What does a seven-year-old need to bring to Historic Downtown Upland on the evening of December 3? A table's worth of things they made, a decorated booth and some change for cash sales.
That is the setup for Santa's Workshop, which runs during the City of Upland's Tree Lighting Celebration from 5 to 8 p.m. on Thursday, December 3. Only children may sell there, and that tells you how Upland's December is put together. Most of the city's dates between mid-November and mid-December ask someone in the community to register, apply or bring something to take part. The kids' market is just the clearest case.
A market where every seller is under 13
Upland Recreation & Community Services runs the Workshop. Its registration page lists the location as the gazebo and opens it to children at least 5 and younger than 13. The rules are short and specific:
- Sellers must pre-register. Walk-up booths are not allowed.
- Each space gets two 6-foot by 2.5-foot tables.
- The child seller has to stay for the whole event.
- Food, drinks and baked goods may not be sold.
- Families are asked to decorate their space and bring change for cash sales.
- Everything has to be packed up and taken home at the end of the night.
The registration page states the last rule this way:
"Elf-made creations only. All items must be handcrafted and created by children."
With the no-baked-goods rule, that leaves out the two easiest options for a kid's table: cookies, or crafts a parent mostly made. What remains is ornaments, drawings, beadwork, cards and similar items a child can make start to finish. Your kid's table will be next to other kids' tables, and every one of them follows the same rule.
There is also a contest this year. Recreation & Community Services staff will walk the booths to pick a Best Dressed Booth, and the theme is gingerbread. So families are judged on both the crafts and the booth decorations.
Registration closes two days before the event
Registration opened September 30 and closes Tuesday, December 1, at 11:59 p.m. The city's event page lists the fee as $10 per child. The online portal charges $10.30 because it adds a processing fee.
The deadline matters less than the number of spaces. When the portal was checked in late October, it showed 15 openings left. That count drops with every sign-up, so a family still deciding in late November may find the market full before December 1.
For a family that signs up, the steps go roughly in this order:
- Register the child through the city portal before spaces run out.
- Choose crafts that fit the handmade rule and contain no food.
- Plan booth decorations around the gingerbread theme for the Best Dressed Booth contest.
- Get small bills and coins for change.
- Arrive for check-in at 4 p.m. The city says families will not be allowed to check in or set up any earlier.
That leaves one hour between check-in and the 5 p.m. start to set up two tables. Families who sketch out the table layout at home will have the easiest setup.
The parade works the same way on a bigger scale
The 49th Annual Hometown Holiday Parade is Saturday, December 12. Activities run from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m., and the parade steps off at 10 a.m. Like the Workshop, it fills with people who signed up ahead of time. Applications to be in the parade were due on or before October 23. According to the City Manager's Notable News report for the week ending October 8, the city had 18 applications at that point. The final lineup will be bigger than that, but the deadline has passed, so groups that missed it can only watch this year.
The route is easy to watch from almost anywhere along it. According to the city's parade page, the parade starts on 2nd Avenue at D Street, heads south on 2nd Avenue to A Street, then turns around and comes back north on 2nd Avenue to finish at D Street. Because it uses the same blocks in both directions, a spot anywhere on 2nd Avenue between A and D Streets sees the parade pass twice, once going each way.
Santa comes last as the grand finale. The city also lists food vendors and a Holiday Boutique of vendors selling holiday-themed goods, and it encourages visitors to shop in Downtown Upland's stores. For questions, the city points people to Upland Recreation & Community Services at (909) 931-4280.
The rest of the calendar also needs a sign-up or a plan
The city's special events page fills in the weeks around those two downtown dates. Several events are things you register for, not things you just attend.
Friday, November 13: Fall Puzzle Palooza. Teams compete from 7 to 9 p.m. at Magnolia Recreation Center, 651 W. 15th Street. Participants must be 5 or older, and entry is $25 per team. It is a good way to get your team together before the holiday weeks fill up.
Thursday, November 26: 19th Annual Turkey Trot 5K & 1K Kid's Dash. The race is at San Antonio Park, 2410 Mountain Lane. The 1K starts at 7:30 a.m. and the 5K at 8 a.m. As of the week ending October 8, 372 people had registered, which was seven weeks before Thanksgiving. That early number gives a sense of how many people will be at the park on Thanksgiving morning.
Thursday, December 3: Tree Lighting Celebration and Santa's Workshop. The event runs from 5 to 8 p.m. in Historic Downtown Upland, with kid sellers at the gazebo.
Saturday, December 5: Breakfast With Santa and Santa Paws. Breakfast With Santa runs from 8 to 10:30 a.m. at Magnolia Recreation Center. City staff met with Upland Foothill Kiwanis to schedule it, so a local service club is part of the morning. Later that day, Santa Paws runs from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Baldy View Dog Park. Families can fit both into one Saturday morning: breakfast first, then the dog park.
Saturday, December 12: 49th Annual Hometown Holiday Parade. The event runs from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m., with the parade at 10 a.m. on the 2nd Avenue loop.
Put together, the calendar has a busy middle. December 3, 5 and 12 fall within ten days, and two of those events take place on the same few blocks of 2nd Avenue.
Weekly events on 2nd Avenue between the big dates
Downtown also has weekly events that keep running between the holiday dates. According to the Historic Downtown Upland events page, the free Upland Farmers Market & Craft Faire runs every Saturday. For a child getting ready for December 3, a Saturday at the Craft Faire is a chance to see how adult crafters set up and price their tables before setting up their own.
On Wednesdays, the Inland Valley Daily Bulletin reported that Rescue Brewing Co. has line dancing every week from 6 to 9 p.m., with Rancho Cucamonga-based country DJ Dave Freeman, known as DJ Buckin' Dave, playing the music. The brewery is at 167 N. 2nd Ave. A recent event listing for its Western Wednesday night included food specials such as a BBQ bacon burger, wings and fried pickles. Online listings disagree on the night's age policy, so families should call the brewery before bringing kids.
The parade page lists Upland Recreation & Community Services at 201 N. 2nd Avenue, the same street as the Workshop booths and the parade route. If your child plans to sell on December 3, the deadline that matters is 11:59 p.m. on December 1, and the open spots may run out before then.
If your family is making ornaments for the gingerbread contest and also wondering what the next few years in Upland might look like, Michael and Lisa Mucino at Camden McKay Realty are glad to talk it over in English or Spanish. Schedule a free neighborhood consultation, or sign up for local market updates to get dates like these along with the numbers we track.
