This week: Trans BIPOC memorabilia through the ages, Oakland Ballet turns 60, Southern BBQ in the East Bay, and a Sonoma coast road trip. Plus, a refuge for Jews on Christmas, the Christmas Bird Count, an inside look at SF’s “Holiday House,” and a “holiday jay” box set.
Holiday jays
A Northern California cannabis collective has put together a holiday gift box aimed squarely at weed connoisseurs. Emerald Triangle Craft’s 12 Jays of X-Mas bundles a dozen one-gram pre-rolls from farms across the region, spanning sativas, indicas, and hybrids, each labeled by grower and strain.
The packaging, illustrated by artist Mabel Alcock, highlights the farmers as much as the product, framing the set as a snapshot of the Emerald Triangle’s small-scale cannabis economy. The box is available at a variety of Bay Area dispensaries. — Broke-Ass Stuart
Leaps through time
Oakland Ballet marks its 60th year in motion, shaped by ambition, collapse, reinvention, and a stubborn commitment to the city it calls home. Founded in 1965, the company weathered national tours, lean years, a mid-2000s shutdown, and a revival under artistic director Graham Lustig, who has expanded the repertoire while keeping the organization afloat.
Recent seasons have included culturally specific works like Luna Mexicana and Dancing Moons Festival, with The Nutcracker remaining both an artistic anchor and a financial lifeline. The Nutcracker runs December 20 and 21 at the Paramount Theatre, 2025 Broadway, Oakland. — The Oaklandside
Counting the flyway
Now through January 5, the Audubon Society is inviting the public to take part in its annual Christmas Bird Count, one of the country’s longest-running wildlife surveys, with a couple Bay Area events coming up.
Additionally, photographer Dick Evans and wilderness guide and author Hannah Hindley are celebrating the release of In the Shadow of the Bridge: Birds of the Bay Area, which maps the region as a key stop along the Pacific Flyway. Evans and Hindley will speak at Book Passage in Corte Madera, 51 Tamal Vista Boulevard, on January 17. — Bay Area News Group
Storybook lights on the hill
With the Castro’s beloved Tom & Jerry house now dark, another longtime standout can be found just up the hill in Corona Heights. The so-called Holiday House at 45 Upper Terrace, also known as the Storybook House, goes all in for Christmas, with a toy train looping above the enclosed front porch and Santa climbing the ladder outside.
The owners, a retired gay couple, are known for decorating their home for every holiday and recently gave a video tour showing off the house’s whimsical details, including an elevator. They bought the home for $800,000 in 1997, and today it’s estimated to be worth between $8 million and $10 million. — San Francisco Bucket List
A Jewish Christmas tradition
For more than three decades, Kung Pao Kosher Comedy has given Jews in San Francisco (and many gentiles, we imagine) somewhere to gather each Christmas: a Chinese restaurant, a full crowd, and a sharp lineup. Created and hosted by Lisa Geduldig, the long-running series has built a sense of continuity and community that’s carried the show through generations.
This year’s headliner is veteran stand-up Elayne Boosler, known for her dry delivery and political bite, joined by Orion Levine, Amanda Marks, and Geduldig. Runs December 24–26, Imperial Palace, 818 Washington Street — The Bay Area Reporter
Lives in full color
The GLBT Historical Society Museum’s current exhibition co-presented with the city of Richmond’s Louise Lawrence Transgender Archive, I Live the Life I Love Because I Love the Life I Live, traces the lives and work of Black, Indigenous, and other trans and gender-nonconforming people of color across a century of Bay Area and national history. Photographs, performance ephemera, activist materials, and personal portraits move between the stage and daily life, from Finocchio’s cabaret performers to community organizers who fought for care and visibility during the AIDS crisis.
Figures like Stormé DeLarverie, Miss Major Griffin-Gracy, and members of the Filipino Task Force on AIDS appear alongside lesser-known artists and organizers, with an emphasis on joy, labor, and persistence. GLBT Historical Society Museum, 4127 18th Street, San Francisco’s Castro District. — San Francisco Bay Times
Smoke and memory
On a corner in the East Bay city of Richmond, CJ’s BBQ and Fish has been anchoring the neighborhood for three decades, run by nearly 80-year-old Charles “CJ” Evans, who still works the pits and the prep tables himself. The menu reflects his version of California-Southern barbecue, shaped by family roots in Arkansas, wartime Richmond history, and years of feeding shipyard workers, church folks, and regulars who never stopped coming back.
@takeoutwithtuck Cjs BBQ 🍗 Richmond California . They gone get the job done that BBQ sauce was amazing too btw ! Solid 8/10 #richmondcalifornia #bayareafood #bbq #bbqfood #foodietiktok ♬ I Been - Larry June & 2 Chainz & The Alchemist
CJ’s BBQ and Fish now serves hundreds of slabs of ribs a week across its Richmond and Vallejo locations, remaining a steady fixture in a city that’s changed around it. — KQED
North on one
Highway 1 through Sonoma County offers a steady sequence of working ranch land, exposed coastline, and built-in stopping points that reward a slow drive. After Valley Ford, the road runs past Bodega Bay, where Bodega Head provides bluff walks and seasonal whale watching, then hugs the shoreline through state park land with beaches and pullouts at places like Wright’s Beach, Shell Beach, and the Kortum Trail.
Jenner marks a visual shift, with the Russian River spreading out before meeting the Pacific, harbor seals on the sandbar, and viewpoints near River’s End that invite a longer pause. North of town, the highway climbs into high green cliffs toward Fort Ross and Salt Point State Park, then eases into Sea Ranch, where low-profile homes and signed public trails lead to the bluffs before the road crosses into Mendocino County. — Marin Independent Journal
Top Image: Oakland Ballet/Facebook
Previously: Field Notes: Ube, Latkes, Native Plants of the Presidio, and Sarah Winchester’s Architectural Vision
