Solvang's Sparkliest Season, Day by Day

Julefest brims with cheery happenings; best schedule ahead.

SOLVANG'S GOT THIS: If you're up to facing facts of the most festive sort, this one should be pretty easy to handle: Whatever your area or neighborhood or district or city does to prepare for the holidays, Solvang may go a couple of yards further. But we know this; after all, Time magazine named it one of the most Christmassy towns in all of American a couple of years back. Heck, the place looks like it might be celebrating the yuletide when it is 99 degrees in July. So, yeah, Solvang's got this, in December, with the mega merry sweet song-filled celebrations. There's a word for it, too: Julefest.

WINE COUNTRY WINSOME: Julefest comes in several parts. Ohhhh no, it is not just a single Saturday, or one weekend, then over and out. Solvang residents sign on at the start of December for serious conviviality. Things get going on the first of the month -- that's a cinch to remember -- with 100 Trees of Julefest. The official grand tree-lighting is on Friday, Dec. 6, which happens to be the very weekend of Solvang on Ice. A Christmas parade is scheduled for Dec. 7 and the Holiday Wine Walk strolls on the following weekend (Dec. 14 and 15). December 14 also happens to be S'moresFest! Yep, it has an exclamation point, as anything to do with s'mores should, and, yep, it is year one, but don't let that lull you into thinking this thing won't be well-attended. Who doesn't like sticky-marshmallow-graham-y goodness? Nobody, is the answer. Nobody does not like that.

THAT'S ALSO THE SAME DAY... as the traditional Nativity Pageant. If you can't get up/down to Julefest for one of the big events, though, the 100 Trees will be up through December. And then, come Jan. 10? That's the Christmas Tree Burn, which indeed is on the Julefest schedule, too. It's a big one, for a small village, is what we're saying. But, as we said before: Solvang's got this.

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