Who owns the lights wrapped around the oaks in the Sunken Gardens this December? According to the request for proposals the City of Atascadero issued on March 9, 2026, they don't belong to the City. The selected contractor designs and installs the display, maintains it, takes it down, then packs, stores and hauls it away, and "all lighting remains the property of the Contractor."
The display downtown is now a contracted civic project. Visit Atascadero calls this year's Garden Lights & Winter Nights the 3rd Annual display and names Coast Nitelites as the new lighting contractor for the Sunken Gardens. The display switches on Friday, December 4, at 6 p.m., and after that it's lit from 5 to 10 p.m. each night through January 10. The City spent the spring setting the terms for that contractor. Those terms cover more ground than the park.
The City's 2026 RFP sets out a structure meant to outlast one December. The City planned to award an initial one-year term, which could be extended by mutual agreement for two more one-year terms, three years in all. Contractors could attend a pre-bid site visit on March 24. Proposals were due at City Hall, 6500 Palma Avenue, by 5 p.m. on March 31. The project budget is up to $65,000 a year.
The RFP's background section shows how quickly this grew. The City has long lit trees in the Sunken Gardens and on City Hall itself, and over the past two years it hired a contractor to decorate the park in a traditional style that matches the building's historic design. The City will keep handling the lights on Historic City Hall, directly across Palma Avenue.
Last year's version was smaller. At the 2025 lighting, the City described City Hall, the Sunken Gardens and the surrounding area coming to life with "over 3,000 lights" as the 2nd Annual display. The first one opened on December 6, 2024, Atascadero News reported. In two years the display went from new to a formal bid with a defined budget and room to run for three seasons.
The RFP names seven large trees in the Sunken Gardens as the core of the work: four mature coast live oaks, two mature Deodar cedars and one mature magnolia. It also asks bidders to consider the central fountain, the sidewalks and paths, and the Wrestling Bacchantes statue. Then it adds two more areas and ranks all three:
The lighting plan is supposed to tie all three areas back to Historic City Hall. The City keeps final say over which areas get decorated each year. In the design section, the RFP says there is "an interest to include a 'City Christmas Tree' that is 30-50 feet tall," and it asks that the décor in every area complement City Hall "with an elegant holiday appeal."
The median and the walkway are in the RFP because downtown has changed. The El Camino Real median plaza came out of the City's 2025 project, after the first display had already opened. The 2026 bid treats it as part of the same holiday setting as the Sunken Gardens. The City's request lists all three areas. December 4 is the first night the finished plan will be on view.
Light Up the Downtown runs from 5:30 to 8 p.m. It starts in the Sunken Gardens and spreads into downtown, with the City Hall lighting, Santa, the Model-A firetruck, hay rides and hot chocolate. Last year the City started the evening with the Fine Arts Academy Honor Choir and the Atascadero Community Band. At 6 p.m. came the countdown with the Mayor and Councilmembers, and then Santa rode the Model-A Firetruck around the Sunken Gardens toward the West Mall side of City Hall. Horse-drawn hayrides were free, Lighthouse Coffee poured the hot chocolate, and the Atascadero Historical Society gave tours of City Hall.
The Atascadero Chamber of Commerce runs Holiday Sip & Shop that same night. The ticket covers a custom wine glass, wine tastings at more than 25 downtown businesses, and City Hall tours from the Historical Society. The City's 2025 announcement listed 20+ participating businesses. Prices go up as the date gets closer:
Online sales close at noon on December 3, and a limited number of tickets will be sold in person that night. Glasses and wristbands are handed out at the booth in front of City Hall starting at 5:30 p.m., and the Chamber says it can't open earlier because of ABC restrictions. ID is required, the event happens rain or shine, and tickets are non-refundable. All the details are on the Chamber's registration page.
Put together, the lighting and the tasting route make one walk. Sip & Shop sends ticket holders into downtown shops, and the RFP's second and third areas line the streets between those shops and City Hall.
The display gets its biggest crowd one week later. Winter Wonderland is Friday, December 11, from 5 to 9 p.m., and it's free. The plan calls for more than 70 tons of snow. Kiwanis of Atascadero builds the snow slide, and there will be snow pile areas for kids, bungee jumps, obstacle courses, Joe's Little Train, Santa and his elves, and more than 50 craft and food vendors along with the downtown merchants. Santa is expected to take the first sled ride down the slide. After that, he'll be at Historic City Hall until 8 p.m., using a North Pole entrance on the West Mall side. Adventist Health and Avila Traffic Safety are the exclusive sponsors.
The 2024 event gives a sense of the crowd. According to Atascadero News, Community Services & Promotions Director Terrie Banish said well over 7,000 people came, the largest turnout the city had seen since 2019. The paper reported that the Kiwanis Club of Atascadero, Atascadero Hay & Feed and Cuesta Springs Ice Company built and staffed the slide, and that the two snow piles were on Entrada. Banish linked that year's mood directly to the new display. "The addition of the new holiday light display in Sunken Gardens, 'Garden Lights & Winter Nights' made the overall look feel more festive, like a holiday paradise," she told the paper.
Banish is also the City official who signed the 2026 RFP. So the person who saw how the lights changed the feel of Winter Wonderland is the one who issued the bid that asks to extend them farther downtown.
The rest of the City's holiday calendar happens away from the Sunken Gardens, and the downtown lights stay on behind all of it.
Saturday, December 5, 5:30 to 9 p.m. The free Holiday Musical Walk Around the Lake, put on by the Atascadero Lake Neighborhood Association. School choirs sing along the paths, the lake neighborhood puts up its lights, and the Central Coast Zoo gift shop is open. Santa will be at the Zoo Garden Event Center until 8 p.m.
Saturday, December 19, 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Holiday Magic at the Central Coast Zoo. Zoo staff give the animals gifts bought by the community, and Santa is scheduled to visit. It's included with general admission.
Thursday, December 31, 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Noon Years Eve at the Central Coast Zoo.
Light Up, the lake walk, Winter Wonderland and Holiday Magic each fall one calendar day earlier than in 2025. The Light Up Friday, the lake walk Saturday and the Winter Wonderland Friday keep the same weekday pattern. The Sunken Gardens display stays on through all of them and into the new year, lit every night from 5 to 10 p.m. until it goes dark after January 10.
When the lights come down after January 10, they go back to the contractor. Under the RFP, the contract can be extended by mutual agreement for two more seasons.
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