Post-holiday community bonfires

Christmas tree bonfire, Eastbluff Dr., Newport Beach, 1970.

From the 1950s into the early 1970s, many Orange County communities held large municipal bonfires of Christmas trees in early January. Generally, these events were sponsored by community organizations like the local Jaycees or Women's Club. In many cases, the city or waste management company would help by collecting discarded trees from the curbs in front of homes and bringing them to a central point like a park for the fire.

Local communities holding such events included Santa Ana, La Habra, Tustin, Brea, Stanton, Westminster, and Leisure World (now Laguna Woods). Sometimes as many as 6,000 trees were burned together. By 1970, Newport Beach was holding large bonfires at five locations throughout town.

The "Operation Safe Flame" bonfire, Tustin, January 4, 1964.

The post-holiday bonfire tradition was an old one that was popular in parts of the Eastern U.S. and was often held on the Twelfth Night of Christmas, accompanied by community caroling. The idea was to prevent smaller unregulated bonfires throughout town that might pose public safety hazards. (It was not uncommon for groups of neighborhood kids to drag bunches of old Christmas trees to a vacant lot and set them ablaze.) The official community bonfires were also done in the hopes of deterring house fires caused by dried out old trees being kept too long.

Traditional or not, the AQMD would never let 'em get away with this now.