Santa,
Garden Lights & Mulled Wine – It Must Be Holidays at Filoli
During this most unusual of years, we’re eager to welcome in familiar traditions this holiday season. One tradition we can count on is Holidays at Filoli. The Woodside mansion and gardens are in full operation as we enter the holidays with new festive installations and familiar favorites. Santa will arrive Saturdays in December for socially-distanced selfies, the gorgeous night lights will illuminate the Garden Court and, new this year, the Woodland Garden. Holidays at Filoli also shine bright inside the Georgian revival mansion, where 14 decorated trees will be on glorious display and each room will portray a different scene from Filoli’s storied history. Whenever you plan your visit, the charming holiday ambience will sweep worry away like snow off a rooftop.
Built as a private residence in 1917, Filoli remains a unique Bay Area destination, a Georgian revival-style mansion settled upon a 654-acre estate in the heart of California’s coastal range. Designed as a gentleman’s retreat, the 54,000-square foot home is embraced by 16 acres of English Renaissance gardens, an orchard and nature preserve in addition to seven miles of walking
trails. This sublime blend of regional nature and unique architecture forms a site of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, one of few vestiges of the Gilded Age, not only in California but in America.
Filoli unfurls like gift wrapping the moment you enter the estate and the travails of the outside world fall away. Filoli, which was open earlier this year has taken every available step to offer a safe and socially distanced, yet still famously intimate, visitor experience. Guests follow a one-way route that encompasses each element of the immediate property, including the many themed rooms that comprise the manor and the formal gardens, a leisurely stroll that leads us through the garden including the pool pavilion and garden house. For added safety all visitors, including members, are asked to reserve their tickets in advance this year.
The outdoor experience continues to expand with enhanced entertainments, including the bedazzling light displays, diamond-like white lights and colorful LED illuminated sculptures that now extends into the Woodland Gardens. Far from some hurried tour, firepits have been thoughtfully placed within the Woodland Garden, inviting guests to procure a libation or hot beverage from the Woodland’s outside bar and cozy up beside the embers beneath a broad canvas of night sky. Speaking of artistic expression, a holiday stroll within the Walled, Knot, Panel and other gardens have long inspired a guest’s own green thumb as well as personal outdoor holiday decorations.
It’s true, the ugly sweater has reached iconic status in America, as Friday December 18th is now officially National Ugly Sweater Day. But tacky sweaters are far from the only holiday theme Filoli is honoring this season. Beginning on November 23rd, Monday Theme Nights will celebrate guests when they dress in a variety of festive themes that range from Night Lights to Vintage Christmas. Guests who participate will receive a special gift to take home. The six Monday Theme Nights can be located on the Filoli website.
Stocking stuffers flock to the Clock Tower Shop for curated gifts including 2020 Christmas Snow scents from Michel Design Works as well as a cupboard’s worth of cookie cutters, cookbooks, and more. In addition to gorgeous blown-glass ornaments, Mucros knitwear, and other classic gifts, nostalgic themes can also be found in the Filoli toy shop. Santas will find wind-up toys, rocking horses and other hard-to-find quality toys.
It wouldn’t be Holidays at Filoli without seasonal treats like peppermint hot chocolate, holiday cookies and hearty soups, salads and sandwiches from the Quail’s Nest Café and The Town Kitchen. Specialty coffee drinks, beer and wine add a little naughty spice to the day or evening. Outdoor seating is available outside the Quail’s Nest and, up in the Woodland Garden Court, a new holiday bar adds cocktails to the mix in addition to Filoli’s famous warmed mulled wine, spiced cider and hot chocolate, ideal for sipping ‘round the firepits.
Holiday aroma emanates from freshly cut garlands arranged in the Reception Room as the scent of freshly kitchen-baked cookies waft throughout the house. The holidays have arrived at Filoli, a Bay Area jewel that celebrates the best of the season. Here, children take a selfie with Santa, there couples relax by the firepits with a warm cup of spiced cider. Whatever your tradition, a visit to Holidays at Filoli will embellish your celebration. Ring in good cheer by making a daytime or evening reservation to come celebrate from November 21st to January 3rd.
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“Always a pleasure to visit Filoli’s beautiful garden,” says Lisa P. “It’s an oasis that lifts anything that may be weighing me down.”
“Everything from touchless check-in to friendly guides and reminders throughout made people feel safe and welcome,” says a recent visitor, Keri B. “It was a beautiful and soothing experience.”
“The gardens were beautifully illuminated with holiday lights making the evening seem magical in the winter evening,” says Peter M. “We sat outside beside a warm fire and enjoyed mulled wine.”
Inspiration glows brilliantly within the main house as well, beginning with the seasonal scents that waft throughout the tastefully appointed manor that was once home to only two families, the Roth and the Bourn clans, before transitioning to a non-profit historical institution. Ornaments dangle like crystal earrings from the 14 uniquely themed fir trees, gorgeous and stately objets d’art that harken back to elegant traditions and invoke the holiday spirit in each visitor. Look no further than the great tree for an illustration of this tasteful aesthetic, festooned in greens, browns, and unusual mixed-metals reflective of the estate’s many tapestries that date to the 17th century.
Holidays at Filoli also offers intriguing windows into the cultural history of the estate that include interesting depictions of the life lived by both the Roth and Bourn families. The Kitchen exhibition travels back to the 1940s, when the Bourn-era staff prepared seasonal delicacies like holiday cookies as 1940s wartime music reminded every listener that these were far from festive
times. In the ballroom, holiday classics play, encouraging this season’s guests to take a twirl around the grand room. The Bourns also host a great feast in the Dining Room, accompanied by piano music and conversation.
Guests also enter the Reception Room where the Roth family is hosting a 1950s-style holiday party. The Family Room depicts one significant 1950s era lifestyle, we see the Roth family playing cards as Christmas-themed commercials play on the latest technology, the television set.
Traditional Santa Saturdays, a multigenerational favorite, returns this year with a cinnamon twist, if you will. Given his concern for everyone’s good health, Santa has relocated to the Woodland Garden Court where he will await families from 10am to 4pm on the first three Saturdays in December. The firepits will be aglow with holiday music and Santa will remain at the ready for his socially-distanced selfie. This keepsake will no doubt serve as a historical reminder for years to come.
Our popular Santa Saturdays are returning in December with a twist! Santa will be located outdoors on our beautiful Woodland Garden Court. You and yours are invited to take a socially distanced selfie with Santa himself!
Santa Saturdays
All admission must be purchased in advance.
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we're open!
10am - 4pm