First Baby of 2025 Arrives to Highlands Family

The Selection Process and Story Were Postponed Following the Palisades Fire

By SARAH SHMERLING | Editor-in-Chief

The first baby born to a Palisadian family in 2025 is Violet Chapman Robinson, who arrived the morning of January 10 to parents Lizzy and Brian Robinson at Providence Saint John’s Health Center in Santa Monica.

The family, which includes Violet’s older sister, Clara Chapman Robinson, 2, resides in the Highlands in a town home they purchased in 2020. While their home is still standing, they have been displaced since the Palisades fire began on January 7.

“It’s been a really bittersweet time,” Lizzy said to the Palisadian-Post of having Violet just three days after the fire started. “Also very confusing and hard to navigate, but Violet has brought us so much joy.”

She said that watching her older daughter become a big sister has been “such a joyful time,” but that “it’s really hard to believe that something so sad can coexist with something so happy as well.” Lizzy described having “so many plans” of taking Violet back home with them, with a nursery “all set up.”

“We were so excited,” Lizzy said, “and I was so excited for this maternity leave with both of my girls.”

Lizzy—who grew up in the Palisades after moving to the area at the age of 6 from New York—described their experience since Violet’s arrival as “nomadic,” but they are currently living in Manhattan Beach after spending time in places like Palm Desert. Her parents reside in the Highlands in the house where Lizzy grew up, which had “substantial damage” to the side, but is still standing. Brian grew up in Brentwood.

“We had a tough experience actually getting out of the Highlands,” Lizzy said. “We unfortunately couldn’t get out when we tried to evacuate. I think just going through something so frightening—having my 2-year-old in the back of the car, realizing that we couldn’t get out—and then realizing, once we did get out, how bad the fire actually was.”

Lizzy said her parents came to visit Violet while they were in the hospital—not knowing at the time if their houses had made it through the fire. Her dad was tracking through an AirTag that kept going off, which they took to mean the home was still standing.

“That’s how chaotic and confusing it was at the time,” Lizzy described. “We were celebrating this beautiful little baby’s birth and then we were also trying to figure out if our home had burned down.”

Lizzy said the news of having the first baby of the year was “very exciting” after “so much uncertainty and fear and sadness” surrounding the fire and its aftermath.

“It was nice, too, to be connected back to the Palisadian-Post, even though so many Palisadians are all over LA [and] outside of LA,” Lizzy said. “It was nice to have that connection back to my home.”

With her parents in Marina Del Rey, Lizzy said one of the things she is missing the most is being five minutes from family members. She said she “really can’t wait” until they are in “super close proximity again.”

“There’s so many wonderful things about the community of the Palisades,” Lizzy said. “I’m really just looking forward to bringing them back there and hopefully raising them there too for a long time.”

The tradition of honoring the baby born closest to 12 a.m. on January 1 began in the paper in 1954 and has been published since. In past years, entries have been sought in January, with the story published at the end of January or early February. This year’s selection process and story were postponed following the Palisades fire.

The family received a basket of prizes from contest sponsors, including a handmade quilt from Pacific Palisades Woman’s Club, a gift certificate to Sanctuary Spa at the Palisades (temporarily closed but still standing with plans to reopen), items and a gift card from The Pump Station & Nurtury in Santa Monica, and products from Busy Benny—which were delivered before Founder Laura Gowing lost her inventory and home in the fire.

Other contest sponsors are Above Bar, The Gray Dragon and tawnya, who lost their business spaces, inventories and homes in the fire. The Post wanted to acknowledge and thank them for their willingness to sponsor the contest.