IT CAN BE A LITTLE SHOCKING... to pull into a quaint, walkable town in the summertime, the sort of town that's been around for decades, or even a century or two, and not see some sort of street fair. It doesn't even have to be a weekend. The weather doesn't even have to be especially nice. For the relationship of a picturesque downtown area and the stroll-ready street festival is that strong, and travelers often expect to encounter just such a fest when they pull into just such a spot. But the coming of colder weather has a way of sending street festivals scampering in many parts of the world, though not here in California. True, you might not encounter an alfresco fair every weekend once you're into November and December, but a pair of neighboring burgs in the Sierra foothills continue to find the fun in outdoorsy nighttime street-fair-ing well into the final month. One such spot, Nevada City, celebrates its Victorian Christmas each year, while in...
GRASS VALLEY... it is all about Cornish Christmas over a few select nights. There are still some to go for 2017, which is a good year to make your first visit to the festival, given that it is the historic happening's big 50th anniversary. You can visit on Friday, Dec. 8, Friday, Dec. 15, or Friday, Dec. 22, knowing that there will a host of places to buy food during the 6 to 9 p.m. affair and a host of places to shop. Chestnuts roasting? That's a thing in the northern Gold Country town's most merry of large-scale parties. Choirs revisiting the carols we know every last lyric to? Yep, they'll be there. Jugglers and performers summoning the spirit of the season? You may walk by one or a dozen. And the Cornish history of the area? That's what the festival spotlights in its very name, yes. It all began in 1967, and remains ever-popular today. Who says the best street fairs are products of the summertime? In California, we're still closing streets to vehicles and setting up the food and artisan booths a couple of weeks before Christmas.
