Building Holiday Traditions

By Jorge Casuso

Sept. 5 -- Downtown's Winterlit Celebration could literally glide into its second year with Southern California's largest outdoor ice rink added to a winter wonderland already graced with towering holiday trees, jutting icebergs and the presence of Santa and Scrooge.

Negotiations with sponsors are currently underway to place the skating rink for five weeks on the surface lot at the corner of 2nd Street and Santa Monica Boulevard, Bayside officials said. The full-sized 60-foot by 80-foot rink is not only expected to add holiday cheer, it's bound to get cash registers ringing west of the Promenade, officials said.

"We want to bring more families shopping, and we thought it would be a great draw," said Marivi Valcourt, Bayside's marketing director. "One of the great challenges for Bayside is to draw people to other parts of Downtown. This will expose customers to businesses on 2nd Street and Santa Monica Boulevard. It's great."

Inspired by the skating rink at New York's Rockefeller Center, Santa Monica's rink-- which would feature the first public use of fiber optic lines to light up the ice with glowing colors -- is part of a young holiday tradition that seems to be growing each year.

Also adding to the spirit of the season will be a series of holiday movie shorts projected every Tuesday in December on the upper deck of Santa Monica Place, Bayside officials said. The movies will be double-projected and can be enjoyed from the deck, which will be reserved for moviegoers, or from the Promenade minus the sound.

"We want people to enjoy it but not take a lot of time, because we know they're busy shopping and running around," Valcourt said of the decision to show short movies. "It gives them a good break, and it's free."

The glowing rink and silver screen will help mark Bayside's second Winterlit Celebration, which will kick off Friday, November 28.

If Bayside officials get their wish, "Skate with the Stars" will add a whole new dimension to the holiday traditions. The brainchild of producer Todd Fraser, the rink -- along with 50 to 60 Christmas trees -- will be ushered in on the same day as Winterlit.

"We're currently negotiating with sponsors in the hopes of bringing the first of many years of ice skating in Santa Monica," said Fraser, who manages world figure skating champions Tai Babilonia and Randy Gardner. "We feel we can have thousands of people coming out and enjoying it."

Not only would the rink be perfectly situated between the Promenade and the ocean to draw crowds, but Fraser hopes to bring top skaters to perform, as well as film and television celebrities, who will take a spin around the rink with paying customers. The proceeds from skating with the stars would go to charity, Fraser said.

While the Southern California sun will shine during the 5 1/2 weeks the rink would be up and running-- November 28 to January 4 -- it's not the sun but the wind Fraser is concerned about.

"We're hoping for a calm winter," Fraser said. Otherwise, he added, wind barriers should do the trick.

Picking Downtown Santa Monica "to create a tradition" wasn't a difficult decision," Fraser said, especially after meeting with Bayside officials. "With their enthusiasm, it made it very clear to us that this is where we needed to go," he said.

Bayside officials are equally thrilled with the choice and hope the negotiations with sponsors work out.

"We want to make it part of the whole holiday feel," Valcourt said. "We want to start new traditions to happen over and over."