This text ran with many photos in the print editon:
The holiday season on the Midpeninsula doesn’t look like anything imagined by Currier and Ives, but its subtle charms are no less festive.
What we lack in sleigh bells and snowflakes, we make up for in local traditions. Picking up a tree at Webb Ranch, bringing the kids to Burgess for breakfast with Santa, or playing dreidel with your brothers and sisters, all help make December a special time of the year.
For some, the Christmas season just wouldn’t be the same without a stroll through Allied Arts or Filoli to admire the decorations. Maybe winter vacation means driving up to Tahoe and hitting the slopes, or maybe it’s staying home and basking in the envy of out-of-town houseguests from colder climes. Channeling your inner lumberjack and chopping down a tree. Cookie baking, latke-making, shopping sprees and cider-swilling.
Addressing so many cards that your hand cramps. Decorating your house with tasteful restraint that would make Martha Stewart proud, or festooning the yard with so many lights that it can be seen from space. The smell of cinnamon and nutmeg, a bellyful of gingerbread men, singing carols in the car. The warm glow of a Christmas tree, a Hanukkah menorah or an Advent wreath can drive away the chill of cold, dark December days and send us gratefully into the New Year.
