With Thanksgiving taking place so late in the month of November this year, the Christmas season is creeping up on us all very quickly! Fresno and nearby surrounding cities offer an awesome array of ways to ring in the holiday, but you’ve got to calendar them quick because they are almost upon us!

Here are 7 awesome ways to stoke your Christmas spirit with family and friends in the coming weeks.

Special Events

Santa’s Fly-In – November 29th @ 9 am 

Santa will be arriving in the Riverpark Shopping Center on Blackstone and Nees on Black Friday at 9 am! He will be available for photos in front of the Edwards Movie Theater beginning at 10 am. If you’re out shopping, be sure to take the kids to see Santa arrive in Riverpark in a helicopter right at 9, it’s an experience sure to delight!

Santa Claus Lane Opening – November 29th @ 6pm

Santa Claus Lane is a musically synced, beautifully lit neighborhood experience located at 3116 Indianapolis in Clovis (off of Gettysburg and Locan). The Lane will celebrate the start of its 5th year of operation this year with an opening night celebration and food trucks from 6-10pm on November 29th. 

Christmas Tree Lane Walk Nights – December 3^rd and December 11^th, 6-10pm

Fresno’s Famous Christmas Tree Lane is a 97-year old tradition the features beautifully lit homes amongst a canopy of decorated evergreens lining Van Ness Avenue between Shields and Shaw Avenues. Traffic is one-way, and though the lane is lit throughout December, it is closed to traffic on just two nights, which this year are the 3rd and 11th. Grab some cocoa, your gloves, and walking shoes and prepare for a great night in the brisk air with fellow seasonal revelers. For more details, click here.

Parades

Reedley Electric Farm Equipment Parade – December 5th, 3:30pm-8:30pm

This long-running parade features farm equipment of all types and sizes decorated and lit for the holidays! Little ones who love trucks and vehicles will especially enjoy this experience. Bundle up tight, go early for food that will be available for purchase and to claim a good seat. The parade goes through downtown Reedley, but the main location is listed as 1101 G Street. This parade usually begins once its dark, but festivities begin as early as 3:30pm that afternoon. Reedley is located to the southeast of Fresno, and is an easy 45 minute drive away.

Fresno Christmas Parade – December 7th, 2pm

This parade is celebrating its 90^th year by caravanning down Fulton Avenue in Downtown Fresno and holiday-themed floats celebrating each decade of the parade’s existence! This daytime parade is one of the areas oldest, and allows you to double up and see two great parades in the same day, since it takes place at 2pm and the Clovis Parade begins in the evening on the same date.

Clovis Children’s Electric Christmas Parade – December 7th, 6:30pm

This parade features lights, marching bands, cheer squads, horses, cars and more and is attended by thousands each year! Be sure to arrive early to get a good spot for viewing. 

Pageantry of Lights Christmas Night Parade – December 14th, 6pm

This Kerman-based parade which begins at C street on Madera Avenue and proceeds to G street ushers Santa into the town of Kerman. This is a fun evening of festive lights and small-town charm sure to delight the young and old alike. Bring your own chairs and blankets and get cozy with your favorite people to enjoy this event. 

Though it may seem a bit early to begin your holiday shopping (or for those of you that are early birds, maybe even late?) there’s one local gift that you’ll definitely want to snag later this week if you’re looking to pamper a loved one – a gift certificate for a trip to Muses.

Muses is a Day Spa located on the northwest corner of Cedar and Teague in northeast Fresno. Whether you’re someone whose lifestyle allows for frequent visits to a Day Spa, or one who reserves such an experience for very special occasions, I’m certain Muses will be worth it, any time you can go.  I’m a “special occasion” spa-goer who mainly gets to visit when I receive a gift certificate or if my husband and I decide to go for a couple’s massage as an anniversary gift to one another. We’ve both visited other local spas for special occasions, but the experience doesn’t compare to the relaxing atmosphere and high level of service offered at Muses. 

Muses offers massages, facials, spa manicures and pedicures, microdermabrasion and facial peels, airbrush tanning, makeup artistry, anti-aging treatments and more. There are services designed specifically for men, including their Just for Men package which includes a 60-minute massage, a neck, and scalp massage and a men’s pedicure for $155. So, if you’re a man reading this, you can absolutely enjoy a trip to Muses and I’ve seen plenty of men arriving and leaving from appointments there on my visits. 

Making an appointment for a spa service at Muses is easy, as they provide a straightforward menu of their services and easy online booking on their website. I was very grateful to receive a gift certificate to Muses for my birthday this year, so I recently was able to enjoy a wonderful massage there. During my visit, I snapped a few photos, because I knew I would want to share this gem of a place with you as the holidays approached.

When booking, I recommend allowing time to arrive early for your appointment, as Muses has an incredibly cozy and well-appointed relaxation room that you get to enjoy before and after your service. You’ll be given a fluffy robe to change into (if you like, no pressure) offered a glass of champagne, a mimosa, spa water or coffee and given a quick tour of the changing room and relaxation room. You can relax on a chaise lounge next to the softly glowing fireplace, enjoy their steam room or warm up in the sauna. When it’s time for your service to begin, you will be escorted to a dimly lit and luxuriously appointed treatment room. No detail is spared from the décor to the quality of the linens on the massage tables. Getting back to my original suggestion, if you would like to give the gift of relaxation to someone special this holiday season, you’re going to want to mark your calendar for this Thursday, November 7^th between 4 and 7 pm, as its Muses annual Appreciation Day! On Appreciation Day, Muses offers special discounts on spa services, 20% off of retail products, and raffles with services offered at up to $1,000 in value. Everyone who stops by will be treated to appetizers and champagne – so stop by after work and score special pricing on a gift that’s definitely one that will be enjoyed.

Do you love surprising people with special gift delivery? What about freshly baked bread – are you a fan? And beautiful flowers? I bet you know people who like those, too. If you answered yes to the questions above, you are going to absolutely love the local business I’m about to introduce you to.

FresYes fans, meet Alina and her business, Fresh Bread and Flowers.

Is this bread not the most stunning bread you’ve ever seen?

I was absolutely stunned to receive this loaf of handmade rustic sourdough bread laced with fragrant rosemary, along with a bouquet of some of the most beautiful flowers I’d ever seen as a surprise gift from a dear friend on my birthday this past weekend.

Fresh Bread and Flowers is a local business that offers beautiful, naturally leavened and organic freshly baked bread and gorgeous floral bouquets made of blooms grown right here in town, by the company’s owner, Alina.

Alina moved to the Central Valley from Ukraine a little over a decade ago, but found it difficult to find wonderful breads like the kind she was used to enjoying in Ukraine. “Ukrainians eat a lot of bread. It is an essential part of every meal, and for some, including myself, it is also the best dessert (with some unsalted sweet cream and honey). When we moved to the U.S., it was quite challenging for me to find bread I liked. The choices seemed to be very limited compared to those in Europe, and I couldn’t find the taste and texture I liked.”

In order to solve her own dilemma, Alina decided to roll up her sleeves and get to baking her own bread until she could get the recipes just right. “During the past several years, we have baked many, many loaves striving to improve our skills as well as develop recipes we liked, and now we are ready to share our bread with you!”

Fresh Bread & Flowers currently offers five types of bread:

• Whole Wheat Levian
• Mini Miche
• French Sourdough
• Fig and Walnut Levain
• Rosemary Sourdough

Each bread is naturally leavened, meaning, no commercial yeast is used, which Alina says yields better flavor, a more healthful bread and allows the loaves to keep longer.

Bread can be purchased as a weekly subscription (4 weeks at a time, with delivery on Fridays) or as a one-time purchase.

As for the flowers, Alina says her mother is to blame. “For as long as I can remember, she has always been growing something in her beautiful garden. I will never forget the taste of the strawberries and tomatoes she grew!” Alina’s family had to leave Ukraine due to war, and though it’s wonderful for her parents to live nearby (and be there to watch Alina’s four children grow up) she knows her mother misses the beautiful roses, peonies and lilies she once grew in her home country. “To cheer her up, I turned our backyard into a flower farmette. Fresno climate is very difficult for flower farming. These blooms are a labor of love and hard work along with many tears and fears, but I love how flowers always, always make people smile!”

Alina makes stunning seasonal bouquets in one dozen and two dozen stem arrangements. These arrangements can be purchased as a weekly subscription, for business décor or as special occasion bouquets for delivery.

All of Alina’s Breads and Flowers are delivered Monday through Saturday, and someone needs to be present to accept deliveries, as it is not good for fresh bread or flowers to sit out in the elements on a porch for any length of time.

Alina’s prices are very reasonable, and the quality of her bread and bouquets are out-of-this-world phenomenal.

The next time you’re looking for a special way to brighten someone’s day, your home, or your office I highly recommend calling Alina of Fresh Bread and Flowers. You can enjoy gorgeous photos of her blooms and bread on Instagram here, learn more about ordering on her website here, or contact her to place an order here.

It’s that spooky, sugary time of year again! Halloween is just around the corner, the children in your life are thinking about their costumes, candy and of course, the pumpkin obsessed adults you know are flocking to coffee bars for pumpkin spice everything.

Pumpkin patches, like Christmas tree farms and corn mazes, can be open one year, and not the next – due to the changing climate, varying rainy season (or lack thereof) and the year-to-year profitability and feasibility of patch operation. So, to make things easy, I wanted to provide you, dear FresYes readers, with a guide to the best bets for pumpkin patching fun in the Fresno/Clovis area (+ one honorable mention in Reedley) for 2019.

1. Pumpkin King

Located on the northwest corner of Blackstone and Shaw, Pumpkin King has been operating retail patches for 33 years and has a long-standing  “pop-up” patch smack dab in the middle of Fresno offering a wide variety of pumpkins (price range is $3-$25), squash, corn and corn husks for sale, pony rides, shaved ice, fall photos, bounce houses and a hay-bale maze. Parking is ample and admission is free. Hours are 9 am to 9 pm, 7 days a week. 

Something else extra special about Pumpkin King is the patch’s long-standing commitment to helping fill the need for blood donations for local hospitals. Each year, Pumpkin King hosts the Great Pumpkin Blood Drive and offers free pumpkins to donors. Typically donations are taken once a week, on Sundays. Contact the patch directly for additional details. 

2. Planet Pumpkin

Planet Pumpkin is located on the northeast corner of First & Nees and is open 7 days a week from 9 am to 10 pm, and 11 pm on weekend nights. They offer pumpkins of all sizes and types, shaved ice, cotton candy, face painting and rides for just $1/per person. You can also reserve picnic tables to host a birthday party there. Admission and parking are free.

3. Simonian Farms

Located in eastern Fresno, en route to Sanger, Simonian Farms offers back in time, wild-west style fun with their year-round ice cream and retro soda shop, shooting gallery and gold-panning area. During the month of October, Simonian offers a pumpkin patch complete with Halloween costume accessories gift shop, a haunted house, and a hay bale maze. Entrance is free, and while you’re there, you can also stock up on locally grown fruits and vegetables, as well as artisan-made local jams, jellies, wines, and candies. Our family went to this patch a few years back and had a really nice time. Simonian Farms is open from 9 am to 6 pm daily.

4. The Grove of Old Town Clovis

The Grove of Old Town Clovis is a relative newcomer on the scene, however, it is locally-owned and operated by a long-time Clovis residing couple excited to provide a fun, family environment in Old Town Clovis from October 4^th through the 31^st. It appears that there will be at least seven different carnival rides for guests to enjoy, as well as live music from 7-10 pm every Friday and Saturday night during the patch’s operating season. Admission is $1 on Fridays and weekends. The Grove is located at 804 Clovis Avenue in Clovis.

Honorable Beyond Fresno/Clovis Mention: Hillcrest Farms

Located in Reedley, CA, just 40 minutes southeast of Fresno, Hillcrest offers a wooded wonderland of family fun with pumpkins, steam train rides ($4/person), hayrides ($3/per person), concessions, nature trails and play areas. Of all the patches, this is the one I hear touted most often as the favorite.

Hillcrest does have a per vehicle fee of $5/car on the 1^st, 2nd and last weekends of the month, and $10 per car on the peak third, fourth and fifth weekends in October. 2019 operating hours are 10am to 5pm, Saturdays and Sundays.

For additional information on any of the patches mentioned, click the name of the patch to be directed to their website or Facebook page.

When was the last time you experienced awe? The type of awe that leaves you speechless or just muttering “wow” quietly? For my husband and me, it was last month when we made the short drive to Paso Robles to experience Bruce Munro’s Field of Light at Sensorio. Have you heard about it yet?

The Field of Light is located just under two hours away from Fresno and makes for a very easy road trip. What exactly is the Field of Light? It’s exactly that! Over 58,000 lights in a 17-acre field of rolling hills and walking paths. Every single light sways gently in the breeze, and slowly – almost undetectably – changes colors every few moments creating an undulating, calming, floating rainbow along the hillside. It’s truly something out of this world, remarkable, stunning and like nothing I’ve ever seen before.

Bruce Munro is the artist who designed the display, which has been installed with the help of 60+ volunteers working 40 hours a week for 6 weeks straight! The site of the Field of Light is the future home of a lovely hillside event venue and future hotel and potentially a botanical garden – but for now, until January 2020 you can enjoy the art that Bruce Munro designed in lights.

The Field of Light is open Wednesday through Sunday each week, beginning at 5:30 and ending 9 pm on Wednesdays and Sundays and 10 pm on Fridays and Saturdays. The site features a covered picnic area, expansive lawn, a stage featuring live music each weekend night, a taco truck, wine by the glass and a concession bar featuring fun food like beignets and charcuterie platters. (And yes, there are nice, clean restrooms, too.)

Tickets to the Field of Light are available for advance purchase online here. You can also purchase VIP tickets that provide a full course dinner and viewing of the field from a special private terrace. 

Getting to the Field of Light is easy from Fresno. All you have to do is take 41 south until you reach the 46, then head west to 4380 CA-46 in Paso Robles, 93446. (It’s just before Eberle Winery, so if you’ve hit Eberle, turn around – you’ve passed the entrance.)

I highly recommend taking advantage of the opportunity to experience Bruce Munro’s Field of Light while we are lucky enough to have it so close to us. From speaking to the docents, we learned people have traveled from all over the world to see it, and as Fresnans we only have to drive 113 miles down the highway. 

A few quick tips: If you go, please note you can not take flash photos or use professional photography equipment, and I strongly suggest arriving before sunset so you can watch the lights slowly begin to glow and get brighter as the sky gets darker. There are two different walking paths through the lights – one is wheelchair/stroller accessible and the other is not. Wear comfortable walking shoes. Even those who can’t walk very far will still be able to enjoy the experience. 

Now take my word for it, plan a drive to Paso Robles, book your tickets and don’t miss this amazing experience!

Are you a green thumb or a black thumb? Do your house plants thrive, or do they continue to exist only because they are plastic and you can’t kill them? Either way – Foliage, a former pop-up now brick-and-mortar plant shop can either fuel your passion for plants or teach you how to improve your track record with them!

Foliage House Plant Shop & Design Studio was founded by Yasmeen Gonzalez. She initially began growing and designing house plants as a personal creative outlet, but soon found she wanted to share her love for plants with others through education, encouragement and by designing beautifully arranged house plants for others to enjoy in their homes or businesses. 

In her new shop, which is located in the Dewitt Building at 453 Pollasky Ave Suite #102 in Old Town Clovis, Yasmeen helps customers select the perfect plants, helps them repot or revive their own and event teaches classes on proper plant care. 

Yasmeen’s Plant Rehab class (which you can find by searching Foliage events on Eventbrite) offers 2.5 hours of instruction for guests, who each bring one houseplant that’s either struggling or beyond struggling. Each guest will be walked through what likely went wrong, how to prevent it from happening again and if it’s possible to revive the plant, they will find out the steps or even complete some of the steps in the shop. If the loss of the plant is just too much to bear, guests can drown their sorrows over sips of wine, with Foliage also offers with the class. One-on-one private instruction and assistance with plant re-potting and revival is also offered for $45. 

Foliage offers a variety of unique and exotic plants as well as plants that are very popular at this moment in time like Fiddle Leaf Fig trees and Monstera plants. Additionally, ceramic pots, hand-woven jute macramé hangers and other plant accessories are available for purchase. Yasmeen also loves supporting other local creatives and artists – so you can find plant related art pieces, prints and stickers by local artist Art by Elowyn for sale in store.

Whether you’re shopping for plants or in need of help with your own plants, you’ll definitely want to make time for a visit to Foliage in Clovis soon. Beyond the great selection and assistance, you’ll be able to look forward to, the shop itself is incredibly beautiful and very “Instagram-worthy”. The atmosphere is relaxing and the light that streams into the shop makes the plants that adorn the entire interior perky and happy to greet you. 

To follow Foliage and see what plants are coming in (you can call to reserve plants that will be held for one day, too!) check out their Instagram here.