Parks and Rec

Rancho Christmas Festival Has Old Fashioned Flair

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Rancho Guajome Adobe in Vista will once again ring in the holidays with a merry family festival and handmade, natural decorations that transform the historic adobe into an old-fashioned Christmas scene.

At this year’s Rancho Christmas celebration, kids can try all kinds of 19th Century-inspired crafts, including weaving and making drip candles, corn husk dolls and caramel apples

A wood carver, blacksmith, tortilla maker and yarn spinner will demonstrate how people lived and worked during the area’s Mexican and early American period.

Live music, a ballet folklorico troop, Mexican trick roper Miguel Angel Sanchez and others will entertain. Families can also enjoy Native American storytelling, a period fashion show, and tractor-drawn wagon rides.

Visitors will want to tour the restored 1853 ranch house’s extensive grounds and 28 rooms, all appointed with period furnishings and, for the first time this year, period holiday decorations.

Rancho Christmas is Saturday Nov. 26 and Sunday, Nov. 27, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. (On Saturday, guests can stick around after the official festival until 5 p.m. or so for caroling and apple cider in the courtyard by the glow of luminarias.)

Admission is $5 for teens and adults (age 13 and up), $3 for children (4-12), and free for children 3 and under. Parking is free.

Rancho Guajome Adobe is located at 2210 N. Santa Fe Ave. in Vista.

For more information about Rancho Christmas, the public can call 760-724-4082 or visit www.sdparks.org. Or check County Park and Recreation’s Facebook page for updates on the festival and other events.