Top of my 2016 Holiday outing wish-list was attending the annual ritual of Christmas At The Sonoma Mission.
Every December, on a chosen Saturday evening, costumed docents and park rangers welcome locals and visitors alike into the 21st and last mission, gracing Sonoma's historic plaza, for a series of four back-to-back traditional carol services in the small and atmospheric Mission San Francisco Solano chapel.
After each 40-minute (ticket-only) candlelit service, festivities continue with hot cider, cookies, crafts and toasted marshmallows to live music in General Vallejo's nearby barracks and courtyard. A few more steps along the street across from the plaza, event-goers are invited into the historic Toscano Hotel & Kitchen (museum) to sit awhile and listen to the Pickle Creek String Band.
General Hooker's house at El Paseo de Sonoma and The Blue Wing Inn are also open to the public on this festive December eve.
I was especially enthralled by the simple beauty of this annual highlight having written a chapter on the mission at Christmas in my new book, Fog Valley Winter. Tickets are available in person two weeks ahead of time in the mission shop. I was fortunate to be passing through Sonoma as this years tickets were released.
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