Will Cambria Christmas Market win ‘Great Christmas Light Fight?’ Here’s how to watch
The millions of holiday lights that illuminate the grounds of the Cambria Pines Lodge each year will light up an upcoming episode of ABC’s “The Great Christmas Light Fight.”
The show’s seventh season launches at Monday, Dec. 2, with back-to-back episodes.
“The Great Christmas Light Fight” focuses on families with extravagant Christmas displays.
However, the Cambria Christmas Market will vie for top honors, a trophy and a $50,000 prize in the show’s “heavyweights” division, which showcases large-scale “light shows so massive they extend well beyond household frames,” an ABC news release said.
In an episode airing Dec. 9, the market will compete against winter wonderlands in Palm Springs, Houston and Duluth, Minnesota, the release said.
Two celebrity judges — Carter Oosterhouse of “Trading Spaces” fame and Taniya Nayak, an interior designer who rose to prominence on “Restaurant Impossible” — will determine which display has the most “over-the-top holiday cheer,” the release said.
“The Great Christmas Light Fight” airs locally on ABC affiliate KEYT-TV.
Cambria Christmas Market
For the past seven years, the Cambria Christmas Market has been an ever-expanding holiday feature at the Lodge.
Among the additions to this eighth edition is a 14-by-25-foot advent calendar with moving parts, lights and holiday music, which was designed, created and installed by Cal Poly students majoring in mechanical engineering. The display will be near the Santa House.
Based on traditional European Christmas markets, the Cambria Christmas Market features dozens of other displays as well as live music, train rides, food, drinks and 30 vendor booths.
One trademark display is the tunnel of lights, an arched rainbow of Christmas bulbs through which attendees walk. It may well be the most frequently photographed feature of the event.
Cambria’s market is the brainchild of Dirk Winter, owner of the Lodge and Moonstone Properties.
Winter, his family and his staff “are so excited and honored” to be participating in “The Great Christmas Light Fight,” according to Mike Arnold, market coordinator. “Our staff puts so much time and effort into our display, and we are all really passionate about spreading the Christmas spirit.”
Parking and tickets
The Cambria Christmas Market starts on Friday.
After then, the market will be open from 5 to 9 p.m. most nights until Dec. 23. (It’s closed Dec. 2 and 9.) The event stretches to include Cambria Nursery and Florist, across Burton Drive from the Lodge, at the intersection with Eton Road.
Attendees can park for the event at Coast Union High School, 2950 Santa Rosa Creek Road in Cambria.
Overflow parking is at the site of the former Brambles restaurant on Burton Drive and in public parking lots in West and East Village, as needed. The shuttle will pick people up at Burton Drive and Center Street in East Village, and Main and Arlington streets in West Village.
The last shuttle pick-ups will be at 8 p.m. and admission to the event closes at 8:15 p.m. each evening. The last shuttle leaves the event at 9:15 p.m.
This year, there will also be a shuttle to the market from select hotels on Moonstone Beach, and another from 4 to 5 p.m. from Moonstone Beach to West Village. Another shuttle will take people from some Paso Robles hotels to the market, then back again.
Children 10 years and younger are admitted into the market for free, as long as they’re accompanied by a supervising adult with a ticket. Event admission prices vary per night, ranging from $10 to $25 per person.
Tickets are sold online in advance.
With an attendance maximum each evening, some nights will sell out. On those evenings, at-the-door tickets, which cost an additional $10, will not be available.
For details, go to cambriachristmasmarket.com.
Tune in
“The Great Christmas Light Fight” debuts at 8 p.m. on Monday, Dec. 2, on ABC.
