With Holiday Road Off for 2026, What Fills Calabasas' December Calendar?

For six winters, King Gillette Ranch closed out the year with a one-mile walk of light tunnels, a falling "snow" zone and fields of candy canes. In 2025 the Los Angeles Daily News covered the 6th annual Holiday Road there, open through Dec. 27 and closed on Christmas Day. This year the ranch's last lights are jack-o'-lanterns.

Holiday Road has said it will take a break for the 2026 season. It cites "projected severe El Niño weather conditions in Los Angeles, along with circumstances outside of our control related to the venue." The operator says Holiday Road will be back in 2027. For this December, though, Calabasas has no nightly lights attraction. In its place is a short list of single-day events run by a museum, the city and the library, mostly in daylight and mostly in the first half of December. If you don't put the dates on your calendar now, you will miss them.

The ranch's season now ends Nov. 1

King Gillette Ranch at 26800 Mulholland Highway carried two seasons back to back. According to The Acorn, Night of the Jack came back this fall for its ninth season with a redesigned trail, new pumpkin scenes and a carnival for the first time. It is scheduled for 30 dates through Nov. 1, from 5:30 to 10 p.m., and the paper reported that it draws more than 100,000 visitors a year.

Holiday Road usually picked up a few weeks after that. A December 2020 listing called it a new event at the ranch, with an opening date of Dec. 4, 2020. By 2024 The Malibu Times was writing about its fifth year there. For most of the 2020s, then, Mulholland Highway had an evening event from early October to late December, with a few weeks' gap in between.

Take Holiday Road out and that run ends on Nov. 1. What's left for December is a handful of single dates, and each one asks for a different kind of planning.

The December calendar, date by date

Three of the four happen on a single day. Holiday Road was a walk you could do on almost any evening of the season. This year's calendar has fixed times, and one event needs registration.

Dec. 5 and 6 carry most of the season

The busiest stretch is the first weekend of December.

On Saturday, the Leonis Adobe Museum holds its Holiday Roundup from 1 to 4 p.m. The museum is promising decorations, crafts, activities, live music and possibly a visit from Mr. and Mrs. Claus. Its gift shop also sells one-of-a-kind holiday gifts. Entry is $10 per person, and members and children under 2 get in free. For a family of four, that's $40 at the door, set against Night of the Jack tickets that started at $29.35 each plus parking. A household planning more than one visit to the adobe in the coming year may find a membership pays for itself.

On Sunday, the city sets up its Santa Paws Photobooth at Wild Walnut Park, 23050 Mulholland Highway. The listing currently says details are coming soon, and it doesn't yet give hours or a price. Wild Walnut Park is also on Mulholland Highway, so the photobooth puts a December event back on the road where Holiday Road used to be, this time for a single day.

If you only have one free weekend in December, this is the one to keep open.

Dec. 12 depends on registration

The city's Breakfast with The Grinch & Cindy Lou is set for Saturday, Dec. 12, at the Calabasas Community Center, 27040 Malibu Hills Road. The city describes breakfast, crafts, activities and a portrait, and says registration is required. Registration is still listed as coming soon. Holiday Road sold tickets for many nights. This event happens once, in one room, with a sign-up step first, so it's worth checking the city's special events page every so often before the date.

Teens can take part a different way. The city's teen volunteer page lists a 7 a.m. to 1 p.m. shift for the Grinch breakfast. That's a volunteer shift, not the guest schedule, but it does show the event takes most of a Saturday morning to run.

November's dates come before the holiday ones

The weeks between Night of the Jack's last night and the first weekend of December are quieter, and the events are more civic than festive.

1. Saturday, Nov. 14, 9 a.m.: The city calendar lists a Las Virgenes Creek Cleanup.
2. Wednesday, Nov. 18, 6:30 p.m.: The 2026 State of the City takes place at the Calabasas Community Center.
3. Wednesday, Nov. 25, 1:30 to 3 p.m.: Fourth Wednesday Craft Makers meets in the Children's Room at the Calabasas Library for ages 5 to 12. The day before Thanksgiving, it's a likely pick for anyone with kids home from school.

The library continues into December with Pumpkin Patch Story Time, which keeps the town's pumpkin theme going on Dec. 3, 10 and 17. The Acorn connects that theme to a local story from 1824, when a rancher's spilled wagonload of pumpkins gave Calabasas its name, "the place where the pumpkins fell."

The Commons and Old Town haven't posted holiday dates yet

Two places many people expect to fill in the season haven't listed anything yet. As of late October, The Commons at Calabasas' events page showed no 2026 tree lighting. No 2026 Old Town Calabasas holiday lighting has been listed either. Older posts with past years' dates still turn up online, so check that any date you find is for 2026 before planning around it. Malibu Creek State Park's official events listing also has November programs but no December holiday program.

Two new spots for the in-between weeks

On weekday evenings, when the holiday calendar is empty, two recent openings add options close to home.

At the Calabasas Tennis & Swim Center, 23400 Park Sorrento, the city announced a soft opening for Canyon Café on Oct. 23. The city's October e.News had first listed the soft opening for Oct. 2 to 4. The center also changed its hours on Oct. 5. It's now open 6 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. Monday through Thursday, 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. on Friday, and 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. on weekends.

On the Las Virgenes Road corridor, Shibuya Sushi announced a second Calabasas location at 5755 Las Virgenes Road, near Honey Cup. It was set to open Oct. 19 for takeout only, with full restaurant service to follow on a date not yet announced. In a December without a big evening outing, a takeout order picked up on the way home from Leonis Adobe or Wild Walnut Park is an easy way to round out the day.

The dates worth saving now are Dec. 5 at the Leonis Adobe, Dec. 6 at Wild Walnut Park and Dec. 12 at the Community Center, once registration opens.

The holiday season is when many Calabasas families decide what the coming year looks like for them, including whether a move is part of it. If your family is weighing that this winter, The Arledge Group can talk it through over coffee, without pressure and on your schedule. When you're ready, request your home valuation, and we'll give you an honest read on where your home stands heading into the new year.