By Jim McCausland, Sunset Magazine

Renowned as one of the San Francisco Bay Area’s great public-accessible estates, Filoli is closed for the winter—closed, that is, unless you come to their winter fundraiser, which opens tomorrow and runs through December 5th. Go for the food, wine, decorations, and night lights, and come home with gifts you won’t find anywhere else.

To prepare for sales (this is a fundraiser, after all), most of the public rooms are emptied, then refilled with gift items. Go to the kitchen, for example, to buy all kinds of cookware; other rooms contain everything from chocolates and candlesticks to furniture, ornaments, and lavender products, some of which originated here on the estate.

You can also sign up for lunch or or a grand dinner. Most events are priced and ticketed separately. Go to the Filoli web site for prices and availability. Whether you buy tickets online or by phone, you’ll be picking them up at the will-call desk in the visitor center.

Located in Woodside, California, Filoli is a historic site listed by the National Trust for Historic Preservation. To get ready for this event, 700 volunteers worked to deck the estate out for the holidays. This event should be very, very good.