Santa Clara's Advent Calendar Hangs on Its Oldest Porches

"It's essentially a live Advent calendar," Denise Webster told Fox 13 last December. "So you go to a home, they open their window... And instead of picking a chocolate out of the box, they have a hot chocolate or a treat or something for you."

Webster and Sue Yocum are the third-generation co-owners of Frei's Fruit Market. They opened the 2025 Adventsfenster season with a Swiss Miss hot chocolate display on the porch of the house next to their market. That house belonged to their great-great-grandmother Barbara Staheli, the first baby born to the Swiss settlers who founded Santa Clara in the 1860s. The family calls it Aunt Mandy's, after her youngest daughter, Amanda, who was the last person to live there.

That porch explains how Santa Clara does December. The town's Christmas season is run by the families and volunteers who have spent decades protecting the Swiss story, and their windows keep opening in the buildings that story left behind.

Three days before the first window

The National Register documentation for Santa Clara's historic buildings says the Swiss Company was the largest group called to settle here, chosen partly for their experience growing grapes. They arrived on November 28, 1861. They had no wagon boxes for shelter and no food to last them until the next harvest. They camped around the adobe meeting house in the fort until they could build temporary willow shelters.

According to Santa Clara City's history page, fifteen Swiss families came that year as part of the Cotton Mission. Sherri Anderson told St. George News that a heavy rainstorm flooded the area just weeks after they arrived and destroyed the original settlement. Most of the missionary scouts moved on. The Swiss stayed.

This year, November 28 falls on a Saturday, 165 years after that arrival. Three days later, on Tuesday, December 1, the first Adventsfenster window opens.

The society that saved two buildings now runs the windows

Anderson heads the Santa Clara Historical Society and the Santa Clara History Museum. In 2024, St. George News reported that she had been with the society since it was founded 35 years earlier. A group of women started it to stop the planned demolition of two landmarks, the Relief Society House and the Gubler Home. They didn't have the money to buy the buildings outright, so they started Swiss Days to raise it. The festival's proceeds covered the balloon payment due after each year's event.

The society went on to raise the money for a museum, which opened in 2012 in the basement of the city office. It ran Swiss Days for about 15 years, then passed the festival to the city once it outgrew a small volunteer group. Today the city lists the Samuel R. Knight Santa Clara History Museum in the basement of Town Hall at 2603 Santa Clara Drive, and Samichlaus night happens on the grass across the street.

Adventsfenster came out of the same group. Fox 13 reported that it started in Santa Clara after Anderson came across the Advent window tradition that Swiss towns keep every year. The September festival paid to save the old buildings, and the December windows bring people back to them.

How a night works

Santa Clara's version keeps the Swiss structure and loosens the style. Anderson told St. George News that Swiss Advent windows often feature intricate paper-cut silhouettes. In Santa Clara, the only rule for hosts is a Christmas theme.

Past seasons have followed this pattern:

1. Each host decorates a single window and keeps it behind a curtain until its assigned night.
2. At 7 p.m., the curtain comes down. A new window opens each night from December 1 through December 24.
3. Some reveals come with refreshments or live entertainment, and others are just the window. Earlier years have included quartets, carolers, cookie giveaways and Santa photo opportunities.
4. Opened windows stay on display. In 2024, they stayed up through New Year's Day, so the route grows longer every night.
5. You can walk up to a window or see it from your car. Anderson's own guidance has been to stop and look up close or simply drive by.

In 2023, St. George News counted 24 participating addresses, most of them homes. The window revealed on December 3 that year, on Covey Lane, showed a lamb skiing down a mountain of cotton among elves, mice and unicorns. A placard challenged visitors to find all the hidden characters. The cotton was a quiet nod to the mission that brought the Swiss here.

Where the windows have opened

Year after year, the same family names keep turning up in the host lineup.

Fox 13 reported that the Freis worked past midnight every day to finish their displays, and that Webster and Yocum needed several days just to get the lights set. Nobody is paid, and there is still a waiting list of neighbors who want to host. "We're just trying to just create good Swiss traditions and try to keep our Swiss heritage alive," Webster said.

Frei's Fruit Market is at 2895 Santa Clara Drive. The Jacob Hamblin Home, built in 1863, stands at 3325 Santa Clara Drive. Between them and Town Hall at 2603, the town's oldest stretch of Santa Clara Drive covers most of the Swiss story. If you've driven that road for Swiss Days, our September post on how Sunset Boulevard turns into Santa Clara Drive covers the same ground in a different season.

December 6 runs on Swiss time

The second tradition follows a Swiss date. The city describes Samichlaus Abend, or Swiss Santa Night, as a celebration of Santa's arrival on December 6, the traditional start of the Christmas season in Switzerland. It began here in 2020 and is held every year on December 6 on the grass across from Town Hall. St. George News reported that City Council member Leina Mathis and others started it so the city could have its own tree lighting.

The tree is a pecan, not a fir. Samichlaus doesn't come alone. Schmutzli, a dark hooded figure, acts as a kind of bouncer for Santa and keeps kids on the naughty list away from the treats. In 2023 he broke his usual silence long enough to tell a St. George News reporter, "Be good."

Last year's event, the fifth annual, ran like this:

• Samichlaus and Schmutzli brought burlap sacks filled with oranges, peanuts and Swiss chocolate.
• Donuts and hot chocolate were served all evening.
• The limited-edition ornament sold for $10 while supplies lasted, and the city noted that many families collect one each year.
• The regional event calendar listed a 6:30 p.m. start, with the tree lighting at 7 p.m.
• An Advent window was unveiled at Town Hall for the occasion.

That last item is where the two traditions overlap. On December 6 the tree lighting and the nightly window reveal both fall at 7 p.m., and last year the city put that night's window right at Town Hall, a few steps from the pecan tree. This year December 6 is a Sunday, and the date itself would make this the sixth Samichlaus Abend.

Getting this year's list

The host schedule comes out as a flyer with dates and addresses. In 2024, paper copies were available at Dutchman's Market and Dutchman's Cookie Co, and a digital version circulated online. The Santa Clara History Museum's Facebook page posts updates on reveals. The city's Adventsfenster and Samichlaus Abend pages and its events calendar carry the official details.

If you'll have guests in town in early December, the season starts a few miles away too. Our post on Tuacahn's holiday lineup in Ivins covers what's on next door. More on the neighborhood is on our Santa Clara page.

At Holly Gardner, we love that Santa Clara's Christmas is carried by the families who have kept these porches lit for generations. If you live near one of these historic streets and want to talk through what your home means in this town, from its story to its value, we'd be glad to sit down with you. Schedule a free consultation, and maybe we'll see you at a 7 p.m. reveal this December.