Bel Air's Holiday Season Comes Down to One Weekend on the Pass
At sundown on Sunday, December 6, the Skirball Cultural Center will finish its Hanukkah Festival with a community candle lighting. That afternoon, a Getty talk on Joseph Wright of Derby starts at 4pm at the Getty Center. From 5 to 7:30pm, Bel Air Church will have a DJ, carolers, hot cocoa and a gingerbread house contest on its Sanctuary Patio. All three happen within about three hours on the western edge of Bel Air, where the neighborhood meets the Sepulveda Pass.
Bel Air's 2026 holiday season has two halves. Hotel Bel-Air spreads its program over six weeks, with something on most weekends from Thanksgiving to New Year's Day. The institutions along the Pass put their biggest public events into one weekend. Planning the season starts with those two days.
The weekend starts Saturday evening. The Getty Center is open until 9pm on Saturdays, and on December 5 it uses those late hours for Drawing in the Dark, a free program from 5 to 9pm. On the same evening, Artist-at-Work: Light and Shadow runs at 5:30, 6:30, 7:30 and 8:30pm. Both are free, and both need a timed-entry reservation for the Center.
Sunday is busier. In order:
You can't do all five, because the Skirball festival and the Getty talk overlap in the late afternoon. Most households will choose one stop on Sunday afternoon and one in the evening.
The Skirball's date matters more this year. According to Hebcal, Hanukkah 2026 begins at sundown on Friday, December 4, so the festival's candle lighting falls on the third night. Families who light candles at home will already have two nights behind them, and the Skirball event on the hill becomes the third.
Festival tickets cost $23 for general admission, $18 for seniors and full-time students, and $16 for children 2 to 17. Members and children under 2 get in free, and children need to come with an adult. When advance tickets sell out, the Skirball releases a limited number of walk-up tickets. Noah's Ark will also have limited walk-up tickets until they run out, and the Archaeology Dig will be closed that day.
Festival tickets include the galleries, and several current exhibitions stay open well past the holidays. Inventing America: The Comic Book Revolution, The 1960s—A Generation on Fire: Judy Baca's Great Wall of Los Angeles, Patrisse Cullors: Wishes Made Material and Jenny Yurshansky: What We Carry all run through February 28, 2027. That gives houseguests arriving after New Year's a reason to go too. On a normal visit, Noah's Ark uses 90-minute timed-entry slots and closes at 4:30pm. Admission is $20 general and $15 for seniors, full-time students and children 2 to 17.
The Hanukkah thread also reaches the other half of the calendar. Hotel Bel-Air's Patisserie is adding Hanukkah jelly donuts and a build-your-own gingerbread man kit to its seasonal menu.
The Sepulveda Pass stretch of I-405 is still under construction this season. Caltrans's I-405 Sepulveda Pass Pavement Rehabilitation Project is a $143.7 million repair of the 10.2 miles between Van Nuys and Westwood. In sections of the Pass, the speed limit is temporarily cut to 55 mph, and "Uneven Pavement" signs are posted between Wilshire and Victory boulevards. Caltrans expects the reduced speed and uneven pavement to last through winter 2026 and early spring 2027.
The project's contractor yard is the Skirball Yard off Mulholland Drive, near American Jewish University. On regular workdays, Caltrans says no major trucking is expected between 6 and 9am or between 5 and 7pm.
The project includes about 25 extended weekend lane reductions, each about 55 hours, from roughly 10pm Friday to 5am Monday. Caltrans says these won't happen on state holidays. December 5 and 6 aren't holidays, so check Caltrans QuickMap before leaving that Sunday.
The Pass has one big weekend. Hotel Bel-Air spreads its program from late November to New Year's Day, and some of it is aimed at people hosting at home. New for 2026 is a Thanksgiving dinner to-go for up to 12 guests. It costs $975 and includes a whole organic roasted turkey, winter truffle risotto and pecan pie. Three adult seats at the hotel's $295 dine-in Thanksgiving come to $885.
| Date | At Hotel Bel-Air | Details |
|---|---|---|
| Nov. 20 | American Mahjong with Oh My Mahjong | 3–5pm, The Living Room |
| Nov. 26 | Thanksgiving Day dining | 11am–8pm; $295 adult, $95 for 12 and under |
| Nov. 26 | Thanksgiving dinner to-go | $975, serves up to 12 |
| Dec. 11 | American Mahjong | 3–5pm, The Living Room |
| December weekends | Holiday afternoon tea | Friday–Sunday at 3pm, from $140 with champagne |
| Dec. 16–18 | Movies Under the Stars | Elf, A Christmas Story, The Holiday; $100 per person |
| Dec. 19–25 | Swan-themed holiday dessert | The Restaurant |
| Dec. 24 | Christmas Eve dinner | 5–9pm, carolers 6–9pm; $275 adult |
| Dec. 25 | Christmas Day brunch and dinner | 11am–8pm, Santa 11am–3pm; $275 adult |
| Dec. 31 | New Year's Eve, Bar & Lounge | 3pm–1am, $150 minimum, jazz band 9pm–1am |
| Jan. 1 | New Year's Day brunch | 11am–3pm, à la carte |
The film nights take place on the Front Lawn. General admission includes a snack station with popcorn, candy and spiked hot chocolate, and private fire pits for up to six people cost $1,000. The Restaurant's swan dessert is a nod to the hotel's resident swans and runs for the seven days before Christmas. Holiday cocktails such as the Cocoa Buzz spiked hot chocolate have been on the menu since November 1.
Dorchester Collection has named Richard Cooke as Hotel Bel-Air's next general manager, effective January 1, 2027, the same day as the New Year's Day brunch. He comes from Rocco Forte Hotels, where he led London's Brown's Hotel.
Not every event on the Pass falls on that first weekend, and two of the quieter ones bookend it. Bel Air Church decorates the sanctuary for its "Deck the halls" gathering on Sunday, November 29, after the 9am and 11am services. On Saturday, December 12, at 3pm, the Getty Center hosts Non-Consenting Collaborators with artist Gala Porras Kim. It's free with a ticket.
Wednesday, December 16, has two very different evenings. At 7pm, Bel Air Church holds Blue Christmas in Evans Chapel, a quiet service for anyone carrying grief or a hard season, with no registration required. The same night, Elf plays on the hotel's Front Lawn.
Closures are part of the schedule too. The Skirball is closed November 26 and 27 and December 25, and always on Mondays. On other days it's open noon to 5pm Tuesday through Friday and 10am to 5pm on weekends. The Getty Center closes on Thanksgiving, Christmas Day and New Year's Day and closes early on Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve. Hotel Bel-Air has something scheduled on all five of those days.
The Getty matters a bit more this December. The Bel Air-Beverly Crest Neighborhood Council's October report says the Getty Center will close to the public from spring 2027 to spring 2028 for its tram upgrade and visitor-entry project. That makes this the Getty Center's last holiday season before a year-long closure. The Saturday drawing night on December 5 and the Wright of Derby talk the next afternoon are the main chances to see it this season.
If you'd like help planning the season, whether that's securing a fire pit on the Front Lawn for December 16 or timing a Skirball visit for houseguests arriving after New Year's, our team at Nancy Ellin Realty Group handles those details for our clients as part of how we look after them in Bel Air. Request a Private Consultation, and we'll help you plan the weeks around December 6.
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