When the beauty of the first snow blankets the Sierra Nevada, the holly-decked streets and squares of California’s towns and cities make the state an enticing holiday destination. The season’s feasts and festivities are the star on top of the tree when it comes to the Golden State’s irresistible allure.
Beloved annual events kick off the statewide celebration, revving up the spirit of the season. In San Francisco, the Great Dickens Christmas Fair hosts a traditional spread of French onion soup, Yorkshire pudding and English high tea at the legendary Cow Palace. Revelers sip hot buttered rum and craft brews from local beer makers while they shop at artisan booths. They might even be inspired to dance a jig to a Scottish Highland tune.
Just before Christmas, give yourself the gift of music and gourmet fare as you raise a hearty glass of seasonal Celebration® Ale to the Americana band Crooked Still at the Sierra Nevada Brewery in Chico. The restaurant and bar has a menu of gourmet cuisine featuring local produce and delicious, homemade breads. Down in the Palm Desert/Temecula region, swap hops for grapes during Callaway Vineyard’s Jingle Bell Tours. The Vineyard’s candlelight barrel room dinners and “Toys for Tastings” charity event set the stage for “The Twelve Days of Christmas at Callaway”. A “fairyland of lights” at the Temeculights Holiday Festival transforms the Keyways Winery, where visitors can enjoy hayrides, mulled wine and shopping for gifts under the twinkling of thousands of solar-powered lights, starting at dusk every evening.
The old-fashioned holiday theme carries over into the Gold Country, where Nevada City celebrates Victorian Christmas on Wednesday nights in December, as well as the two Sundays before Christmas. The Gold Rush town’s historic district closes to traffic and harkens back to another place in time, lit by the flicker of gas lamps. Revelers can sample a steaming cone of roasted chestnuts, a hot toddy at the Mine Shaft Saloon , or fondue at Friar Tuck’s as costumed characters stroll about singing carols. In neighboring Grass Valley, wine tasting rooms offer special samplings as part of the Cornish Christmas Celebration while the Tommyknocker Cloggers raise a ruckus on the street outside.
Traditional holiday celebrations spill into one of the most venerated of our National Parks with Yosemite’s Bracebridge Dinner . An annual ritual at the legendary 4-diamond Ahwahnee Hotel, the 17th Century English gala is a pageant for the senses: tables overflowing with time-honored holiday dishes, strolling minstrels, yuletide decorations, Renaissance rituals and group caroling. Wine lovers flock to the hotel’s “Vintners’ Holiday”, during which prominent winemakers and industry experts hold sessions, panels and tastings along with a gourmet dinner finale.
Just like the three wise men once did, follow the desert stars to Cary Grant’s former cottage in Palm Canyon, now home to Copley’s Restaurant. Their Thanksgiving Day and Christmas Eve menus are prepared from California’s finest locally grown and raised products, and are a delicious way to celebrate the season.
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