In Corona del Mar, December Gets Decided in October

Roger's Gardens opened its Christmas Boutique during an October heat wave. The Newport Beach Independent made the same point in its October 10 coverage: it is hard to think about Christmas when the thermometer disagrees. The boutique opened on October 2, which was weeks before most front doors got a wreath.

That early start is how the whole village season works this year. Corona del Mar's holiday calendar for 2026 has one free, no-reservation day, the Christmas Walk on Sunday, December 6. Almost everything else either has tickets already moving or has a date that fills on its own schedule. By the time this reaches you on Thursday, October 22, public tickets for Sherman Library & Gardens' holiday lights will have been on sale for three days.

The order things close

Here is the season, sorted by when each piece needs a decision.

1. Sherman's Merry & Bright Nights. Members could buy from Monday, October 5. Everyone else could buy from Monday, October 19. At least one entry slot, Thursday, December 3 at 5 p.m., already shows as sold out.
2. Roger's Gardens "Shop for a Cause." Thursday, November 12, 6 to 8:30 p.m. This is a ticketed evening inside the Christmas Boutique.
3. The 47th Corona del Mar Christmas Walk. Sunday, December 6, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. It is free and has no starting point.
4. The Christmas Boutique itself. Open daily through December 23.
5. Lil' Dickens Carolers. November 27 through December 24 at Roger's Gardens and the Farmhouse.

Sorted this way, the biggest evening garden event of December becomes an October decision. The Walk, the boutique's daily hours and the carolers' month-long run are the flexible pieces you fit around it.

Sherman's lights changed more than the name

Anyone who has been to Sherman Library & Gardens in December knows the event as Nights of 1000 Lights. Its 2026 version is called Merry & Bright Nights, and the details have shifted enough to change how you plan an evening around it.

The older Nights of 1000 Lights page is still on Sherman's website. It shows the 2024 schedule, says every date is sold out, and lists Thursday member nights on December 5, 12 and 19. Those dates fell on Thursdays in 2024, not in 2026. The current schedule is on Sherman's ticketing site, and here is how the two compare:

There are more nights this year, and each night runs an hour later, so there is simply more capacity. The early 5 p.m. slot on opening Thursday still went first. Sherman's FAQ sets the rest of the rules. Children 4 to 17 pay the same $65 as adults, and children 3 and under are free. There is no group rate. Tickets cannot be refunded or rescheduled, and the event runs rain or shine. Plan on about an hour to an hour and a half inside. A Merry & Bright ticket also does not cover a daytime visit. The gardens keep their regular 10:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. hours, and daytime admission is a separate purchase.

Parking is free, first come, first served, in two lots off Dahlia Avenue, one at the corner of East Coast Highway and one behind the building, plus street parking. The Garden Shop stays open during the event for seasonal plants and gifts.

Where dinner happens this year

The food line in that table is the change that affects the evening most. Sherman's on-site restaurant, 608 Dahlia, closed in October 2025, as the Orange County Register reported. In 2024, member nights at the lights came with a 608 Dahlia dinner. This December the food is tacos, quesadillas, water and hot chocolate from a cash-only cart, plus a no-host beer and wine bar. Outside food is not allowed.

The restaurant that replaces 608 Dahlia is still about a year away. Sherman has named it Hazeltine's, after Moses Hazeltine Sherman's daughter. It is scheduled for late summer 2027 in a rebuilt two-story building facing Pacific Coast Highway, with its own street entrance at 2647 East Coast Highway. The old restaurant served lunch five days a week. Hazeltine's plans brunch, lunch and dinner seven days a week, with a full bar. It will be run by Damian Orozco, owner of the Tea House on Los Rios in San Juan Capistrano. The design brief Sherman published is "a Victorian Tea House walks into a Spanish Bar."

So 2026 is the in-between year. The lights run until 9 p.m. and the gardens have no sit-down restaurant, which pushes the meal out onto Coast Highway, either before a 5 p.m. entry or after a later one. That makes the time slot you pick a dinner decision as much as a lights decision. Book the table when you book the tickets.

Roger's Gardens runs on a longer clock

At 2301 San Joaquin Hills Road, Roger's Gardens works on a different scale. It has been running two holiday seasons back to back. "Moonlight Masquerade," this year's Halloween boutique built around a Venetian-after-dark theme, opened Friday, August 28, with daily hours of 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. It was open and free to the public by mid-September, according to the Newport Beach Independent.

This year's Christmas Boutique theme is "The Stories of the Season." It is open daily 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. through December 23. The Independent's account has 20 decorated trees, more than 800 ornament styles, and over 3,000 products, with buyers traveling to Europe each year for things like hand-turned nutcrackers and Polish glass ornaments. The same article puts attendance at more than 1 million visitors between October and December each year.

That attendance figure is why the October opening matters to people who live a few minutes away. The boutique runs about twelve weeks, so a weekday morning in late October and a Saturday in mid-December are very different visits to the same room, and only one of them is still available if you wait.

Roger's single ticketed evening this season is "Shop for a Cause" on Thursday, November 12, from 6 to 8:30 p.m. The $100 ticket includes 20 percent off purchases, two glasses of wine, an entry into the opportunity drawing, and light fare from the Farmhouse. The boutique normally closes at 6 p.m., so this is the one scheduled chance to shop it after dark.

The Farmhouse at Roger's Gardens currently lists daily hours of 11:30 a.m. to 9 p.m. It is closed on Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's Day, so check hours for any specific holiday date. The Lil' Dickens Carolers perform at Roger's Gardens and the Farmhouse from November 27 through December 24. December 15 and December 24 are listed as Farmhouse-only dates. For anyone who needs a dinner reservation somewhere that week, the Farmhouse is the one restaurant in the village whose holiday programming comes to the table.

December 6 is where the calendars overlap

The Corona del Mar Chamber of Commerce has set the 47th Christmas Walk for Sunday, December 6, from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. The Chamber describes it as free, with no set starting point. You just walk the Pacific Coast Highway sidewalks through the village. The listing promises more than 17 local bands, Santa visits and photos, beer and wine gardens with dancing, gift vendors, children's activities, merchant and restaurant promotions, and street performers.

Put that next to Sherman's schedule. December 6 is the fourth and final night of Merry & Bright's opening run, December 3 through 6. The Walk wraps up at 5 p.m., the same hour Sherman's gates open at 2647 East Coast Highway. An afternoon on the sidewalks can run straight into an evening entry at the gardens, with dinner booked on Coast Highway.

That plan only works if the December 6 ticket is bought now, before that Sunday sells out the way the opening Thursday's first slot already has. The Walk needs nothing from you until the day itself. Sherman's ticketing page shows live availability by date and entry time.

Kim and her team at Kim Bibb live and work on this stretch of coast through December too. If your holiday planning includes a quiet question about what your own home is worth heading into 2027, Request a Confidential Home Valuation and we will fit the conversation around your calendar.