OC holiday tip: Sawdust Art Festival’s Winter Fantasy is magical

• December 13, 2024

There’s a nip of cold in the canyon air.

Elfin kids play in Town Square’s gingerbread house while their parents line up to see Santa at the Sawdust Art Festival’s Winter Fantasy in Laguna Beach. There’s a marionette show, bubble snow, musicians on three stages, free art classes, twinkling lights and, of course, more than 180 local artists selling original jewelry, paintings, games, ornaments, glass creations.

If you can’t find the right gift for the hard-to-please person on your list here, well, you’ll surely find one for yourself.

The Sawdust started in the ‘60s as a “small town/gypsy camp of artists” and has become an institution in its own right.

Added bonus: The tinkling waterfall beneath the towering eucalyptus trees gives one a sense of one’s place in the universe. Visit 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays through Dec. 22. It’s magical after dark.

Where to go: 935 Laguna Canyon Rd., Laguna Beach, or sawdustartfestival.org/winter/ for information and tickets.

​ Orange County Register 

OC holiday tip: Crystal Cove cottages, tree are beachfront delights

• December 13, 2024

Crystal Cove State Park, especially the historic 1930-1940-era cottages and the beach Christmas tree, is among my favorite places to relax and enjoy the happiness and cozy feeling of the Christmas season.

Even if the weather is a bit nippy, there’s never a bad day at the beach.

Unlike the over-indulged ornamented trees of the local malls, the Christmas tree is a bit more spare. The decorations appear handmade and simple and are reused each year. The Christmas tree has been decorated there for almost 30 years.

But, for me, the more special time is after that. When the tree and other decorations, like a herd of reindeer carved from wood logs, are already set up.

Being there early in the morning at dawn break, with just the sounds and smell of the breaking surf and the gulls squawking and flying overhead, is truly magical.

Mid-day and dinner times are fun, too, and you can always grab a snack, meal, and beverage at the Beachcomber Cafe. In the evening, there’s never a bad day to watch the often incredible-colored orangy-red sunsets, sometimes made even more dramatic by a veil of marine layer.

New this year, the Visitor Center has become a holiday house. So, while learning about the cottages, you can also grab a nostalgic gift or two.

Where to go: Park at the Los Trancos lot at Los Trancos and Pacific Coast Highway and either walk or take the shuttle down to Crystal Cove.

​ Orange County Register 

OC holiday tip: Jingle Bar in Laguna Beach has spirits aplenty

• December 13, 2024

Wrapping paper covers the walls. Twinkling lights and glittering garland zigzag the ceiling. Mariah Carey and Bing Crosby croon carols from crackling speakers. Festive drinks boast punny names and red and green sprinkles.

All the ingredients needed for a holiday cocktail bar.

For me, the holidays and fellowship go hand-in-hand. And a holiday-themed cocktail bar — like the Jingle Bar at Laguna Beach’s rooftop Skyloft on a recent Friday evening — serves as a festive setting to catch up with friends, old and new.

Every Christmas season, my friends and I research the best holiday cocktail bars. Which ones have thoughtful mocktails our pregnant friend can enjoy? What about holiday trivia — or other reindeer games — to break the ice for newer additions to our group? Where can we find the most over-the-top, Santa-threw-up-here, decorations?

Then we come together. Celebrate our successes and milestones over the year. Mourn lost relationships, loved ones, dreams. Catch up.

A reminder that no matter how hectic or stressful this season can be, it’s our friendships that matter.

And hey, a few festive spirits certainly help us get into the holiday spirit as well.

Where to go: 422 S. Coast Hwy., Laguna Beach or skyloftoc.com/jingle-bar/ for information, dates and reservations.

​ Orange County Register 

OC holiday tip: Pacific City offers season’s sights, sounds

• December 13, 2024

To me, getting to soak in Christmas means heading to a shopping mall. I’m not really there to shop, though you can always do that, but it’s always the easiest way to get out and feel that the holidays are here. The energy is just special. There are people in a hurry to get their shopping done and others who are there to enjoy walking around.

While most malls will throw up decorations and change the ambient music over to the Christmas playlist, Pacific City in Huntington Beach does a little extra. Every Friday afternoon from now until Christmas day, and on Christmas Eve, they’ll have some live music performers play, accompanied by snow blown in. That’s from 4-6 p.m. on Fridays with some extra days closer to Christmas.

Santa, of course, will make appearances throughout the season and there will also be a cookie crawl and a Nutcracker ballet performance.

The live music shows are timed perfectly so you can catch them and then head over to the seating deck that faces the ocean and watch the sunset, which is around 4:45 p.m. right now.

Where to go: 21010 Pacific Coast Highway, Huntington Beach

​ Orange County Register 

Holiday spirit in Orange County? Register staff reveals favorite spots

• December 13, 2024

Everyone has a favorite spot to get in the holiday spirit, and no one is wrong.

Still, we at the Register cover Orange County – with its 34 cities and 3.2 million people – and have some ideas to share in case you’re stumped or simply looking for a new spot to check out.

We asked our local reporters, columnist and editors to share with you, our readers, the places they go to get festive. They came up with a wide range of options – everything from Santa’s Village to a bar, but lights almost always were involved – and two of our folks insisted on giving you two options.

The keys were finding things that didn’t require exclusive access or great expense, though how much you choose to spend at a couple of these spots is on you. They also needed to be available to check out moving forward, so nothing that wrapped up earlier in the month is included.

And, yes, we almost certainly missed your favorite because there are so many options in the nation’s sixth-largest county.

Here are our selections, from north to south. Click on the links if you want to learn more about each spot:

Fullerton’s Sparkle Ball Lane

Chosen by reporter Alexcia Negrete

See’s Candies ‘volume savings’ store

Chosen by local editor Heather McRea

Irvine Park’s Santa’s Village

Chosen by reporter Jonathan Horwitz

Irvine’s Jini Mini

Chosen by reporter Hanna Kang

Harbor boat parades

Chosen by reporter Laylan Connelly

South Coast Repertory’s ‘A Christmas Carol’

Chosen by columnist Teri Sforza

Winter Fest OC

Chosen by reporter Destiny Torres

Pacific City

Chosen by reporter Michael Slaten

Balboa Island

Chosen by senior editor Todd Harmonson

Bluffs at Crystal Cove State Park

Chosen by projects and topics editor Andre Mouchard

Crystal Cove cottages and tree

Chosen by reporter Erika I. Ritchie

Sawdust Art Festival’s Winter Fantasy

Chosen by columnist Teri Sforza

Jingle Bar in Laguna Beach

Chosen by politics editor Kaitlyn Schallhorn

San Clemente Pier

Chosen by reporter Laylan Connelly

​ Orange County Register 

OC holiday tip: SCR’s ‘A Christmas Carol’ delivers annually

• December 13, 2024

We don’t care how many adaptations of the Charles Dickens classic “A Christmas Carol” you’ve seen. Forget them. This one at South Coast Repertory is the only one that counts.

There’s singing. There’s dancing.

There’s transformation as the growling, snarling wretch that is Scrooge becomes a spritely, joyous evangelist of Christmas cheer, keenly aware that we’re all our brothers’ keepers, all responsible for the common good, all charged with making the world a better place.

There’s a delightful “Rocky Horror Picture Show”-esque Christmas cult around this show that runs through Dec. 24 – hint: look for the plethora of red scarves in the audience – and lines like, “I’m a baby!” and “Have you ever seen a (insert item here) so (insert color here)?” and “You must learn how to receive – ahhhhh! – the pudding!” will become integral shorthand in your family’s emotional vocabulary.

Where to go: South Coast Repertory, 655 Town Center Dr., Costa Mesa, or scr.org for tickets.

​ Orange County Register 

USC punter Eddie Czaplicki wins program’s first Ray Guy Award

• December 13, 2024

LOS ANGELES — He had felt his best, always, when the eyes of a stadium trained directly on him. And when the fourth quarter dawned in Pasadena in late November, USC’s offense stuck in the mud again, Eddie Czaplicki lined up in punt formation and fell into sheer Zen. 

He had prepared for this, since an offseason dedicated to maximizing every Newton of force in his right leg. He had trimmed his nutrition and honed his sleep. He had drilled hand work, and muscle memory, multiple times per week. And come this fourth-and-22 against UCLA, no amount of baby-blue Bruin noise could rattle Czaplicki, drawing back his leg and sending another boot end over end through Southern California night air.

USC’s Makai Lemon downed Czaplicki’s punt at the 1-yard line, the highlight of a season of field-flipping highlights.

“Just, no doubt about everything I’m doing right now,” Czaplicki said after USC’s 19-13 victory over UCLA, grinning before he said the quiet part out loud.

“By far and away,” he continued, “the best in the country right now.”

It was a sentiment USC’s program had been touting, unofficially, for weeks, Czaplicki in the midst of a punting season for the ages. And on Thursday night, his status was minted: Czaplicki was named the winner of the Ray Guy Award, given annually to the best punter in the nation.

The senior is the first Ray Guy winner in USC’s long history, no punter in the program taking home the award since Trojans football began in 1888, the silver lining of an otherwise frustrating season for the program. Czaplicki averaged 48.5 yards on 40 punts in 2024, the third-highest mark in the nation. He led the nation in percentage of punts inside the 20-yard line for players with a minimum of 30 attempts. Twenty-four of his punts have been downed inside the 20, nine have been inside the 10 and four were downed inside the 5-yard line.

More impressive than the raw stats, too, was the sheer fact that Czaplicki was quite simply one of the most clutch players in the country.

With USC battling late in the fourth quarter of a loss to Michigan, Czaplicki pinned the Wolverines inside their own 15-yard-line twice in the final nine minutes. With USC battling late in the fourth quarter of a loss to Maryland, Czaplicki pinned the Terrapins at their 3-yard line with less than seven minutes to go. And Czaplicki’s boot against UCLA set in motion a grind-it-out win, as a subsequent defensive stop led to the go-ahead, fourth-quarter touchdown.

“It’s definitely affected some of our decision-making, because it has been such a consistent weapon,” head coach Lincoln Riley said of Czaplicki’s success, in mid-November. “I mean, I don’t know how you could have a better year than what he’s having right now.”

No punter, could, really. And the trophy Thursday night solidified it, an all-time season at Czaplicki’s position etched forever into Trojans lore.

​ Orange County Register 

Newport Harbor girls soccer dominates Canyon with new style of play

• December 13, 2024

ORANGE — Newport Harbor girls soccer coach Justin Schroeder and his staff introduced a new style of play this season and the Sailors implemented that style to near perfection in a 3-0 victory over Canyon in a nonleague game Thursday at El Modena High School.

The key elements of the Sailors game plan involve more lateral passing and ball control, rather than kicking the ball deep into the opponents’ end of the field.

The Sailors (3-0-2), who are ranked No. 8 in Orange County, controlled the action for most of the game’s 80 minutes, mostly by making crisp short passes back and forth and side to side.

When the Comaches (2-1-1) tried to mount an attack, the Sailors did a great job of breaking up passes and tormenting the player with the ball.

The Sailors’ back-line players who disrupted the Comanches attack were Maddie Michel, Audrey Herron and Leah Showalter.

“I think when we are on, we can be really frustrating to other teams,” Schroeder said. “One, with obviously us keeping the ball and two, when we don’t have it, making it really tough for them to do anything. I would definitely say this, of the games we played this season, this was a more complete game.”

Newport Harbor set the tone right away, when Lily Achak kicked a soft shot over the keeper’s head and into the net, giving the Sailors a 1-0 lead one minute into the contest.

“My teammate, Bridget Taketa, she put a ball over and then I just touched it and shot it with my right foot,” Achak said. “I’m left-footed, so I didn’t really expect anything. So that was kind of cool.”

Sadie Hoch scored two goals, the first coming in the 28th minute on a penalty kick after Abbi Clap was fouled inside the box.

In the 38th minute, Mia Knox was dribbling toward the goal when a Canyon defender knocked the ball away.

But Hoch was right there to get control and then shoot the ball hard into the net, making the score 3-0.

“My mom always says to hit it hard and low, so we followed that, and it goes in,” said Hoch. She is the daughter of Tisha Venturini Hoch, a member of the U.S. National team that won a gold medal at the Atlanta Olympics in 1996 and the World Cup title in 1999 when the U.S. team defeated China on penalty kicks in the Rose Bowl.

Hoch has committed to play soccer at the University of Texas at Austin.

On Saturday, the Sailors are the host school for the Best in the West Winter Soccer Classic, which runs through Dec. 21.

​ Orange County Register