Christmas

As December nears a close and the New Year begins, the time comes to dispose of your Christmas tree. It's a sad but inevitable fact of life that your tree has to go at some point, unless of course you have an artificial Christmas tree, in which case you can probably stop reading right here.

Fortunately, your local disposal agency is usually more than happy to take your dried out old Noble Fir off your hands and do the green thing with the tree by recycling it. If for some reason you can't leave your tree out by the curb with your yard waste, you can drop it off at a number of different locations, including most fire houses, throughout Marin County.

Here's a rundown of Christmas tree disposal details for communities in Marin, courtesy of marinrecycles.org.

Curbside Collection

Marin Sanitary
For Larkspur, Greenbrae, Kentfield, Las Gallinas Valley, Ross, San Anselmo, San Rafael, Fairfax, and Ross Valley (Sleepy Hollow and Oak Manor): Trees collected at the curb on your regular yard waste pickup day during the month of January. If trees are greater than 6 feet in length, please cut them in half. Remove all metal stands, plastic tree bags, and ornaments. Flocked trees will not be accepted.

Mill Valley Refuse
For Almonte, Alto, Belvedere, Corte Madera, Mill Valley, Homestead, Strawberry, and Tiburon: Trees along curb on any regular greenwaste collection day, starting the week after New Year’s. Trees taller than 5 feet in length must be cut in half. Flocked trees are OK. All apartment building tenants should contact their manager. They will set up one day for all
Christmas tree collection.

Novato Disposal
During the week of January 11 customers may place whole trees at the curb the night before their regular collection day. Additionally, trees may be cut to fit inside your yard waste container for collection on your regular service day. Remove all lights, tinsel ornaments and stands. Flocked trees will not be collected.

Sausalito/Marin City
Bay Cities Refuse customers in Sausalito can put trees at the curb on your regular greenwaste pickup day January 4–8 or January 18–22. Customers in Marin City can put trees at the curb on your regular green waste pickup day January 8 and January 22. No metal stands or flocked trees and remove all ornaments.

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Even though it's an activity that you can do year-round, ice skating seems to be something that's especially appealing around the holidays, and, with the addition of several temporary outdoor ice rinks, more prevalent this time of year. Unfortunately, you're not going to be able to go ice skating in Marin (although those of us who grew up in the county surely remember Raydine's in Corte Madera, at the site of what is now Gold's Gym on Lucky Drive), but there are several locations close by in the Bay Area where you can hit the ice this holiday season.

Fairfax Parks & Recreation Holiday Ice Skating

The Fairfax Parks & Recreation Commission will sponsor their third annual ice skating event on a synthetic rink in the Pavilion on Saturday and Sunday, January 2 and 3 from noon–5 pm. There will be lots of family fun, so make sure you purchase your tickets early! Prices: $5 for adults and $3 for kids for a half hour of skating. Rental skates are included in the price of admission. Hot cocoa and baked goodies will be available for sale as well. Tickets will be sold at the door, beginning at 11:30 am on both days. For more info, call Maria Baird, Community Resources Coordinator, at (415) 456-5652 or at www.townoffairfax.org.

Snoopy's Home Ice

In Santa Rosa you can find Snoopy's Home Ice at the Redwood Empire Ice Arena. Opened by the late Santa Rosa resident and Peanuts cartoonist Charles M. Schulz in 1969, the Redwood Empire Ice Arena offers daily public skating hours (check their schedule for details), skating lessons, birthday parties, and special events. The entire place is decorated with a Swiss theme and offers an alpine ambience. The Redwood Empire Ice Arena is also home to Snoopy's Warm Puppy Cafe, where you can sit by the fire and eat breakfast, lunch, or dinner, or just have a hot chocolate and watch the action on the Snoopy's Home Ice.

It's the weekend after Christmas, and the holiday specials are off the TV, the all-Christmas-music radio stations have gone back to playing whatever they normally play, and those gifts that were under the tree are now scattered all over the house. Despite the big run-up of Christmas cheer, it's disappointing when the whole holiday train comes to a seemingly full and complete stop after December 25. While I feel a certain amount of relief that the holiday chaos is pretty much over, I'm also wishing that I had more time to slow down and savor the pleasures of the Christmas season.

Fortunately, I have good news for those of you out there who haven't yet had your fill of holiday cheer—the Christmas houses are still open! If you're still looking for that holiday spirit, head on down to one of our local decorated houses and take in the magic one last time (or two or three, even).

Come mark the beginning of Kwanzaa, the African-American celebration of family and community, at Sausalito's Bay Area Discovery Museum on Saturday, December 26 from 10 am–5 pm, with art projects inspired by the African continent and a Kwanzaa altar in the Museum’s Entry Pavilion.

Also, enjoy a performance by renowned jazz drummer E. W. Wainwright and his ensemble, The African Roots of Jazz, takes you on a musical journey that traces African-American musical forms, such as jazz, gospel, and spirituals, from their earliest beginnings in African cultures to today at 11 am and 1 pm in the Discovery Theatre. The program features instrumental music, songs, theater, and audience participation (seating is limited; pick up free tickets at the front desk prior to entering the theater).

Every Christmas, the men and women of NORAD take a break from tracking the skies and waterways of North America and instead follow Santa Claus on his annual Christmas trek around the globe. You can check out Saint Nick's progress live online at NORAD's special Santa Tracking website, www.noradsanta.org.

NORAD's tradition of tracking Santa's route started in 1955, when a local Sears store in Colorado Springs printed the wrong phone number in a Christmastime advertisement for children to call Santa. The phone number was in fact that of the CONAD (the predececessor of NORAD, which took over the tradition in 1958) operations hotline, and the staff under Col. Harry Shoup responded with good humor and gave the children who called in updates on Santa's position.

There are many people who really get into the holiday spirit in Marin, and of all places in the county I think that Marinwood, the small community sandwiched between Novato and San Rafael, has the most decorated holiday houses per capita!

It's only natural then that one of our favorite Christmas houses happens to be located in Marinwood: the Nisja's Bear house, which has been delighting Marin and Bay Area families for 30 years.

Our children's favorite decorated and lighted Christmas house is the Mize family's Mickey Mouse House (AKA "Mickey's Christmas House") in Marinwood. Visit it, and you'll see why it's so popular! The Mickey Mouse House, located at 417 Blackstone Drive (at Las Gallinas), looks to be just a regular lighted Christmas house at first glance. But get out of your car and walk up the short driveway and you'll see why it's worth a visit for kids of all ages. Every evening from 6 pm to 10 pm, the two-car garage is opened to reveal two galleries of what has to be every Disney toy, decoration, and gimgrack ever produced, all artfully arranged in two spectacular holiday displays.