At 5 p.m. on Friday, December 4, Santa and his sleigh show up at Gamble Garden at 1431 Waverley Street. The family night also brings storybook characters, a holiday fairy on stilts, and hot chocolate and cookies. Half an hour later the city starts its free Holiday Tree Lighting at Lytton Plaza, at University Avenue and Emerson Street. School of Rock, the Boost Class Merry Holiday Dancers and the Palo Alto Chamber Orchestra are on the bill. Both end at 7 p.m.
So that Friday evening is the one real decision of Palo Alto's first December weekend. Gamble Garden's Winter Festival runs Thursday through Saturday, December 3 to 5, and the rest of it can be stacked around whichever evening your household picks.
The Friday fork, side by side
| Once Upon a Garden: "Through the Looking Glass" | Holiday Tree Lighting | |
|---|---|---|
| Where | Gamble Garden, 1431 Waverley St. | Lytton Plaza, University Ave. & Emerson St. |
| When | Friday, Dec. 4, 5 to 7 p.m. | Friday, Dec. 4, 5:30 to 7 p.m. |
| Cost | $36 for members, $45 for nonmembers | Free |
| What's there | Faerie Village, Santa and his sleigh, storybook characters, a holiday fairy on stilts, crafts, shopping, hot chocolate and cookies, a complimentary glass of champagne for adults | Live music, winter treats, a tree lighting, with School of Rock, Boost Class Merry Holiday Dancers and Palo Alto Chamber Orchestra, more performers to be announced |
| Run by | Gamble Garden | City of Palo Alto, Community Services |
They are two different kinds of evening. Gamble's family night is ticketed and contained, a storybook set inside one garden. The Lytton Plaza lighting is open to anyone who walks up to the corner of University and Emerson. It's free, it's a stage show, and it happens in the middle of downtown. Because the times overlap almost completely, nobody makes it to both. Once you've picked one, though, the rest of the weekend gets easier, because Gamble Garden built the festival with daytime hours that don't compete with either evening.
The $10 ticket that keeps both options open
Gamble Garden's Holiday Marketplace runs Friday, December 4, and Saturday, December 5, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. both days. A single $10 Winter Festival Marketplace ticket covers both days. Children 12 and under get in free, and the coffee is complimentary.
Inside are holiday shopping from more than 30 vendors in the Gamble House and garden, plus a winter plant sale of ornamental perennials and other plants propagated by Gamble's own team. There's also a silent auction, a holiday raffle, and Over the Garden Fence: Winter Edition, the garden's signature sale of loved and vintage pieces.
Since the ticket covers two days, the Friday choice doesn't cost you the garden. Here's how the weekend lays out from either direction:
- If Friday evening is Lytton Plaza: shop the marketplace Friday between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m., head downtown for the 5:30 p.m. lighting, and come back Saturday on the same ticket for anything still on your list.
- If Friday evening is Gamble's family night: keep Friday daytime open, arrive at Waverley Street for 5 p.m., and save the marketplace for Saturday's 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. window.
- If you want a seated Friday daytime event: Gamble also runs Holiday Teas on Friday, December 4, and the 11 a.m. seating is listed at $68 for members.
Thursday is the adults' night, and the membership math starts there
The festival opens a day before the Friday overlap. The Opening Night Party runs Thursday, December 3, from 5 to 7 p.m. It's an adults' evening with holiday music, hors d'oeuvres, twinkle lights and first access to shop Over the Garden Fence before the marketplace opens to everyone else.
The party also introduces something Gamble hasn't done before. Its page bills the night as Gamble Garden's first-ever Wine & Mocktail Tasting, curated by The Rendezvous, the French-Italian bistro and wine bar that Palo Alto Online reported opening earlier this year. That brings a California Avenue restaurant to a Waverley Street garden for the evening.
Opening Night tickets are $80 for members and $100 for nonmembers. Gamble also sells a $125 bundle with one Opening Night ticket and an individual membership, which the garden values at $80 on its own. If you were already planning to buy a nonmember ticket, the bundle adds $25 to the price and brings a membership with it. That membership pricing then carries into Friday. Family night is $36 for members against $45 for nonmembers, and the Friday tea seating listed above is a member price. A household planning Thursday at the garden and Friday at the garden can work out its own totals from those numbers before buying.
Between Waverley and the plaza: a new stop on Bryant
Downtown just got a new dessert stop for anyone headed to Lytton Plaza on Friday, or to University Avenue after a day at the marketplace. Palo Alto Online reported the debut of Yiaya Greek Yogurt, a self-serve, pay-by-weight frozen yogurt shop at 520 Bryant St. in the former Blue Bin Vintage space. The same story puts it in context: downtown Palo Alto had gone without a frozen yogurt shop since Fraiche closed in 2019, and Yogurtland closed its downtown location in 2018.
Plan around a few practical details. The shop is small and has no indoor seating. Palo Alto Online reported social media posts showing waits of up to 40 minutes, though the owner told the outlet that lines usually move in 15 to 20 minutes. Six frozen yogurt flavors run at once and rotate often. At opening they were pistachio, chocolate, coconut, wild berries, honey and original. A central toppings table carries fresh fruit such as passion fruit and dragon fruit, along with dried fruit and housemade chocolate soup with crunchy chocolate pearls. On a December evening with no seats inside, it makes the most sense as a cup to carry toward the plaza before the 5:30 p.m. start.
The dates on either side of that weekend
The December 3 to 5 stretch sits inside a longer season, and a few fixed dates around it affect how you plan:
- Stanford Shopping Center runs Santa photos from Nov. 6 to Dec. 24, Pet Photos with Santa on Nov. 22 from 6:30 to 8 p.m., and a sensory-friendly Caring Santa session on Dec. 6 from 9 to 10:30 a.m., the Sunday right after Gamble's festival ends. The details are on the center's holiday page.
- The Junior Museum & Zoo has been closing at 4:30 p.m. since Nov. 1, earlier than its old 5 p.m. close. It closes at 2:30 p.m. on Dec. 24 and Dec. 31 and stays closed on Christmas Day, according to its visit page. If Friday the 4th starts at the zoo, the 4:30 close leaves time to reach either evening event.
- The city's Holiday Toy Drive takes new, unwrapped toys, books, gift cards and other gifts through Dec. 16. Drop-off sites are the community centers, libraries and fire stations listed on the city's toy drive page. A gift picked up at Gamble's marketplace on December 4 or 5 still has more than a week to make it to a bin.
Gamble's Winter Festival page carries the ticket links for the marketplace, the teas, Opening Night and family night. The city's Holiday Tree Lighting listing is where more performers will be added as they're announced.
Our team at The Palacios Group keeps a close eye on Palo Alto's calendar because we live by it too, from Waverley Street gardens to the plaza on University Avenue. If this season has you thinking about where your household will spend the next one, we're glad to talk. Get your free home valuation and work with our team.
