DESIRING A QUIETER APPROACH... to the holiday season doesn't mean that you want to do away, totally, with some of its hallmarks, touchstones, and tenets. Just because you don't want to devour a dozen snowman-shaped sugar cookies each day doesn't mean that you don't want a gingerbread slice now and then. And even if you don't want to have the carols going 24/7, you still love hearing your favorites when several times during December. And as for holiday lights? You might be a tad over-dazzled by the million-bulb'd buildings out there, the structures that seem to be about as intense, illumination-wise, as the sun, but you still seek the splendor of the yuletide in some sort of decorative form. And if you're looking for that quieter moment, and a very hallowed and long-standing way of marking the yuletide, consider stopping by either Claremont or Fullerton on Friday, Dec. 15 or Saturday, Dec. 16, where a pair of...
LUMINARIA WALKS... are shimmering, rather silently, and totally magically, at both plant-filled spots. If you've called upon the plaza in Santa Fe, New Mexico, or Albuquerque's Old Town, on Christmas Eve, you're surely familiar with the luminaria, which is a brown paper bag, like a lunch sack, that's been filled with sand or dirt and lighted with a candle, either wick-based or battery-operated. The tradition continues in several spots, including Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden in Claremont and at the Fullerton Arboretum. If you call upon Rancho Santa Ana, look also for the Garden of Thorns, "...an enchanting installation of giant, crystalline thorns." For prices, hours, and more, visit the web site of the place you hope to visit, and if you can't make it? Know that silence, peace, and contemplation can usually be found in our region's sublime botanic gardens, whatever the month and whatever the season.
