The story
Nevada City Victorian Christmas in Nevada City
Each December, Nevada City refuses to be the twenty-first century for a few weekends running, as lamplighters make ceremonial rounds at dusk to light the town's gas street lamps by hand. Locals and merchants dress in full Victorian costume, horse-drawn carriages clatter down Broad Street, and vendors serve wassail and roasted chestnuts right on the sidewalk. Because the storefronts are genuinely Gold Rush-era, the whole scene earns its atmosphere honestly rather than staging it.
December settles over the Sierra Nevada foothills, and Nevada City does something remarkable: it refuses to be the twenty-first century.