Huzzah: The ye olde Bracebridge Dinner will make merry in Yosemite this holiday season

YOSEMITE NATIONAL PARK... is synonymous with the sorts of experiences that a person will revisit, in memory and story, again and again, for as long as she lives. A hike through Tuolumne Meadows, the truly awe-filled opportunity to stand atop Half Dome, witnessing the wonder of Horsetail Fall's fiery February show: These are the epic anecdotes you'll break out first at any get-together. But sometimes the famous nature-blessed destination serves up memorable pleasures of an indoor sort, the kind of hallowed happenings that have nothing to do with granite, waterfalls, or sunsets. Look to The Ahwahnee, where The Bracebridge Dinner, a sumptuous feast and show that will soon mark its centennial, has long held colorful court. And we do mean "court": The Bracebridge is a pageant with royal flair, an elegant, over-the-top affair that takes its imaginative inspiration from a Washington Irving tale.

THE DRESSY DINNER... will be back in 2024, after several years away, with all of its crowns, ruffs, and trumpets well in hand. The first round of tickets popped up at the end of 2023, and went, they did, as quickly as a jester performs a somersault or a queen performs a royal wave. Now two new dates have been added, Dec. 22 and 23, with spots expected to fill up quickly. The multi-course meal is feasty and fabulous, with the sorts of decadent dishes you might find in a Renaissance poem (but with modern spins, of course); plum pudding, wassail, and a soup featuring turnip puree have made culinary cameos at past pageants. And speaking of past pageants, celebrated photographer Ansel Adams once played a part in The Bracebridge Dinner, long ago, further enhancing its regal reputation. For prices and information, swan, like a queen might, by this site now.