"This is a FREE turkey dinner, with all the trimmings to anyone who walks through the door." That line comes from Helping Hands, writing in the November issue of Pine Mountain Lake's community magazine about the Groveland Community Thanksgiving Dinner, which it is sponsoring again this year. The same piece says the dinner ran in the Groveland Community Hall for more than 30 years. After COVID and the Community Hall fire it moved to the Groveland Community Resilience Center on Ferretti Road. Volunteers run it, and about 350 dinners went out last year.
That dinner opens a holiday season with no single main event. The season is a string of volunteer-run events spread across a school gym, a brewery, a golf course and the Resilience Center. One gift drive ties them together. The Groveland Giving Tree lights up at Around the Horn Brewery on November 28 and comes back to the same brewery for wrapping on December 16. After Thanksgiving week, everything else on the calendar falls between those two nights.
Thanksgiving Week Has Three Hosts in Three Days
The run starts on Thanksgiving Day. Three groups host three events at three addresses within 72 hours.
| Date | Event | Where | Hours | Cost |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Thursday, Nov. 26 | 38th Annual Groveland Community Thanksgiving Dinner | Groveland Community Resilience Center, 18986 Ferretti Road | 11:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. | Free |
| Friday, Nov. 27 | Tenaya Elementary Christmas Craft Faire, day one | Tenaya school gym, 19177 Highway 120 | 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. | Free admission |
| Saturday, Nov. 28 | Tenaya Elementary Christmas Craft Faire, day two | Tenaya school gym, 19177 Highway 120 | 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. | Free admission |
| Saturday, Nov. 28 | Groveland Giving Tree Lighting Party | Around the Horn Brewery | 5 p.m. | Not listed |
According to the November 2026 PML News, the Thanksgiving dinner serves Groveland and the surrounding communities. The menu is turkey and ham, stuffing, mashed potatoes and gravy, yams, peas and carrots, corn, rolls and three kinds of pie. Parties of six or more can reserve seats. Everyone else just shows up during seating hours. The organizers want volunteers for food prep, kitchen work, the buffet line and table service. The number for volunteering, donating or booking a large group is 209-459-6762.
At Pine Mountain Lake the day starts earlier. The Golf Shop's November column lists a 10 a.m. Thanksgiving Day shotgun start for the PML Men's Club, so the round is underway before the dinner opens at 11:30. The PML administration office is closed November 26 and 27.
On Friday and Saturday the Tenaya Elementary gym hosts the Christmas Craft Faire. Admission is free and cocoa is for sale. According to the myMotherLode event listing, vendor booths cost $60 and applications are due November 20, so local makers who still want a table have until the day after this post goes up. The faire closes at 4 p.m. on Saturday, and the Giving Tree party starts at Around the Horn an hour later.
The Giving Tree Runs on an 18-Day Clock
The November 28 lighting starts the clock for the rest of the season. ROOFBB writes in the PML News that organizers work with local schools, youth programs and shut-in seniors to collect wish lists, then turn each request into a "gift ornament" on the tree. The process goes like this:
- November 28, 5 p.m.: The tree is lit at Around the Horn Brewery. The party has holiday music, photos with Santa and Mrs. Claus, and kids' crafts, and ROOFBB volunteers run the cookies and cocoa station.
- The following weeks: Community members take an ornament off the tree and shop for the items written on it.
- Drop-off: Gifts go back to Around the Horn, which serves as the collection point for delivery to families before the holidays.
- December 16: The Groveland Giving Tree Wrapping Party is held at Around the Horn Brewery.
Questions about the tree go to [email protected]. Because every gift has to come back to the brewery before the wrapping party, the practical deadline for an ornament falls in mid-December, well before Christmas.
Two December Nights Move the Lights to the Golf Course
The middle of the 18 days belongs to Pine Mountain Lake. The 2026 Holiday Express runs Friday, December 11, and Saturday, December 12. The Golf Shop's column in the November newsletter says tour reservations opened November 1.
The event depends on the homes along the course. The Golf Shop is asking every PML property owner whose lot borders the golf course to light up that side of the property for the tours. Owners who won't be at their PML home that weekend are encouraged to decorate anyway, using solar-powered lights that turn on by themselves at dark. The shop also takes questions about those lights at 1-209-962-8620. So a fairway is only lit if the owners who live along it decorate their lots.
Last year's version had a set format. The 2025 Holiday Express flyer describes a lighted golf cart, led by a tour leader, that rolled past outdoor home decorations on the course. The terms printed for 2025 were:
- Fare: $10 per adult and $5 per child 17 or younger. The price covered the tour, a hand warmer, hot cocoa and cookies.
- Times: Tours started at 5:30 p.m., and the last one left at 7:30 p.m., rain or shine.
- Booking: Reservations were first come, first served and could be made up to 30 days ahead through the Golf Shop at 1-209-962-8620.
- Kids: Children had to be registered in advance, and each registered child needed an adult to drive the cart.
- Dinner: Dinner reservations went through The Grill at 1-209-962-8638.
Those are 2025 terms, so call the Golf Shop to confirm this year's fare and tour times before planning around them. In November the shop is open seven days a week, 7:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.
December 12 Is the Fullest Day
The Holiday Express's second night shares Saturday, December 12, with the Pancake Breakfast with Santa & Mrs. Claus at the Little House at SCC. Santa visits in the morning, and the golf-cart tours start after dark. Between the two, people who took a Giving Tree ornament two weeks earlier still have four days to get their gifts to Around the Horn before the wrapping party on Wednesday, December 16.
PML's own calendar adds one more community date to that stretch. On Saturday, December 5, from 10 a.m. to noon at Lake Lodge, the association holds an open forum where property owners can speak with the Board.
The Volunteers Behind Each Date
Look at who runs each event and the same few groups keep showing up. Helping Hands sponsors the Thanksgiving dinner, and volunteers from across town staff it. Tenaya Elementary hosts the craft faire in its gym. ROOFBB works the Giving Tree lighting. Its mission, as stated in the newsletter, is raising money for local schools, community projects and neighbors in need, and it tells prospective members they can give "as much time as you have available." The Golf Shop staff and the owners along the fairways put on the Holiday Express. Around the Horn Brewery hosts both ends of the Giving Tree.
Each of these events depends on locals pitching in, and each lists a way to do it. Here's who to contact:
- Thanksgiving dinner volunteering, donations or group seating: 209-459-6762
- Craft faire vendor booth: $60, applications due November 20, through the myMotherLode listing
- Giving Tree questions: [email protected]
- ROOFBB membership: [email protected]
- Holiday Express tours or lighting a course-side lot: PML Golf Shop, 1-209-962-8620
The last date on the list is December 16 at Around the Horn Brewery, when the gifts from the ornaments that came off the tree lit there on November 28 get wrapped.
If your lot backs onto the Pine Mountain Lake course and you're stringing solar lights for the Holiday Express this year, you may also be wondering what that home would sell for today. Kristin Frankhauser and the Mother Lode Real Estate Team can give you that number with a free instant home valuation whenever it suits you, before or after the season.
