Calistoga's December Runs Through the Old Green Church on Third Street
November 12, 2026
November 12, 2026
At 7 p.m. on Friday, December 4, a tree will light up on a terrace at 1407 Third Street. The terrace sits under mature London Plane trees and looks out over Washington Street and the Berry Street bridge near the Napa River. For about 150 years the building behind it was the Community Presbyterian Church, which most of Calistoga knew as the Green Church. Boy Scouts, Future Farmers of America and Alcoholics Anonymous all held meetings there.
It now operates as the Brannan Center, and this is its second December. The calendar shows how much of the town's holiday season the building now holds. The Lighted Tractor Parade is still the event that gets national attention, but it runs for one hour on one Saturday. The tree lighting, a bilingual Christmas play over two Sundays, and a tuba concert the weekend before Christmas all happen at the old church.
The Calistoga Tribune reported in May 2025 that the conversion took five years of planning and more than two years of construction. Work began in March 2023. The result is a venue of nearly 11,000 square feet with two performance halls and a catering and demonstration kitchen. Nearly 300 donors gave more than $11.5 million toward construction, start-up operations and long-term sustainability. The lead donors were Calistoga residents Edward and Sara Kozel, and the main stage is in Kozel Hall.
The Center held its grand opening in October 2025, and more than 600 guests attended. It is run as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, with Kyle Clausen as executive director and Erin Smith-Hagberg as board chair. Before it opened, Clausen told the Tribune what the building was meant to do:
"This milestone is not just the opening of a building – it's the beginning of a new chapter for the upper valley. We look forward to being a home for a wide range of community activities, performances, and important life events such as weddings and quinceañeras."
Two months after the opening, the Center hosted Merry & Bright Night for the first time. Calistoga already had holiday gatherings before then. A Holiday Village with a tree lighting was held at Pioneer Park in 2021, and the 2024 Christmas Faire included an annual tree lighting. The 2025 event added something new, a single evening organized jointly by the city, the Chamber, a family-services nonprofit and the new venue.
Four of these six events take place in the same building.
Merry & Bright Night returns with the same partners as last year: the Brannan Center, the City of Calistoga, the Calistoga Chamber of Commerce and UpValley Family Centers. The evening includes photos with Santa, gingerbread-house building, performances by CJUSD musical ensembles, food trucks and holiday treats. The tree lighting is set for 7 p.m. sharp. The event page is in English and Spanish, and the Spanish section calls the evening Festividad de Noche Navideña.
The Chamber now promotes the Friday and Saturday as one weekend. In a November 2 announcement, Eric Reichert, President and CEO of Visit Calistoga and the Calistoga Chamber of Commerce, said, "With Merry & Bright Night on Friday and the parade on Saturday, we're inviting visitors to make a weekend of it." In practice, the Friday evening on Third Street is now part of how the town presents parade weekend.
The parade has more visibility than it used to. In December 2025, it placed #4 among Best Holiday Parades in USA TODAY's 10Best Readers' Choice Awards, its highest ranking so far and its fourth straight year on the list. The Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade placed eighth. The City of Calistoga's listing names the Chamber as the contact. The parade's listed location is Lincoln Avenue and Washington Street. The city calls it a rain-or-shine event with more than 50 illuminated tractors and trucks.
Some residents enter the parade rather than watch it. Visit Calistoga's parade page links to the Chamber's 2026 participation form, which accepts the first 50 complete entries. With about three weeks left before the parade, that limit is the relevant number for anyone planning to drive a decorated tractor.
The building matters most in the weeks after the parade. Most holiday promotion ends on the night of December 5, while the Brannan Center has events on the next two Sundays and the following Saturday.
De Calistoga a Belen Pastorela is a musical Mexican Christmas play for all ages, performed in English and Spanish. It is presented by Ángeles de Caridad in collaboration with Our Lady of Perpetual Help and the Brannan Center. There are four performances, at 3 and 5:30 p.m. on December 6 and December 13. Tickets are $20 for adults and $10 for children 12 and under. Half of each ticket goes to Ángeles de Caridad, a charitable program of Our Lady of Perpetual Help Catholic Church that provides financial assistance to individuals and families in Calistoga. Tickets are sold through the Pastorela event page.
Tuba Christmas returns on December 19 for its second year, and it is free. The day is set up mostly for the musicians. Players can register starting at 9 a.m., rehearse from 10 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., and then have lunch organized by Calistoga Music Boosters. The public concert begins at 2 p.m. A tuba or euphonium player who has not played in years has a full morning to get ready before performing.
These two events add up to three more weekends of community programming after the parade. Each one is run by a different group: a Catholic parish charity on two Sundays and a music-boosters lunch on a Saturday. The Brannan Center provides the venue for both.
Bubbles Calistoga is the season's newest stop near the parade route. It is a sparkling-wine lounge at 1120 Washington Street, announced in an October 1 release on WineBusiness.com. It offers more than 20 wines by the glass, about 60 bottles to buy or open on site, three themed flights and small plates. Bubbles' site lists hours of noon to 8 p.m. on Monday and Thursday through Sunday. It is closed Tuesday and Wednesday. A Laurent-Perrier tasting is scheduled for December 17. Merry & Bright falls on a Friday and the parade on a Saturday, so both nights are within its posted hours.
The 2026–27 Winter in the Wineries Passport costs $80. It is valid from December 5, 2026 through February 28, 2027, and it covers tastings plus discounts on lodging, dining and spas. Presale opened October 23, and physical passports are scheduled for pickup in mid-November. The passport starts on parade day and runs almost three months beyond it.
The Calistoga Depot reopened after its temporary closure earlier in the year, and its site now says "Now Open" with weekly hours posted.
The Kozels said what they expected from the building before it opened. "We are firm believers in the power of the performing arts to bring people together, spark joy and help strengthen our common humanity," Sara Kozel said in the Tribune's opening coverage. The Center describes its December role as an extension of its work as a community gathering place, and it lists its city, Chamber and UpValley Family Centers partners for Merry & Bright.
A converted church fills that role in December for practical reasons. It has two halls for a play performed in two languages, a kitchen and room for a musicians' lunch, and an outdoor terrace above Washington Street with an outdoor fireplace for a tree lighting. The same building held the town's meetings for about 150 years, and now it is the center of the town's holiday calendar.
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