Christmas in the Park (San Jose)

The Christmas in the Park event traces its origin to the Nativity display built by Don Lima in the 1950s in front of his Lima Family Mortuary in Willow Glen. The exhibit attracted attention and he began adding more displays, and as they grew, there were more visitors.

In the 1970s, he donated the exhibits to the City of San Jose. For a while they were set up on the lawn where San Jose's original City Hall used to be, at the intersection of First and Mission Streets. The City of San Jose and a non-profit (Christmas in the Park, Inc.) worked together to host a 2.5 acre holiday celebration.^{[citation needed]}

The event was moved to Plaza de César Chávez in the early 1980s.^[5]

In 2011, the City could no longer afford to manage or raise funds for the event and it was scheduled to be closed and no longer take place. The non-profit took over the event and have increased attendance each year since – reaching over 700,000 in 2017.^{[citation needed]}

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  Community Giving Tree
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  Miniature train on display in the park
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  Ferris wheel ride
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  A view of the event
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  Santa exhibit
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  An exhibit of a historical costume shop