“This does not feel like Christmas,” I thought between forced gulps of hot chocolate. I looked over at my teammate Doug, hunkered next to me in our kitchenette dug out of the snow, nursing his frostbitten hands. My dad and the other climbers in our group, Wim and our guide Victor, huddled in our shelter trying to warm themselves.

There’s a good reason so many chipper holidays fall in the height of winter: Spreading goodwill and cheer is the social antidote to the winter blues brought on by shorter days and colder temperatures. Luckily here in the Golden State, life’s just a little easier. There are plenty of places nearby that provide activities for the intrepid, from skydiving to ballroom dancing, so a gift certificate may be just the thing.

Questions loom large after the eviction of the Occupy Santa Cruz camp: Is this the end of the protest? Will there be further action advancing the movement’s ideals? Have they even figured out, specifically, what those ideals are yet?

The Occupy encampment in San Lorenzo Park had obviously thinned out by 5pm on Wednesday, the stated deadline for the eviction notice that police issued on Monday. A couple dozen onlookers stood around the periphery of the camp, some linking arms in solidarity, some shaking their heads in dismay. A few policemen strolled around them—a stark contrast to the scene around 7am this morning, when about 90 police officers in riot gear cleared out the approximately 20 tents and people who had stayed the night.

Friends of Santa Cruz State Parks celebrates 35 years of helping the Santa Cruz community connect with the natural world with an evening of gourmet appetizers, desserts and ocean views at the Dream Inn.

The new Makers Factory—installed in its Cruzio building offices for two weeks now—invites the Santa Cruz community to drop by their downtown space for their first public event: making personalized lasercut holiday popup cards and decorations.
“Popup cards are a traditional form of greeting card,” says Makers Factory co-founder Chris Yonge. “The problem is that they require some planning and they require some skill and handiwork.”

Smack in between “Black Friday” and “Cyber Monday,” “Small Business Saturday,” on Nov. 26, promotes the locavore’s alternative to America’s holiday shopping spree. American Express created the national event in hopes of shifting consumer spending toward small businesses—you know, the ones President Obama called “the backbone of our nation’s economy” in 2008.