Tag archives: holiday season
With the holiday season in full swing, it’s an exciting time for many of us to be thinking about all the wonderful memories we’ll be making with our close friends and family members. This isn’t the case for everyone. Unfortunately, the holiday season can be extremely difficult and painful for those who feel an empty […]
With last week’s Thanksgiving feasting behind us, the season of holiday eating has officially arrived! Over the next few weeks, we’ll be sharing meals that will run the gamut in terms of flavors and textures, and that means our lineup of wines will need to be just as diverse, to match. Here are 12 wines […]
The second in a four-part series on shopping locally in Montecito, we’re shining a light on the Lower Village: Montecito’s Coast Village Road and beyond, which has long been a shopping and dining destination for locals and visitors. Many shops along Coast Village Road are gearing up for the holiday season, decorating their windows and […]
Here is a look at four more holiday concerts that provided plenty of holiday cheer as we inch toward the new year: Crane Country Day School The school had a wonderful evening outdoor concert planned for Thursday, December 16 for families only, but as the much-needed rain continued that day, the school made the tough […]
Once upon a time, Carrie and George Steedman journeyed from their town of St. Louis with his diabetic brother to Santa Barbara. They brought him to see Dr. Sansum because in the early 1920s, he was the only doctor who had insulin in the whole United States. Carrie and George fell in love with Santa […]
Christianity is all about forgiveness and I am writing this during the Christmas season. Could a society function with nothing but forgiveness as an ethical code? Astronomer and 1981 Humanist of the Year Carl Sagan wrote a brilliant essay about this for Parade Magazine in 1993. Here is a link to a copy: https://swt.org/sagan. It […]
This is one very difficult column to write. It is the end of the year, a time typically filled with Holiday cheer — whether Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, or just Santa Claus and family. We pause to celebrate the happiness of the season, complete with the exchange of gifts, and to bask in the warm embrace […]
With the hustle and bustle of Paseo Nuevo or Montecito Country Mart, or either the Upper or Lower villages, there are a couple of other local options if you’re looking for last-second holiday shopping ideas. And they’re just a short drive down the 101 — OK, depending on the time of day, it can be […]
After a two year break the 35th Annual Parade of Lights was back with a bang — and 10 tons of snow! City Pier was turned into a Winter Wonderland complete with holiday elves as more than 30 colorfully illuminated sailing boats and dozens of stand-up paddlers and kayakers in festive attire embarked on a […]
‘Tis the season to celebrate the plethora of annual holiday concerts at schools around Montecito, with many restricted in-person events held outside due to ongoing concerns over COVID-19. Here is Part I of our roundup from Santa and me: Cate School Cate School’s motto is “Servons” (we serve), which is noted in its holiday tradition […]
The annual beloved boat parade was back in the harbor for live viewing with social distancing and masks along Cabrillo Boulevard and Stearns Wharf. The theme for this year’s parade was “Magic Under the Moonlight.” A double-bell salute rang out to City of Santa Barbara’s Christopher Bell, the Waterfront Department’s administrative analyst and public information […]
Santa Barbara Beautiful celebrated Christmas with a boffo beano for 90 guests at the Mesa estate of new board member Santa Barbara County architect Robert Ooley. The 56-year-old organization gives out grants between $50,000 and $100,000 annually to help beautify our Eden by the Beach. “We are thrilled to be doing this,” gushed president Deborah […]
The Martini. The Old Fashioned. The Manhattan. Names steeped in cocktail lore, each a classic, stirred cocktail (despite a famous, suit-wearing movie spy who requests his martini shaken, not stirred). As the temperature dips and the holiday gatherings commence, I find myself reaching for a spirit-forward, stirred sip that livens the tastebuds and hastens the […]
More than a dozen community companies around the country present Christmas Revels performances this December, including such places as Lebanon, New Hampshire; Boulder, Colorado; and Oakland, each of which reworks shows created by the flagship company in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The shows bring together people of all ages and backgrounds — both on stage and in […]
Santa Claus hats reigned supreme at Santa Barbara’s Carriage and Western Art Museum when entrepreneur Rick Oshay threw a heaving Yuletide fete for 170, helped by presidents galore from Old Spanish Days acting as cooks and bartenders. “It’s one helluva bash!” declared Rick, who has lived in our tony town for less than a year. […]
The pandemic has brought about a lot of changes to people’s everyday lives, with eating out replaced by delivery services, while brick-and-mortar shopping took a temporary backseat to online services. But, along the South Coast, small business is the spine of our community, the glue that keeps us all together. And that has never been […]
The 26th annual Christmas Walk at La Arcada Plaza, the charming thoroughfare just off State Street near the Santa Barbara Museum of Art, attracted more than a thousand spectators with strolling carolers in Dickensian garb, freshly popped popcorn, and even snowmaking machines turning the area into a winter wonderland with colorfully decorated Yuletide trees. Youngsters […]
With the theme “Holiday Magic,” it was indeed a magical evening for the 1st Annual Montecito Holiday Car Parade. Huge nod to the co-chairs Sharon Byrne, Mindy Denson, and Dana Newquist, along with their committee members, for a most upbeat treat for our town and its annual visitors. Kids from 1 to 92 lined the […]
Shopping local isn’t just something that Montecitans say, it’s something that they do — 365 days a year. That becomes especially apparent over the holidays, when boutiques, pop-ups, and mom-and-pop shops get the opportunity to help all of us provide a bit of holiday cheer through locally crafted gifts. The Upper Village in Montecito has […]
It was a welcome sight, two years in the making: the usual crowd of Montecito locals gathered this past Saturday to trim the giant tree near the Manning Park tennis courts on San Ysidro Road. The tradition took a hiatus last year because of the pandemic; the tree was trimmed quietly by a skeletal crew […]
