Menlo Park Holiday Tree Lighting 2026: Dates and Budget Changes

Menlo Park's holiday season made it through the 2026 budget with every event still on the calendar. The Halloween parade, the pool party, Trunk-or-Treat, both tree lightings and the cocoa night all have dates, times and locations on the city's site. In June the City Council kept one item that staff had proposed cutting and let another go. It kept the tree lightings, which happen once a year. It dropped repairs on the string lights in the Santa Cruz Avenue medians, which glow every night.

That split explains what downtown will look like this December. The city still pays for the evenings everyone marks on the calendar. It no longer pays to keep up the lights people pass on an ordinary weeknight walk to dinner.

Seventy thousand dollars, and then a reprieve

In early June, The Almanac reported that city staff faced a projected $2.8 million deficit in a $90.5 million budget for fiscal year 2026-27. They recommended about $700,000 in cuts. The Fremont Park tree-lighting event and the holiday tree at Belle Haven Community Campus were on that list, for a combined $70,000 in savings.

The council took up the list on June 9 and approved most of it, with one exception. The June 23 budget adoption staff report records that the council approved the proposed reductions "with the exception of maintaining the tree lighting contracts at Fremont Park and the Belle Haven Community Campus (BHCC)." InMenlo reported on June 30 that the city adopted a balanced budget without drawing on General Fund reserves.

Here is how the items that touch the holiday season and daily downtown life came out, based on the June 9 staff report and the June 23 adoption report.

The two lighting lines are the ones to compare. The $70,000 item buys two evenings. The $43,000 item kept a stretch of downtown lit every night of the year.

The median lights are on their own now

The staff report describes the median lights as the existing tree lights in the Santa Cruz Avenue medians between University Drive and Doyle. It is specific about what ending the contract means. "Existing lights would remain in place and operational but not maintained. Failed lights would no longer be repaired or replaced."

That means nothing changes overnight. The lights were still running when the contract ended, and they keep running until individual strands fail. Any change will show up slowly, one dark strand at a time, on the same blocks the Halloween parade walks on Oct. 24 and the same blocks people cross on their way to Fremont Park on Dec. 4. One commenter on The Almanac's June story said the string lights and the tree help light up downtown during December. That remark helps explain why the line drew attention when it was proposed.

If anyone eventually adopts the lights, the most likely candidate is a group that didn't exist a few years ago. In November 2025, The Almanac covered the launch of the Downtown Menlo Fund, which raises money under the Silicon Valley Community Foundation's umbrella. It is also helping local merchants form a new business association. Downtown has had no merchant group of its own since the Menlo Park Chamber of Commerce dissolved in 2023. The Fund's coverage area is the central business district: El Camino Real between Valparaiso and Middle Avenue, including Springline and Middle Plaza, and Santa Cruz Avenue down to University Drive. That covers part of the median-light stretch. Last fall, the founders described a possible holiday campaign for "the first banners and planters work." Taking over the median lights has not been part of their public plans.

The tree being lit is the oak, and that predates the budget

The switch to the oak was made for the tree's sake, not to save money. The city's event listing says, "We will be lighting our beautiful Menlo Park oak tree as we give our beloved pine tree a well deserved break."

The tree getting the break has been retired for a while. The Almanac reported in November 2025 that the city had officially retired the Fremont Park tree that served as the centerpiece of the ceremony for decades. The paper identified it as a Douglas fir, not a pine. The fir is about 70 years old and carries a scar from a lightning strike roughly 20 years ago. City staff said its declining condition made continued decorating unsafe and risked damaging the tree's structure.

The lighting moved to a younger coast live oak in Fremont Park in 2024. Staff first expected the move to be temporary, but by last November the oak appeared set to become the permanent tree. The coast live oak is also on the city's official logo, and the species can live for several centuries. So the tree decision was about tree health, and the budget decision was about whether to hold the event at all. The council settled the second question in June, and the oak won the first one in 2024.

The calendar the budget left standing

These are the dates as of the week this post goes up. Each one connects to a piece of the June decisions.

1. Barks & Boos, Friday, Oct. 23, 5 to 7:30 p.m. Springline's annual event is free, at the development's Glade Dog Park. The Eventbrite listing includes a dog costume contest, a live DJ, complimentary food, drinks for purchase, pet vendors and an off-leash play area. It is privately run, so the city budget never touched it.
2. Halloween Hoopla, Saturday, Oct. 24, 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Parade participants gather by 10:45 a.m. at Parking Lot #1 on Maloney Street, then walk down Santa Cruz Avenue to a carnival at Fremont Park. The city's listing includes games, jumpers, school-band performances, Cheeky Monkey craft tables, an AMR ambulance, a decorated Public Works vehicle and a stage party with Lori and RJ. Sponsors and partners include Cheeky Monkey Toys, Menlo Swim and Sport, Bow Wow Meow, West Bay Sanitary District, Peninsula Humane Society & SPCA and California Water Service.
3. Pumpkin Splash, Sunday, Oct. 25, 11:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. It runs at the Belle Haven and Burgess pools. Registration is required and tickets are $12. The adopted budget reduced pool hours after Labor Day, which makes a scheduled weekend pool event more noticeable this fall.
4. Trunk-or-Treat, Wednesday, Oct. 28, 4:30 to 6 p.m. Free, at Belle Haven Community Campus, 100 Terminal Ave.
5. Cocoa at the Campus, Monday, Nov. 30, 6 to 7 p.m. Also at Belle Haven Community Campus, with youth performances, cocoa, mini-churros and a small tree lighting. This is the Belle Haven half of the $70,000 line the council restored.
6. Shop Local! Light Up the Season, Friday, Dec. 4, 5:30 to 7 p.m. Fremont Park, Santa Cruz Avenue at University Drive, rain or shine. The city's listing promises a "winter wonderland" theme, youth performances, hot cocoa while it lasts and the oak lighting.
7. Springline's 5th Annual Holiday Celebration, Saturday, Dec. 5. It falls the day after the Fremont Park lighting, so downtown has two holiday evenings in a row. Springline lists the date, but the 2026 program hasn't been posted.

Look at where these events take place. Three of the seven are at Belle Haven Community Campus or its pool, and the city kept that campus's tree lighting along with Fremont Park's. The two downtown events, Hoopla and Light Up the Season, both happen along the Santa Cruz Avenue corridor, which is where the unmaintained median lights hang.

Where the season could still shrink

The June 23 report leaves room for change. Staff "will evaluate potential cost savings of scaling back the tree lighting event and other special events, if additional cost savings are needed." The same report lists a broader cut to the scope or frequency of Library and Community Services special events as a possible $80,000 saving. The council did not adopt it.

The longer-term question is revenue. In its June story, The Almanac reported that the city's two General Fund reserves were expected to total $24.3 million at the end of fiscal 2025-26, or 29% of annual expenditures, below the 35% target. It also reported that staff were signaling possible tax measures for 2028 voters. A council study session this fall is planned to look at ideas including a half-cent sales tax increase and updates to utility and business license fees.

For this year, the oak in Fremont Park will be lit on Dec. 4 at 5:30 p.m. The median lights between University Drive and Doyle will stay on until individual strands fail.

Kathleen Pasin grew up with Menlo Park's December traditions and follows council decisions like these closely, because they shape the blocks around the homes she represents. If you'd like to know how your street and its surroundings figure into what your home is worth, request a complimentary home valuation.