple paper bags, Schroeder said occasionally residents personalize them with wrapping paper or cutout designs.
“It was like looking at little stain glass windows,” Schroeder said of one truly unique display.
The times have also changed. While neighborhood children lined the streets with luminarias for free in the tradition’s early years, they now charge $5 for their services.
“I think that is too cute for words,” Schroeder said.
Despite being located in a residential area, Schroeder said the attraction does draw a crowd.
“Lots of folks come and walk around here now before they go to church or after they’ve been to the early Christmas eve services,” she said. “It’s real social.”
The event also honors Caryl Settles’ memory in Loma Portal and Plumosa Park, where she was known as “the candy lady.”
“It’s a combination of Christmas spirit and memories of my mother,” Bill Settles said. “It gives me a warm glow every time I see the bags going out. I know the first people who ever did it.”
The Plumosa Park Festival of Lights runs from 6 p.m. until 9 p.m. on Christmas eve and is now organized by the neighborhood watch.