Bay Area Day Trips: Two great Christmas towns worthy of any Hallmark holiday movie

For many, the holiday season begins when the Hallmark and Lifetime networks unspool their marathon screenings of holiday movies set in idyllic small towns. In this cinematic universe, two people invariably fall in love amid an enchanted, Main Street setting of lights, carolers and down-home charm.

Turns out there are two Gold Country towns just a two-hour drive from the Bay Area that offer that magical setting, if not necessarily the love story. Nevada City and Grass Valley lie six miles apart along Highway 49 and offer historical downtowns and unique holiday traditions. They also boast the most natural Christmas backdrop possible: Tahoe National Forest, whose sea of conifers stretches from the foothills overlooking the Sacramento Valley to the state line amid the Sierra Nevada. Occasionally, snow falls in these towns, both at 2,500-foot elevations, adding to the winter wonderland feel.

As it happens, Nevada City was the setting for a 2006 Hallmark movie, “The Christmas Card.” The film starred the late, great “Mary Tyler Moore Show” star Ed Asner, who is probably best known to the younger set as Santa in another holiday classic, “Elf.”

With its winding streets around historic brick, Art Deco and Victorian buildings, Nevada City has been featured in multiple national publications as one of the nation’s great Christmas towns. For the last half century, the city has hosted Victorian-themed Christmas celebrations on Sunday afternoons and Wednesday evenings. This year, the festivities run from Dec. 3 through 17, complete with carolers in Victorian attire and the aroma of chestnuts roasting over an open fire.

(Not so Victorian, but still festive: appearances by the town’s famous walking Christmas tree, who, incidentally, could provide a charming cameo in a future Hallmark movie.)

For shopping and Christmas treats, including mulled wine, you can browse the booths of some 125 vendors set up along Broad, Commercial and Union streets with food, jewelry, clothing and ceramics. The town’s specialty boutiques offer more gift possibilities, including Stetsons and women’s vintage-style fedoras at The Hat Store. When it gets chilly outside, warm up at one of the wine tasting or craft beer taprooms or Friar Tuck’s Restaurant and Bar, which famously serves fondues made with Alpine cheeses and wine.

Meanwhile, Grass Valley’s profile as a holiday destination — and worthy of the Hallmark treatment — has grown in recent years, especially after it permanently closed its picturesque Mill Street in the aftermath of COVID-19 lockdowns. The city has since transformed the street into an outdoor mall, where visitors can stroll a wide, pedestrian walkway, graced on one end by the still-operating Art Moderne Del Oro movie theater.

The pedestrian zone is lined with restaurants, wine-tasting rooms, tap houses and speciality shops, including the deliciously dangerous Lazy Dog Chocolateria candy and dessert shop; the well-stocked Tess Kitchen and Culinary Store, a wonderland for home chefs; and the Mill Street Sock Co, where you can pick up socks to match just about any interest. Just off Mill Street, you also can find birding and bird feeding supplies at Wild Birds Unlimited and musical instruments and gear at Foggy Mountain Music.

For even more Christmas spirit, head to the Holbrooke Hotel, a California State Landmark, which once hosted post-Civil War Presidents Ulysses S. Grant, Grover Cleveland, Benjamin Harrison and James Garfield and such 19th century celebrities as prize fighter “Gentleman Jim” Corbett and writers Mark Twain and Bret Harte. For the holidays, the hotel’s onsite speakeasy, The Iron Door, has been transformed into Miracle, a pop-up holiday bar featuring vintage, kitschy decorations (hello, leg lamp!) and entire walls bedazzled with tinsel — plus a curated menu of seasonally-inspired cocktails.

Through December, Mill Street also provides the primary setting for Grass Valley’s Cornish Christmas celebrations, which go back more than 50 years. The festivities pay homage to the town’s 19th century settlers: English miners from Cornwall who came to work in the nearby Empire Mine. Between 1860 and 1895, people of Cornish heritage made up about three-quarters of the town’s population.

Grass Valley’s Cornish Christmas festivities take place on Friday nights through Dec. 22. Shops are open late, and visitors can stroll by the giant, illuminated Christmas tree on Mill Street, listen to the Cornish Carol Choir perform on the steps of the historic Union building and look for Santa and Mrs.Claus and Grass Valley’s Tree Lady.

Whatever time you reach Grass Valley, you can grab a meal at the popular Tofanelli’s Gold Country Bistro, which serves a casual breakfast and lunch menu — with omelets made 101 ways! — and a more fine-dining experience in the evenings.

Details: Certainly, you can get into the holiday spirit any time you visit Nevada City or Grass Valley during December. But here are the days and times for the town’s full-on festive experiences. Nevada City’s Victorian Christmas takes place from 1:30 to 6 p.m. on Sundays, Dec. 3, 10 and 17, and from 5 to 9 p.m. on Wednesdays, Dec. 6 and 13; www.nevadacitychamber.com. Grass Valley’s Cornish Christmas events run 6 to 9 p.m. on Fridays through Dec. 22. https://downtowngrassvalley.com