"Honolulu City Lights" is a song composed by Hawaiian singer/songwriter Keola Beamer (b.
It has also become a Christmas music standard and is played on heritage radio station KSSK on its Christmas Music format during the Holiday season from November to December along with a handful of other Hawaiian standards and/or artists.
A month long Christmas event in December that takes place in downtown Honolulu is also called Honolulu City Lights which began in 1985, but adopted the name officially in 1987.
According to the official website, Richard and Karen Carpenter were vacationing in Hawaii in 1977 when they heard Keola Beamer's "Honolulu City Lights".
The recording was not commercially released until three years after Karen Carpenter's death in 1986 as a single.