Ask about Napa Valley in December and most people picture an empty valley waiting for spring. They are missing the best-kept calendar in wine country. From late November through the new year, the valley runs a full program of holiday trains, parades, lightings, and tasting passports, with thin crowds and soft rates as the backdrop. Winter here is not the off season. It is the quiet season, and it is done well. Hotel rates soften, restaurant tables open up, and the tasting rooms, freed from the harvest rush, have time for the long conversation. The holiday programming is the excuse; the quiet is the reward.
The Wine Train
The Napa Valley Wine Train's Santa Train runs November 27 to December 23, 2026, with four experiences: Santa's Cookie Car, Gourmet Holiday Express, Jingle on the Rails, and the Very Merry Vista Dome. New this year are daytime adventures on December 21, 22, and 23, a useful addition for families. The train in holiday dress, rolling through dormant vineyards, is one of the valley's most distinctive winter sights, and the range of experiences means there is a version for children, for couples, and for the full holiday dinner.
Parades and lights
December 5, 2026, is the big night: the Calistoga Lighted Tractor Parade and the downtown Napa Christmas Parade both fall on the same evening, at opposite ends of the valley. Tractors draped in lights rolling down a small-town main street is exactly as charming as it sounds. Earlier in the season, Beringer's 36-foot wine barrel tree is lit in St. Helena on November 25, 2026, from 5 to 7pm, with a snow show. Holidays in Yountville runs November 22, 2026 through January 1, 2027, with wine tastings, crafts, cooking classes, entertainment, and the town tree lighting.
The passport
The Winter in the Wineries passport costs $80 for a package valued at more than $800, with complimentary tastings at 23 Calistoga wineries plus discounts at local hotels, restaurants, and spas. On value alone it is one of the best deals in Napa Valley, and it is structured to reward the unhurried: 23 wineries is not a weekend, it is a season. Buy it, pick a few favorites, and let the discounts shape the rest of the trip.
Beringer's 150th
On December 6, 2026, Beringer hosts its Holiday Club Member Celebration and 150th Anniversary Time Capsule Ceremony at the historic Rhine House, $45 per person, noon to 3:30pm, with Victorian carolers and a Toys for Tots drive. A sesquicentennial time capsule ceremony at one of the valley's oldest continuously operating wineries is a genuine occasion, and the Rhine House is the right setting for it.
Winter rewards the traveler who plans around it. Start with when to visit Napa Valley for the full seasonal picture, and our romantic Napa Valley guide if the trip is for two.