{"id":20351,"date":"2025-10-21T17:05:38","date_gmt":"2025-10-22T00:05:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/noelophile.com\/?p=20351"},"modified":"2025-10-21T17:05:38","modified_gmt":"2025-10-22T00:05:38","slug":"dates-and-times-to-keep-in-mind","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/noelophile.com\/?p=20351","title":{"rendered":"Dates and Times to Keep in Mind"},"content":{"rendered":"<h6>by Noella Noelophile\u00ae<\/h6>\n<div id=\"attachment_20376\" style=\"width: 710px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/noelophile.com\/?attachment_id=20376\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-20376\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-20376\" class=\"size-full wp-image-20376\" src=\"https:\/\/noelophile.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/advent-calendar-1884424_1280-e1761089956311.jpg\" alt=\"Green felt Advent calendar pouches hang on a wall with numbers 1 through 4 and red hearts, trim and ribbons.   The fourth is white with a green Christmas tree and red scalloped border.\" width=\"700\" height=\"394\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-20376\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">(Royalty-free image by Klaus from Pixabay.)<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Admittedly, we haven&#8217;t even celebrated Halloween yet.<\/p>\n<p>BUT&#8211;here are some Christmas-season dates to keep in mind, so you don&#8217;t get disappointed; a lot of these sell out!<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Scary&#8221; as it seems, you may want to mark your calendar for:<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_20378\" style=\"width: 710px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/noelophile.com\/?attachment_id=20378\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-20378\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-20378\" class=\"size-full wp-image-20378\" src=\"https:\/\/noelophile.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/steam-locomotive-2108131_1280-e1761090945998.jpg\" alt=\"Closeup of red train wheels on a steam locomotive.\" width=\"700\" height=\"466\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-20378\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">(Royalty-free image by <a href=\"https:\/\/pixabay.com\/users\/kasabubu-1559919\/?utm_source=link-attribution&amp;utm_medium=referral&amp;utm_campaign=image&amp;utm_content=2108131\">Klaus Stebani<\/a> from Pixabay.)<\/p><\/div>\n<p><strong>Monday, November 3, 10 am<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Irvine Park Railroad&#8217;s Christmas Train<\/strong> tickets go on sale, right at 10:00 that morning.<\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.irvineparkrailroad.com\/events\/christmas-train\/\">Christmas Train<\/a> always, but <em>always<\/em>, sells out.<\/p>\n<p>Which comes as no surprise.\u00a0 This is an enchanting annual tradition, traveling through festive Irvine Regional Historical Park, with a final destination of the North Pole.<\/p>\n<p>After young travelers have had the opportunity to visit with a certain jolly gentleman, the train returns to Santa&#8217;s Village.\u00a0 (Here&#8217;s where they can fill out a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.irvineparkrailroad.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/WishList.pdf\">&#8220;Wish List&#8221;<\/a> \u00a0to hand him!)<\/p>\n<p>According to Irvine Park Railroad&#8217;s website, dinner, dessert and snacks are provided for travelers, and reservations are available ONLY online.<\/p>\n<p>Operating dates for the Christmas Train: <strong>November 28th through December 23rd<\/strong>, from 4:00 pm to 9:00 pm on weekdays, and 10:00 am to 9 pm on weekends.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_20379\" style=\"width: 690px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/noelophile.com\/?attachment_id=20379\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-20379\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-20379\" class=\"size-full wp-image-20379\" src=\"https:\/\/noelophile.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/3.png\" alt=\"Woman smiles next to carousel with &quot;Winter Fest OC&quot; nearby.\" width=\"680\" height=\"350\" srcset=\"https:\/\/noelophile.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/3.png 680w, https:\/\/noelophile.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/3-300x154.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 680px) 100vw, 680px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-20379\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">(Photo courtesy of Winter Fest OC.)<\/p><\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>Now through Monday, November 10th<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.winterfestoc.com\/\">Winter Fest OC<\/a>, in Costa Mesa, has &#8220;Early Bird&#8221; tickets available, for purchase online ONLY.\u00a0 \u00a0This is Southern California&#8217;s largest winter festival, held at the Orange County Fairgrounds, and among the attractions will be light displays, ice skating, ice tubing, fresh snow, daily entertainment and a lot more!<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Snow Passes&#8221; are available for single-day admission, for just over $30 per person (flexible dates!), and the price goes down to just under $28 per attendee for the &#8220;Flex Snow Pass Family 4 Pack.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Among the features included with these are ice tubing, entrance to the Snow Play Zone (that snow carousel sounds like a lot of fun!), and a visit with Santa, available now through December 24th.<\/p>\n<p>And if you&#8217;d like to splurge&#8211;for yourself or someone on your gift list&#8211;there&#8217;s also a single-day admission &#8220;Flex Platinum Pass&#8221; which includes 9 holes of Polar Putt-Putt, unlimited carnival rides and unlimited ice skating!<\/p>\n<p>Winter Fest OC runs from <strong>Friday, November 28th (Friday after Thanksgiving!) through Sunday, January 4th.<\/strong><\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_20377\" style=\"width: 482px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/noelophile.com\/?attachment_id=20377\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-20377\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-20377\" class=\"size-full wp-image-20377\" src=\"https:\/\/noelophile.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/lantern-4663284_1280-e1761090270901.jpg\" alt=\"Two red tin lanterns with starshaped openings glow with white candles inside as they sit on a bed of pine branches.\" width=\"472\" height=\"700\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-20377\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">(Royalty-free image by <a href=\"https:\/\/pixabay.com\/users\/congerdesign-509903\/?utm_source=link-attribution&amp;utm_medium=referral&amp;utm_campaign=image&amp;utm_content=4663284\">Conger Designs<\/a> on Pixabay.)<\/p><\/div>\n<p><strong>Now until they sell out:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Columbia State Historic Park&#8217;s &#8220;Lamplight Tours&#8221;&#8211;book <a href=\"https:\/\/www-153f.bookeo.com\/bookeo\/b_friendsofcolumbiashp_start.html?ctlsrc2=aXJ7e3IwXlDm0zjo6xkrJpTIgarjEzdjy0WZKic6vUU%3D&amp;src=02b&amp;type=3153NLKNMR148A97C28A4\">here.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Here&#8217;s your chance to go back in time.<\/p>\n<p>With a kerosene lantern, the group leaves Columbia Museum to travel the streets of Columbia for a walking play, visiting with local &#8220;townsfolk&#8221;, who share their humorous recollections of days gone by.\u00a0 The evening ends with music, dance and refreshments&#8211;and believe it or not, one time slot, on December 6th, is sold out already!<\/p>\n<p>Dates: <strong>Friday, December 5th and Saturday, December 6th, from 5 pm to 10 pm<\/strong>.\u00a0 The first tour leaves at 6:30 pm on Friday, the 5th, with tours departing at 15-minute intervals thereafter, until 7:45 pm.\u00a0 Then, on Saturday, the 6th, the first tour leaves at 5:30 pm, with tours departing every fifteen minutes until 7:45 pm.<\/p>\n<p>Tickets are listed at $30 per person, and you&#8217;re requested to arrive at the museum 15 minutes prior to your tour&#8217;s scheduled departure time.<\/p>\n<p>And&#8211;those are just three of the upcoming events you might like to add to your calendar for Christmas season, 2025!\u00a0 I&#8217;ll follow up with more, later this week.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>by Noella Noelophile\u00ae Admittedly, we haven&#8217;t even celebrated Halloween yet. BUT&#8211;here are some Christmas-season dates to keep in mind, so you don&#8217;t get disappointed; a lot of these sell out! &#8220;Scary&#8221; as it seems, you may want to mark your &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/noelophile.com\/?p=20351\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[2576,981,2412],"class_list":["post-20351","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-special-events","tag-columbia-state-historic-park-lamplight-tours","tag-irvine-park-railroad-christmas-train","tag-oc-winterfest"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/noelophile.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20351","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/noelophile.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/noelophile.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/noelophile.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/noelophile.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=20351"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/noelophile.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20351\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20380,"href":"https:\/\/noelophile.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20351\/revisions\/20380"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/noelophile.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=20351"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/noelophile.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=20351"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/noelophile.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=20351"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}