A mission courtyard that has been standing since the eighteenth century does not need much help in December, and the people who run it seem to know it. The lighting is restrained by the standards of the genre - a halo grove, a citrus garden you smell before you see, swallows picked out in light above the ruins of the old stone church. Dickens-era carolers work the arcades. There is a full-scale nativity. The crowd is noticeably older and quieter than at a theme-park light show, and children notice the difference and behave accordingly, which is its own small miracle. Opening night is Friday the nineteenth, with the ceremony at 4:50 and the tree at 5:05. The run is December 18 through 30 but the mission is dark on the 24th, 25th, 28th and 31st, so check the night before you drive down. 26801 Ortega Highway, San Juan Capistrano, a short walk from the Metrolink platform if you would rather not park.
A mission courtyard that has been standing since the eighteenth century does not need much help in December, and the people who run it seem to know it. The lighting is restrained by the standards of the genre - a halo grove, a citrus garden you smell before you see, swallows picked out in light above the ruins of the old stone church. Dickens-era carolers work the arcades. There is a full-scale nativity. The crowd is noticeably older and quieter than at a theme-park light show, and children notice the difference and behave accordingly, which is its own small miracle. Opening night is Friday the nineteenth, with the ceremony at 4:50 and the tree at 5:05. The run is December 18 through 30 but the mission is dark on the 24th, 25th, 28th and 31st, so check the night before you drive down. 26801 Ortega Highway, San Juan Capistrano, a short walk from the Metrolink platform if you would rather not park.
A mission courtyard that has been standing since the eighteenth century does not need much help in December, and the people who run it seem to know it. The lighting is restrained by the standards of the genre - a halo grove, a citrus garden you smell before you see, swallows picked out in light above the ruins of the old stone church. Dickens-era carolers work the arcades. There is a full-scale nativity. The crowd is noticeably older and quieter than at a theme-park light show, and children notice the difference and behave accordingly, which is its own small miracle. Opening night is Friday the nineteenth, with the ceremony at 4:50 and the tree at 5:05. The run is December 18 through 30 but the mission is dark on the 24th, 25th, 28th and 31st, so check the night before you drive down. 26801 Ortega Highway, San Juan Capistrano, a short walk from the Metrolink platform if you would rather not park.
Falkor
