It’s the holiday season in Silicon Valley: what to do?
The downtown San Jose Holiday Parade is always the first Sunday in December (mark your calendars!), following one day after the downtown Los Gatos Holiday Parade, which is always the first Saturday in December. (This year, 2009, it’s December 6th.) Yesterday I stumbled upon a website dedicated to the San Jose parade and learned that you can find info on it on Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter.
There’s lots to do in downtown San Jose during the holidays. This year, in addition to Christmas in the Park (runs to Jan. 1st) and Winter Wonderland, there are performances of The Nutcracker to be enjoyed, courtesy of Ballet San Jose (the 30th anniversary of that production and Christmas in the Park here, by the way). Ice skate between the palms at Downtown Ice, which runs through January 18th this year (2009).
The Cathedral Basilica of St Joseph (Roman Catholic) offers free musical events in mid to late December as well, and all are welcome. This is the 8th annual “Season of Hope” series. Concerts are every night beginning December 12th and running through December 23rd, with performances at 7pm and 8pm. The Cathedral’s website does not list the dates of particular performers, but the Valley Catholic newspaper does (a couple of the links show up as “tiny urls” instead of names, but most performers are listed).
Although it’s not a Christmas, Hanukkah or NewYear’s theme, it’s worth a mention that the Tech Museum of Innovation is hosting a fabulous Star Trek Exhibit right now too. There’s an enormous display,called “Star Trek The Exhibition”, a couple of rides (extra cost), plus you can view Star Trex IMAX in the theater (also an extra cost).
Visit the Farmer’s Market year-round on Fridays at San Pedro Square.
There’s lots to do in Silicon Valley through the month of December – this is just the tip of the holiday iceburg!
For things to do in Los Gatos this month, please see this post on my Live in Los Gatos blog. Holiday Events in Los Gatos for 2009.
For more things to do in and around Silicon Valley over the holidays, please check out these links:
Santa Clara Chamber of Commerce’s blog
Downtown Campbell
Milpitas Chamber of Commerce
