If not, all will be in place for a tree lighting in 2025, community leaders say.

The La Jolla Recreation Center’s large tree will return to being lit for the holiday season – but it remains to be seen whether it will be in 2024 or 2025.

The tree has been decorated and lit previously, but has been dark in recent years for various reasons.

This year, a collaboration among the La Jolla Sunrise Rotary, GDC Construction and the city of San Diego has brought a Rec Center Holiday Tree new light, and community members are working to accelerate efforts in hopes decorations can start right after Thanksgiving.

Sunrise Rotary has already collected $17,000 in donations for the decorations and equipment, Rotarian Steve Cross said at the Nov 20 meeting of the La Jolla Community Recreation Group, which oversees the Rec Center.

Sunrise Rotary and Rec Center staff are also working to corral decorations stored from previous years, with Rotarians planning to purchase all new lights. 

GDC will supply the labor and the cherry picker lift, needed to get the lights and decorations to the top of the tree, Cross said.

Rotary has applied for right-of-entry permits from the city, Cross said, with permits needed for both Rotary and GDC. The hope is the city will approve the permits within a week to allow for 2024 decoration. 

If not, everything will be in place for a 2025 installation, Cross said, with funding and plans in place to maintain the tradition for a few years.

If permits are approved quickly, Rotarians would first work to ensure the tree is shaped and dead or old branches removed.

Cross hopes this will be done immediately after Thanksgiving, Thursday, Nov 28, he said.

The tree could be lit as early as Dec 2 or 3.

Decorations will follow an ocean theme, with blue- and teal-colored ornaments and seahorses; other blue ornaments will be solar-powered lights along with LED light strings.

CRG members discussed the possibility, this year or in the future, to use LED lights that can change color and stay up all year for various purposes.

“This is fantastic,” outgoing CRG Chair Alan Dulgeroff said, ahead of a unanimous CRG vote to support the project moving forward.

“Hopefully we get it launched and we get a great outcome this year,” Dulgeroff said. “But regardless, our goal is to make this happen on an ongoing basis.”

Donations to the tree lighting project can still be made by contacting the La Jolla Sunrise Rotary.

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