More Christmas Fun for Families Around the Bay

More Christmas Fun for Families Around the Bay 2012

Friends have told me about some of their favorite places to take their kids in December:

The Dunsmuir Hellman Historic Estate in Oakland - For three weekends, Dec 1st and 2nd, 8th and 9th, and the 15th and 16th, the Dunsmuir Hellman house in Oakland holds their Christmas event. The Estate is decorated in traditional turn of the century Christmas style, and offers special Teas for both adults and children. There is also a breakfast with Santa, carriage rides and a kids area. They are open from 11:00 am to 4:00 pm, but the teas and Santa Breakfast have special times and additional costs. Follow the link above for schedule specifics.

A Christmas Carol at the Lesher Theater in Walnut Creek - This great live stage production of A Christmas Carol runs from Dec 6th thru the 16th 21012. We saw this last year and the kids really enjoyed it. Tickets can be a little pricey - we were fortunate enough to get to go with a homeschool group that got group pricing, and we attended on an afternoon when there were only other school groups there. This led to a more rowdy audience, but much more affordable  I'm not sure what it involved in setting up a group rate, but if you have enough friends interested, it would be worth a call the the Lesher Theater to find out. There is a reasonably price parking garage very close, and the theater is lovely.

Christmas Parade and Holiday Market in Benicia - On Sat, December 8th from 10:00 am to 3:00 pm in downtown Benicia. The parade begins at 10:00 am, and there will also be arts and crafts, and food booths. I've never been to Benicia's Holiday event, but our family has enjoyed ever other event we've attended in downtown Benicia.

The Ruth Bancroft Garden in Walnut Creek

The Ruth Bancroft Garden in Walnut Creek

Our only visit to the Ruth Bancroft Garden in Walnut Creek was recently during their Fall Festival. While I enjoyed wandering around the beautiful garden, and the kids had a great time with all the activities and crafts that were set up for the festival, it was hard for me to envision what a visit might be like on a regular, non-festival day.

A few of the plants we saw sparked the kid's interest – especially the large variety (and large in size!) cactus we looked at. Otherwise, I'm not sure how much interest they would have had in our visit without the festival going on.

However, the Ruth Bancroft Garden website has a calendar of events that includes some events, like an upcoming fruit tasting, that kids might also enjoy. The garden also offers tours, and special children's tours that could well make things much more interesting for kids to visit. We have had friends attend these children's tours, and they reported that everyone had an enjoyable and educational time.

I did not see any labeling plaques on any of the plants, so a tour could be really helpful to get a full appreciation of what you are seeing. There were several handouts that we didn't take that may have also provided more information about the plants.

We had not visited The Ruth Bancroft Garden before because, while children get in for free, admission for adults is $10. However, I just learned that on the first Tuesday of each month, the garden offers free admission to everyone. So that would be a great time to check them out.