Distinguishing between Victorian Christmas, which is a street fair held in Nevada City most Wednesday nights and two Sunday afternoons in December and Cornish Christmas, which occurs in Grass Valley (a stone's throw away) on Friday nights between Thanksgiving and Christmas, is a key question on the Nevada County Official-Citizen Exam. Of course, they're nearly identical, just like the towns (I'm still confusing certain stores as being in one or the other). Grass Valley and Nevada City are gentle rivals and, though they do have a few distinquishing events, most of their street fairs throughout the year shadow each other. So, instead of Christmas Street Fair One and Christmas Street Fair Two (or "Also"), we have Cornish and Victorian (studying to be "Dickensian" in the future perhaps--I'm sure that will rock our world).That said, we love going to all of them, almost no matter what the weather is up to. This year, however, having been out of town or singing with the chorus, we've missed the first couple of each. So, it was about time that we hit Nevada City night before last for the Victorian edition.
It was chilly. About 25, I think. But festive! The chestnuts-roasting-on-an-open-fire guy was there (as he always is for Cornish, as well). He has a chestnut tree in his yard, and for years he has harvested bushels of of the nuts. Then, after carefully sorting them, he builds a big fire in the street, roasting and distributing chestnuts to anyone who wants one for free. It's a poor photo, but you might be able to see him giving his chestnut-tutorial to a newbie (he's the beard). Chestnuts are, IMHO, overrated as a tasty snack, but I totally appreciate his charitable spirit, not to mention the hot fire on a cold night.
Then, there's Christmas-tree Lady, as usual. She passes out candy. I think I included a shot of her last year, but this one's better.
Otherwise, there's a brass ensemble (Salvation Army), Victorian-garbed carolers (warmest costume prize), a men's barbershop group in Santa hats (singing that old Christmas standard, "Hello, MaryLou"), and various and sundry harpists, violin duets and guitar players. How they make their fingers work in the cold, I can't explain. The music is all quite lovely, of course, and complements the aromas from the booths of hot cider, crepes, kettle corn, and tamales.
As always, under the canopies, one finds the usual array of fancy soaps (again with the soap!!) and candles for sale (required). A little more unusual would be the guy blowing glass ornaments with his torch, the hand-carved-big-rocks guy (the set-up for that one must be no fun) and the spiritual-crystals lady (it IS Nevada City, after all). And, where else can you see giant rusty mining equipment all decked out in colored lights?
The trip from and back to our parked car on the snowy, icy road and walks is a bit treacherous, I must say. Along with the chill, not for the faint of heart or weak of knees. We look carefully for certain light reflections on the ground in the dark (avoid shiny), or hold on to parked cars as we inch along. No worries in the downtowns, themselves, but there are no flat surfaces anywhere around here, so frozen ground is always an adventure.
Tonight is Cornish Christmas (where, now? This is a pop quiz), but I think we've decided that rain is less fun than snow and cold. It's been raining all day (and will continue for a few more days, we hear). However, the festive singing and the selling and the eating will happen on schedule. Maybe we'll get our Cornish on next (alas, the last) week. It's possible I might cave in and buy some fancy soap (alright, alright, already)...
