Atwater Village's Tree Lighting Still Has Its Cedar. The Block Around It Keeps Changing.

In 2017, the Atwater Village Tree Lighting came close to ending. Wells Fargo unexpectedly pulled the event from its long-established location, according to the organizers' own account, and for a moment the neighborhood's December tradition had no place to go. Claudio Blotta, who had recently opened All'Acqua on Glendale Boulevard, offered his restaurant as the event's new home. Neighbors and volunteers rallied around that offer, and the festival went on.

Nine years later, the cedar on the Glendale Boulevard and Perlita Avenue median is still there. The former bank building is getting new tenants. The building that held the Beastie Boys' studio sold in September. Several other storefronts within a short walk of the tree have new tenants planned. On Sunday, Dec. 6, the 35th Annual Tree Lighting Festival will light a tree that has stayed put while nearly everything around it has changed.

The Tradition Has Always Depended on Whoever Hosts It

The tree lighting dates to 1992, and from the start it has needed a host on the block. Its current producer, the nonprofit Atwater Village Events, grew directly out of the 2017 scare. Founders Shelli-Anne Couch and Courtney Morris had been helping with the event since 2015, when both served on the Atwater Village Neighborhood Council. They write that watching neighbors, businesses and volunteers protect the event became "the spark for what Atwater Village Events is today."

They say the festival has "grown exponentially" since COVID, outgrowing the informal planning that once kept it going, and now draws more than 3,500 people a year. That growth is why they formalized the group as a nonprofit. The group also runs Local Business Outreach events through the year. One of them was Trick or Treat on the BOOlevard on Oct. 30, when trick-or-treaters filled Glendale Boulevard from 4 to 6 p.m.

That pattern explains the festival. It is a holiday party, and it is also a business-district event. Its location, its sponsors and its holiday market all come from the storefronts around the median, so when those storefronts change hands, the festival's surroundings change too.

What Sits Around the Cedar This Season

Here is the stretch of Glendale Boulevard and Larga Avenue near the tree as of this week, based on recent reporting:

All'Acqua is the one business on this list tied directly to the festival's survival. It is also the one with the longest unbroken role in the event's recent history.

The Old Bank Building Is Becoming a Restaurant Corner

The building that once housed the festival's former host is now a small retail and dining project called The Local at 3250 Glendale Blvd. The Eastsider reported that Philz Coffee, the sushi bar Yunomi Handroll and the Filipino restaurant Nova's Grill were set to move into the renovated bank. It later added that Nova's general manager said a lease had been signed.

What Now Los Angeles described the project based on its listing details. It has outdoor patio seating on two sides and 41 on-site parking spaces, plus about 40 more in a nearby public lot. It sits on a signalized corner of a street that carries more than 44,000 cars a day. The same report placed it "in the middle of Atwater's restaurant row," within walking distance of The Attic, Black Elephant Coffee, Goodies, Proof Bakery and Wanderlust Creamery, and "just steps from the popular weekly farmers market."

On an ordinary day, more than 44,000 cars pass this stretch of Glendale Boulevard. On one Sunday afternoon in December, the organizers count more than 3,500 people on foot around a single tree. The corner that once couldn't keep the festival is being rebuilt around patios and walk-in dining, the kind of street life the festival brings to the block for an afternoon.

Next Door, the Beastie Boys' Building Gets a Second Act

A few doors down, the building at 3220 Glendale Blvd changed hands this fall. The Eastsider reported that Engine Real Estate bought it in September for $10 million. The new owner extended the lease of the building's best-known tenant, G-Son Studios.

The Beastie Boys set up G-Son as a second-floor studio in 1991 and recorded their third album in the building. That makes the studio a year older than the tree lighting. According to the same report, G-Son is expected to reopen in early 2027 as a live entertainment venue, recording studio and community space. Jill's Paints at 3534 Larga Ave. is also staying.

Two new names are joining them:

• Maison Atwater, a French-American brasserie expected to open next spring on the corner formerly occupied by Blu Jam, the breakfast-and-lunch cafe that closed after five years
• Forme Lagree Studio, a fitness studio at 3222 Glendale Blvd., in the space that once held the Dresscue consignment and thrift shop

Across the boulevard, What Now Los Angeles reported on Oct. 21 that Framebridge is preparing a custom-framing store at 3189 Glendale Blvd. Between the bank building, the studio building and the corner storefronts, most of the blocks within sight of the cedar have a new owner or tenant arriving between this fall and next spring.

How Dec. 6 Lines Up for the Neighborhood

The festival falls on a Sunday, which is also farmers market day. The Atwater Village Farmers' Market runs Sundays from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. in Public Parking Lot #646 at 3528 Larga Ave. That puts the morning market and the afternoon lighting a short walk apart on the same day:

1. 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Farmers market on Larga Avenue, next to Jill's Paints.
2. 3 p.m. The 35th Annual Tree Lighting Festival opens at the Glendale and Perlita median. It is free, and the organizers' listing describes it as a family festival with an 80-foot tree, Santa Claus, neighbors and local businesses.
3. 6 p.m. The festival wraps up, with the restaurants along Glendale Boulevard close by for dinner.

The 2026 hours start an hour earlier than last year's. The 34th festival ran from 4 to 7 p.m. on Dec. 7, 2025. Last year's program included youth performances, a holiday market, three community competitions, a free Santa photo booth and Santa's arrival on an LAFD fire truck. The Atwater Village Neighborhood Council planned a Community Garland Activity, with the finished garland to be displayed later at the Atwater Village Library. Reach for the Barres brought four of its dance companies to the stage and set up a booth where children could write letters to Santa.

The year before, The Eastsider's preview of the 33rd festival listed Mariachi Tierra Mia, groups from Marshall High School and the Atwater Avenue Elementary Choir, along with a holiday market and a dance party in the street. The details change from year to year, but the setting doesn't: the same Deodar Cedar on the same median, with the local businesses along Glendale Boulevard keeping the event free.

This year, the people at the lighting will stand between a former bank that has tenants lined up, a 1991 recording studio getting ready to reopen as a venue, and All'Acqua at 3280 Glendale Blvd, the restaurant that gave the festival a home in 2017.

If you own a home near Glendale Boulevard and want to know how the changes on this block show up in your property's value, the team at Trevino Properties is glad to walk through it with you, one street at a time. Get a Free Home Valuation, and we'll share what we're seeing around Atwater Village this season.