Huntington Holiday House offers visitors a winter wonderland

Santa Claus will be hanging out at the beach for much of the rest of this month.

Who can blame him?

The Huntington Beach House, located at Beach Boulevard and Pacific Coast Highway, has launched a family-friendly holiday experience that will run through Jan. 2.

The Huntington Holiday House includes touches like lights, snowflakes, and two candy canes that make a big heart at the northwest corner of the property. New menu items, including birria ramen, birria quesadillas, chili and soup, also seek to warm visitors.

“We’ve got heaters, our fire pit,” Huntington Beach House general manager Andy Ugalde said. “People can bring their babies and also their fur babies. You can’t go to the mall and bring your dog and take pictures, but you can come here and do that, and enjoy a good time with that.

“We obviously can’t put a rink here, but we can give you Santa Claus. We can give you a winter wonderland, if you will.”

The Huntington Beach House has turned itself into the Huntington Holiday House for the rest of December.

(Kevin Chang / Staff Photographer)

The venue, which was launched in the summer of 2021 through a partnership between Prjkt Restaurant Group chief executive Alicia Cox and the California State Parks system, is open for business from Wednesdays through Sundays, 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Santa Claus will be appearing on the weekends from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., through Dec. 18, Ugalde said.

Birria ramen has been a popular dish since the Huntington Holiday House opened earlier this month, Ugalde said.

“We can’t make enough birria,” he said of the traditionally Mexican dish. “It just flies off the shelves.”

Simone Parmenter came to the Huntington Holiday House on Friday. She said she’s never been to the Huntington Beach House before, though she lives relatively close by.

Parmenter made sure to get pictures of her 2-month-old son, Beau, with Jolly Old Saint Nick.

“I’m definitely going to come back now,” she said. “I think it’s so cute, because there’s nothing else really like this, especially down here during the winter. It’s nice to have somewhere for the locals to go.”

A double mistletoe with bells hangs at the main entrance to the Huntington Beach House.

(Kevin Chang / Staff Photographer)

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