Solvang is a Danish village set among the rolling hills of California’s Santa Ynez Valley, and in December it becomes something rarer still. For Julefest, the whole village is strung with lights, the bakeries fill with Christmas pastry, and carolers move through streets that look like a page from a storybook. We make our home in the heart of it for four nights, so that every evening we simply step outside and we are already there. We unpack once, we walk everywhere, and we let the season come to us.