Tag archives: Christmas

One of the sexiest cocktail bars in Santa Barbara just became the merriest. Pearl Social — a consistently great place to sip and be seen in the heart of Santa Barbara’s Funk Zone — is now part of what’s become a global Christmastime phenomenon. They call it Miracle. And it officially makes Acme Hospitality’s landmark […]

Mary Lynn Harms-Romo readily admits that at 5:30 pm every day, she plans to step away from whatever she is doing to take in the snow. Yes, the snow. It’s a holiday benefit to her role as senior marketing director and local leasing manager with Paseo Nuevo — and a welcomed sight after the pandemic […]

Teddy Bear Cancer Foundation (TBCF) was founded by Nikki Katz back in 2002 after hearing of the financial and emotional challenges faced by the family of a three-year-old boy who had been diagnosed with bone cancer and a brain tumor and felt alone in dealing with both the diagnosis and the fallout. “I wanted to […]

Sure, Christmas is almost a month in the rear-view mirror. Yes, Estella Scrooge, which takes place on a present-day December 24-25, is absolutely meant to be a Yuletide holiday story. But if you have yet to see this clever mashup of A Christmas Carol with several of Charles Dickens’ other books, now would be a […]

Montecito schools held a new format for their holiday concerts and winter sings, given the new state lockdown restrictions announced on December 6. Through careful planning many schools conjured up a new direction for the holidays, including virtual concerts sent out exclusively to each student’s family, new charity funding initiatives and holiday Zoom singalongs for […]

Last Sunday, community godfather and Christmas Elf Dana Newquist organized the second Montecito-To-Unity toy and fundraising drive and caravan for delivery. A great group met up at the Upper Village in classic cars, ready to donate toys and funds for the second week in a row. Dana asked me to get up on the 1937 […]

The shortest day of the year turned out to be an unexpectedly generous one for needy Santa Barbara area drive families. From 9 am to 6 pm on Monday, December 21, the Santa Barbara Salvation Army held a food and toy drive at its headquarters on Hollister Avenue, providing gifts of food and toys to […]

Inside the kitchen at Santa Barbara Rescue Mission a team of masked and gloved volunteers prepare six dozen turkeys – washing each bird, stuffing them with onions, garlic, and herbs, basting them with butter and seasonings – all in preparation for the most important dinner of the year, the Christmas Feast. It’s a time-consuming process […]

You might recognize Dana Newquist and his 1937 Ford Fire Engine from Montecito’s annual Fourth of July parade, which he cofounded in 1996. Newquist bought the engine about 20 years ago from a Hollywood producer who used the vehicle for only a day – the lovingly restored, bright-red truck still bears the previous owner’s initials […]

Montecito accountant and inveterate travel writer Frank McGinity is raising the Christmas spirit! Frank, a longtime resident of Riven Rock, the new home of Prince Harry and his wife Meghan Markle, has continued a long-held tradition and erected a 120-foot-tall Yuletide tree on his estate. “Stanley McCormick, who lived here for forty years, always had […]

Ensemble Theatre Company is bursting with some holiday pride about a new show streaming virtually out of Las Vegas this weekend. That’s because the star of The Elijah Rock Variety Show Christmas Special played Porgy in ETC’s 2017 production of Porgy and Bess, an ambitious, critically acclaimed and socially prescient adaptation of the show that […]

You’ve got to hand it to Christopher Bell, the administrative analyst and public information officer for the Santa Barbara Waterfront Department. Instead of tossing a bilge pump into the harbor when city holiday events were cancelled due to the new lockdown orders, Bell turned the beloved annual holiday Parade of Lights into a virtual contest […]

Santa Barbara Symphony has appointed Rebecca Roling as vice president of patron and community engagement. A lifelong classical music fan, patron of the arts, and musician, Roling will build upon and leverage the popular organization’s impact and momentum, and be responsible for the growth of donation and ticket revenue through patron connection and loyalty. Five […]

Three years ago, a few of us attended Brad Nack’s 21st annual 100 percent Reindeer Art Show – a perpetually packed reception at Roy where folks jostle each other to get first dibs at the new paintings – decked out in N95 respirator masks to shield against inhaling smoke and particles from the then still-growing […]

Hospice Santa Barbara has installed our Christmas tree in the Upper Village for the third year in a row, and Light Up A Life takes place December 16 at 6 pm. We will be well into Hanukkah, and closing in on the Winter Solstice on December 21, the longest night of the year. Light Up […]

A cabaret for Christmas might seem like the mixing of metaphors, but the idea made a lot of sense for PCPA as a way to produce something during the pandemic. That was partly because a show that’s akin to a revue could be done from people’s homes during lockdown without damaging the storyline. But it […]

PCPA’s 2020 Christmas-season treat is called Home for the Holidays, with the subtitle of “… because where else are you going to be?” Fair enough. With the coronavirus raging all over again, the Central Coast conservatory keeps its virtual programs flowing with a holiday cabaret featuring its resident artists. The free streaming event will be […]

Santa’s elves have been working hard to prepare Summerland emporiums with festive atmosphere and sparkling gift choices for the holiday season. In fact, most places were already sporting Christmas trees and décor the weekend before Thanksgiving and more than 45 flocked wreaths had already flown out the door like hot cakes at Field + Fort, […]

The 16th annual Westmont Christmas Festival, “Ris’n with Healing in His Wings,” presents a special online event this year due to the pandemic. The Westmont Music Department, led by Michael Shasberger, Adams professor of music and worship, has creatively recorded the 100 members of the Westmont Orchestra and College Choir, Chamber Singers, and Choral Union […]

Rubicon Theatre in Ventura has done a lot of great work, from classic musicals to heart-rending dramas to serving as a home for developing new works. But over the years one show has stood out as qualifying for all three of those categories: Little Miss Scrooge, subtitled “A Dickensian Christmas Story,” which was conceived by […]