Sometimes it’s hard to tell the difference between a California spring, fall, or winter (summer is easy—that’s when people in San Francisco wear their warmest scarves). But you know it’s the holiday season in Silicon Valley when:
1. It snows at Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer’s house.
2. Geeks find their inner pop stars.
3. Stanford gets a really big gift from a tech entrepreneur.
4. Corporations take over AT&T Park, the Exploratorium, and Levi Stadium and party like its 1999.
5. Cute kids put a techie twist on holiday traditions.
6. And a company hopes its nod to charity will take it off Santa’s naughty list.
Happy Holidays!
Tekla S. Perry is a senior editor at IEEE Spectrum. Based in Palo Alto, Calif., she's been covering the people, companies, and technology that make Silicon Valley a special place for more than 40 years. An IEEE member, she holds a bachelor's degree in journalism from Michigan State University.