First sent to readers on Friday, September 25, 2026.
This weekend has a surprisingly good mix close to home: the Goleta Lemon Festival, Astro Fest at the Natural History Museum, a free outdoor movie at the Santa Barbara Golf Club, and a free Santa Barbara Museum of Art day with a library card. If you want to range farther, Solvang has an all-ages Skate Fest, Ventura has its huge free ArtWalk, and Pismo has a two-day surf festival at the pier. We also did a much deeper pass on the holiday calendar this week, and several of the high-demand Christmas experiences are already bookable or have now published dates.
This weekend
Friday
One805LIVE!: Fri. Sept. 25, gates 5 PM / music 6 PM, Kevin Costner’s Field of Dreams, Montecito. Friday lineup: The Temptations, The Four Tops, George Thorogood, Alan Parsons, Plastic Harpoons + Samantha Ronson DJ set. GA is $350 and the official ticket site shows active Friday inventory. No on-site parking at the venue; guests park at the Santa Barbara Polo & Racquet Club and take the complimentary shuttle. Kid-friendliness is still unconfirmed: Gavin emailed One805 specifically asking whether the event is appropriate for kids and has not received a reply. The event continues Saturday with Pat Benatar & Neil Giraldo, Slightly Stoopid, Kevin Costner & Modern West and The High Kings. Official One805 tickets
Scott Galloway: Notes on Being a Man — Fri. Sept. 25, 7:30 PM, Arlington Theatre. Presented by UCSB Arts & Lectures. Galloway appears in conversation with Sam Fragoso on masculinity, loneliness, purpose, work, family and meaning. Doors 6:30 PM; all ages/general public. UCSB event page
Live Concert with Alejandro Meola: Fri. Sept. 25, 6–7 PM, Santa Barbara Central Library. Free, all ages, in the Faulkner Gallery. Official library calendar
Alabama Shakes: Fri. Sept. 25, 7 PM, Santa Barbara Bowl. Gates 5:30 PM; official ticket range $76.50–$145.50. Santa Barbara Bowl
Goleta Beach storytime morning — Fri. Sept. 25. Baby & Me Storytime 10–10:30 AM, followed by Wiggly Storytime 10:30–11 AM at Goleta Beach. Good low-key option for younger kids. Goleta Valley Library calendar
Creek Week Art Contest Reception — Fri. Sept. 25, 5:30–7 PM, Goleta Community Center. Free and open to everyone. Kids’ and adults’ Creek Week artwork is on display, winners are announced, and The Swing Along Band provides live music. Light refreshments included. City of Goleta event
Folded Hills Golden Hour — Fri. Sept. 25, 4–7 PM, Gaviota. Free, family-friendly Friday at the ranch with live music, food, yard games and farm-animal meet-and-greets. This week benefits Hospice of Santa Barbara. Seating is first come, first served; no reservations required. Folded Hills events
Dolly Day at Lucky Penny — Fri. Sept. 25, 5:30–7:30 PM, Los Olivos. Family-friendly Dolly Parton-themed dinner night with a live DJ, Dolly decor and Hot Girl Pizza benefiting Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library. Come dressed in Dolly-inspired boots, hats or outfits and, with dinner purchase, choose a complimentary pink glitter frosé or a McConnell’s strawberry ice cream with edible glitter. Event details
Saturday
Goleta Lemon Festival: Sat.–Sun., Sept. 26–27, 10 AM–6 PM, Girsh Park. Free admission. The kids area has an all-inclusive activity wristband, and advance purchase saves $5. The pie-eating contest happens just before noon both days. Safety Street brings the county’s largest interactive display of fire, police and emergency vehicles. Saturday also includes the Goleta Fall Classic Car Show, 9 AM–3 PM. Official festival · City details
Astro Fest: Sat. Sept. 26, 10 AM–12 PM, Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History. All ages. UCSB Physics Circus, astronomy experts, constellation crafts and safe solar viewing. Planetarium shows run at 10:30, 11, 11:30 and noon; seats are first-come, first-served. Included with Museum admission and free for members; reservations recommended. Official Astro Fest page
Solvang Skate Fest: Sat. Sept. 26, 10 AM–5 PM, Hans Christian Andersen Park. All ages, with demos, contests, food, music, games and prizes; beginner through pro divisions. Visit Solvang
Buellton Vintage Trailer Bash Open House — Sat. Sept. 26, 10 AM–2 PM, Flying Flags. Free to the public. Hundreds of vintage campers gather for the annual rally; this year celebrates Route 66 with retro roadside-Americana styling and a themed fashion show. The organizer describes the rally as a family camping experience. Event details
Creek Week Grade & Grab cleanup: Sat. Sept. 26, 9–11:30 AM, 801 Garden Street. RSVP required. Volunteers walk in teams assessing trash and collecting litter; light breakfast and bagged lunch provided. City event page
Minions & Monsters Movie Night: SATURDAY, Sept. 26, 6:30–8:30 PM, Santa Barbara Golf Club. Free. This is Saturday evening. Music, face painting, temporary tattoos, putting contest, Birdie Ball and free popcorn before the movie. Bring blankets or low-back chairs. City event page
LAST CHANCE — Sunstone STOMP 2026: Sat. Sept. 26, 10 AM–3 PM, Sunstone Winery, Santa Ynez. Sunstone’s 29th annual harvest celebration, categorized by Sunstone as Members Only. Breakfast and lunch by Oak and Fire, vineyard experience, grape stomping, live music by Do No Harm Band, plus exclusive Library and not-yet-released Future wine tastings. General admission $175; VIP $200. The primary event page does not state an age policy. Gavin emailed Sunstone asking whether STOMP is kid-friendly and has not received a reply. Official event + tickets
Pumpkin patches & farm stuff
Lane Farms Pumpkin Patch — opens Sat. Sept. 26 and runs through Oct. 31. 308 S. Walnut Lane, Santa Barbara. Sat.–Sun. 10 AM–7 PM; Mon.–Fri. noon–7 PM. Hayrides, farm animals, tractors and farm equipment, educational displays, a corn maze and tons of pumpkins. This is the hyper-local pick and it opens this weekend. Official Lane Farms pumpkin patch
Summerset Farm Pumpkin Patch — Santa Ynez. Open for fall pumpkin season with a wide range of pumpkins, decorative gourds and corn, a farm-stand general store, acres to wander and a Sunflower Maze. The farm’s own site says it is fun for all ages and welcomes leashed dogs. Official Summerset Farm
Underwood Family Farms Fall Harvest Festival — Moorpark, Sept. 26–Oct. 31, 9 AM–6 PM. The full festival also opens this Saturday. Huge pumpkin patch, pick-your-own fields, tractor wagon rides, animal center, pig races, live music, themed weekends, play areas and dozens of farm activities. Weekend tickets are online-only and same-day walk-ins are not guaranteed. This opening weekend is Friends of the Farm / Public Safety Weekend; current admission is $30 online, children under 2 free. Official Fall Harvest Festival
Solvang Farmer Pumpkin Patch — opens Sat. Sept. 26 and runs through Nov. 2. 1035 Alamo Pintado Road, Solvang. More than 60 pumpkin varieties, fresh popcorn and kettle corn, a kids’ maze, and a 14-acre corn maze with scavenger hunt. Fall fun for all ages. Season listing
Montecito Country Mart Pumpkin Patch — Oct. 1–31. Month-long pumpkin patch at Montecito Country Mart. Easy local fall stop and especially useful to pair with the Mart’s Halloween event on Oct. 31. Official Country Mart events
Sunday
Santa Barbara Museum of Art free day with a library card: Sun. Sept. 27, 11 AM–4:30 PM. Show a Santa Barbara Public Library card for free admission as part of Hispanic Heritage Month. All ages. Official library listing
Sea Center: Sun. Sept. 27. Storytime at 10:30 AM and Shark Sundays at 11:30 AM. Both are short, easy add-ons if you are already on Stearns Wharf. Museum calendar
MOXI reopens Sunday at noon. The museum is closed for maintenance through Sunday morning and reopens Sept. 27 at 12 PM. Useful if anyone was planning MOXI this weekend, since Saturday is not an option. MOXI
Santa Barbara Arts & Crafts Show — Sun. Sept. 27, 10 AM–6 PM, Cabrillo Boulevard. Free, easy waterfront browse with local artists and makers. City calendar
Judy Collins — Sweet Judy Blue Eyes Farewell Tour — Sun. Sept. 27, 7 PM, Lobero Theatre. One of the final chances to see Judy Collins live on her farewell tour. Reserved seats are $75 / $100 / $150 premium, with the premium tier including a pre-show courtyard reception. Official Lobero event
Worth the drive
ArtWalk Ventura: Sat. Sept. 26, 10 AM–5 PM; Sun. Sept. 27, 10 AM–4 PM. Free and family-friendly, with 300+ artists, galleries and pop-ups across Downtown and the Westside, two performance stages, street painting, a children’s area, live demonstrations and CineFest. Saturday music continues until 7 PM. Gold Coast Transit is offering free rides during ArtWalk. Official ArtWalk
Still Frothy Surf Festival: Sat.–Sun., Sept. 26–27, 8 AM–5 PM, Pismo Beach Pier. Two-day surf festival presented with Billabong USA, with competition and a community/nonprofit focus. Official Pismo Beach tourism calendar
Mid-Autumn Moon Festival — Sat. Sept. 26, 5–8:30 PM, Ventura. Free admission and explicitly family/community-focused, with lion dances, a magic show, children’s activities, mooncakes, lanterns, cultural performances and vegetarian food. Official Ventura Buddhist Center event
PREP in the Park — Sat. Sept. 26, 11 AM–4 PM, College Park, Oxnard. Free family disaster-preparedness festival with firefighter gear, a digital fire-extinguisher simulator, hands-only CPR and first aid, a kids disaster-hero obstacle course, pet evacuation activities and a petting zoo. Official event
Seaside Oddities Expo — Sat. Sept. 26, noon–8 PM + Sun. Sept. 27, Ventura County Fairgrounds. All ages, costumes encouraged, dark art/oddities vendors and live sideshow entertainment; Sunday includes a costume contest for kids and adults. Presale $10; $20 event weekend; kids 10 and under free with a paid adult. Official Fairgrounds listing
Run / Walk / Kids Races
BOOK NOW — Fox Fall Classic — Sun. Oct. 4, Lake Los Carneros, Goleta. Very local and actually family-friendly: 5K at 8:30 AM ($27.50), 2-mile at 9:15 AM ($16.90), and 1-mile at 9:15 AM ($11.60). Professionally timed, with music, donuts, snacks, raffle prizes and awards. REGISTER
BOOK NOW — Santa Barbara Half Marathon / 5K / Kids Fun Run — Sun. Nov. 8. The family pick is the free HOKA Kids Fun Run at 10 AM, designed especially for ages 0–7 (older kids welcome), with age-group distances from 200m to 800m. Advance registration is capped at 300 kids and typically fills early, but organizers have told us they will not turn away children who show up to participate on race day. Parents can run alongside their child without registering. The 5K starts at 8:30 AM and is currently $76.65; the Half starts at 7 AM and is $164.25. The overall event sold out a month early in 2025 and organizers expect an earlier sellout this year. REGISTER
Looking ahead — get a group going
SAVE THE DATE — Montecito Country Mart Halloween Spectacular — Sat. Oct. 31, 11 AM–2 PM. Confirmed for 2026. Costume contest at 11 AM, followed by trick-or-treating around the Mart through 2 PM. Pairs naturally with the Country Mart pumpkin patch, which runs all month. Official Country Mart event
WATCH — Ghost Village Road on Coast Village Road. The Coast Village Association has not yet published the 2026 date/time. Last year’s event was Oct. 31, 2025, 3–6 PM, so treat that only as historical context and wait for the 2026 announcement before planning around it. Coast Village Road events
Sunstone Haunted Ball: La Saignée (The Vampire’s Masquerade) — Fri. Oct. 30, 7–11 PM, Sunstone Winery. Immersive vampire masquerade, dancing and entertainment. Sunstone wines, wine cocktails and mocktails available for purchase. $35 public / $25 Sunstone members. A roundtrip shuttle from Santa Barbara will be available for purchase; shuttle and preferred-hotel details are still coming. The primary page does not currently state an age restriction. Official event + tickets
BOOK NOW — Boo-Cara at The Ritz-Carlton Bacara — Fri. Oct. 30, 5–7 PM. Tickets are live now. This one is explicitly open to families from the local community and beyond: property-wide trick-or-treating, a Spooky Forest, Vampire Academy activities, crafts, a family-friendly haunted house and Halloween movie screening. Paid tickets include self-parking. We haven’t booked this one yet. We’re on the fence because it works out to roughly $300 for our family for a two-hour event, and there’s very little independent review history from previous years. If anyone has been before, let us know what you thought. Official tickets
SAVE THE DATE — FREE / NO TICKET YET — Festive Holiday Market at Bacara — Sun. Dec. 6. Complimentary community holiday market with free parking, local and regional artisans, seasonal treats and all-ages activities. No booking action needed right now. Hours still TBC.
BOOK NOW / RESERVATIONS LIVE
Anything marked BOOK NOW below is ticketable or reservable right now. If you want it, book it now rather than waiting for event week. Items marked NOT ON SALE YET are on the watchlist and should be booked as soon as sales open.
BOOK NOW — Alisal Ranch Winterlight — Sun. Dec. 13, 6 PM. Rare public-access Alisal event with a candlelit multi-course dinner and Stolpman Vineyards pairings. $175/person before tax/service; 21+ only. Alisal explicitly says every Winterlight dinner sold out last year, so this is an actual book-early item. Official Winterlight page
NEW / BOOK NOW — Alisal Ranch Hanukkah Weekend — Dec. 4–6, 2026. Official two-night family package with nightly menorah lightings, guest-chef dinner by Burt Bakman, latke bar, gelt s’mores, sufganiyot breakfast and menorah candle making. Kids 6 and under stay complimentary. Accommodations plus breakfast and dinner daily are included; no package price is published on the primary page. Official Hanukkah Weekend page
NEW / BOOK NOW — Christmas Week at Alisal Ranch — Dec. 21–28, 2026. Alisal has published its 2026 Ranch Christmas stay with horse decorating and a holiday parade, a Santa’s runaway reindeer search, line dancing, magic show, family bingo and s’mores. Christmas Eve includes caroling and a special visit from Santa. This is a hotel-stay package; pricing is not published on the primary page. Official December at the Ranch page
BOOK NOW — Mattei’s Tavern Thanksgiving + Christmas Day. Live reservation inventory is up now. Thanksgiving Day Buffet — Nov. 26: $45–$125/person. Christmas Day Buffet — Dec. 25: $45–$135/person. Online bookings currently support parties of 1–6. BOOK MATTEI’S
BOOK NOW — Finch & Fork Thanksgiving Harvest Buffet — Nov. 26. Reservations are live now at $150/adult and $60/child under 12. The live booking channel currently supports parties up to 10. BOOK FINCH & FORK
BOOK NOW — Rosewood Miramar 2026 holiday dining: Reservations are live now for Thanksgiving (Nov. 26), Christmas Eve (Dec. 24), Christmas Day (Dec. 25), and New Year’s Eve (Dec. 31). Highest-priority family booking: Caruso’s Feast of the Seven Fishes — Dec. 24: $295 adult / $125 child; children age 4 and under complimentary, with a choice of the Feast of the Seven Fishes or Caruso’s seasonal tasting menu. Caruso’s Christmas Day — Dec. 25: $265 adult / $125 child; age 4 and under complimentary. Thanksgiving at The Revere Room — Nov. 26: $145 adult / $65 child; children under 4 complimentary. Caruso’s New Year’s Eve is explicitly adult only. Le Bal Cristal Founder’s Package — $25,000. The primary holiday page does not post an explicit sellout or capacity warning. Official Rosewood holiday page · Book Caruso’s Feast of the Seven Fishes
DETAILS RELEASED / HOLD FOR MORE INFO — Thanksgiving at Bacara — Thanksgiving weekend: Bacara’s official holiday page now lists Harvest Cookie Decorating, Fall Arts & Crafts, Family Movie Night, seasonal photo opportunities, the Grateful Tree, Thanksgiving Brunch in the Ballroom, Lulio seasonal specials and Mission Market fall offerings. The page links Give Thanks Together to Bacara’s holiday reservation portal. Exact brunch times, price, local/non-staying guest access, capacity and sellout language are not yet posted on the primary page. Official holiday page · Holiday reservation portal
BOOK NOW — Paloma Tinsel Tavern — Nov. 19, 2026–Jan. 4, 2027. Reservations are live now and the window has expanded again. Paloma’s official site routes reservations to its OpenTable channel, where confirmed dinner inventory is now live through Sat. Dec. 26; for a party of 2 on Dec. 26, multiple seatings are currently available from 5–9:30 PM. No separate Tinsel Tavern cover charge, age restriction, capacity limit or sellout warning is currently posted. Official Paloma / Tinsel Tavern page · Official reservation link
BOOK NOW — Buellton Winter Fest Breakfast with Santa — Sun. Dec. 6, 2026. Winter Fest itself is free. The Holiday Village includes snow, vendors, music and evening holiday programming. Only Breakfast with Santa is reservation-based. The official Discover Buellton page is now updated for 2026 and says Breakfast with Santa tickets are available; there are two required-reservation seatings, 9–10 AM and 10:30–11:30 AM. We’re planning to go to Winter Fest; Breakfast with Santa can now be booked separately from the official event page. Official Discover Buellton page
NOT ON SALE YET — Santa Ynez Valley Holiday Lights Festival: Dec. 4–6, Dec. 11–13 and Dec. 18–20, 5–8:30 PM each night. Dates and prices are confirmed, but tickets are not live yet. Advance admission is $30 for ages 13+ / $15 for ages 12 and under; children 2 and under free. The official 2026 ticketing page now also lists at-the-door pricing of $35 adult / $20 child. Tickets are still not live, and the current Buy Tickets button routes to the 2025 event. The Botanic Garden explicitly says it expects to sell out and will not add tickets after sellout. Do not wait once sales open. WATCH OFFICIAL TICKET PAGE
BOOK NOW — Santa Barbara Trolley of Lights — Dec. 8–21. MORE TOURS ADDED. The operator now lists two nightly tours Thursday–Monday, with 4:30 PM and 6:30 PM check-in, and one tour Tuesday–Wednesday with 6 PM check-in. Tours depart 15 minutes after check-in. Public reservations are live now at $42/person; lap children under 2 do not require a ticket. Private trolleys hold up to 30 guests and are $975 before convenience fees and gratuity. We booked a private trolley this year and ours is already full, so next year we’re going to need two! BOOK TROLLEY OF LIGHTS
BOOK NOW — Bacara Signature Chef Series — Nov. 6–7. Reservations are live and Bacara says seating is limited. Rachel Haggstrom of The Restaurant at JUSTIN, reception + multi-course dinner with JUSTIN pairings.
BOOK NOW — Ojai Valley Inn Breakfast with Santa — Dec. 18–20, 9–11:30 AM. Reservations are live now. $95 adults / $50 children 12 and under; breakfast buffet, Santa, live reindeer and a keepsake photo included; tax and gratuity extra. BOOK BREAKFAST WITH SANTA
BOOK NOW — Ojai Valley Inn Christmas Grand Buffet — Dec. 25. Reservations are live now for 12 PM and 4 PM seatings. $195 adults / $65 children 12 and under; Santa is present; tax and gratuity extra. BOOK CHRISTMAS GRAND BUFFET
RESERVATIONS LIVE, ACCESS STILL TO CONFIRM — Bacara Holiday Cookie Decorating — Dec. 22–25, 2:30–4 PM. $40/person; 24-hour advance booking required. Bacara’s portal shows RESERVE NOW, but we are still confirming whether non-staying local families can book before recommending it broadly.
BOOK NOW — Lulio Christmas Eve / Christmas Day dining — Dec. 24–25. Reservations are open now through Bacara’s holiday portal.