From mid-November to Christmas Eve, the Lark Theater at 549 Magnolia Avenue has a classic holiday film or live event booked for almost every weekend. Most run only once or twice. It's a Wonderful Life has two showings. White Christmas has two. The Muppet Christmas Carol has one, on a Friday evening, and after that it's gone for the year.
That's how a single-screen theater works. In a multiplex, a holiday title can run all week in a side auditorium. At the Lark, every showing takes the one room. The Lark is a 1940 Art Deco house run as a nonprofit community film center. Its single screen can't be joined by a second auditorium when a title is popular, so the December calendar is a sequence of short runs. Each one opens and closes before the next.
One room, booked from morning to late night
The Lark doesn't run a long list of films side by side. It books the day in blocks. On Friday, December 4, the Polar Express Pajama Party takes the 4 p.m. and 6:30 p.m. slots, and A Clockwork Orange takes the screen at 9 p.m. The family audience and the late-night audience use the same room on the same evening, a few hours apart.
The theater also books more than film. Its programming covers repertory screenings, new releases, live theater, jazz, opera broadcasts and community events, according to a Pacific Sun profile published in January about Josh Costello, the new executive artistic director. The Lark's About Us page says Costello, formerly artistic director of Aurora Theatre Company, took over at the end of 2025. In that profile, Costello said, "There's something for everybody, and that's what makes it exciting." The Marin Independent Journal reported his appointment the same week. The variety he describes is the reason each holiday title gets so few slots. Many kinds of programming share one screen.
November goes to the Lord of the Rings
Before the Christmas films start, the Lark gives three straight weekends to the extended editions of the Lord of the Rings trilogy. Each film gets a Sunday morning, a Sunday evening and a Monday night:
- The Fellowship of the Ring: Sunday, November 15, at 9 a.m. and 6 p.m.; Monday, November 16, at 7:30 p.m.
- The Two Towers: Sunday, November 22, at 9 a.m. and 6 p.m.; Monday, November 23, at 7:30 p.m.
- The Return of the King: Sunday, November 29, at 9 a.m. and 6 p.m.; Monday, November 30, at 7:30 p.m.
The Fellowship listing prices tickets at $14 general admission and $12 for Lark members. Seniors and children pay $11, or $9 with a membership. The 9 a.m. Sunday showings fit the length of the extended cuts. A morning start leaves the rest of the day free, which an evening start of the same runtime doesn't.
Thanksgiving Day, from 11 a.m. to the late show
On Thursday, November 26, the Lark shows The Wizard of Oz in 4K at 11 a.m., 1 p.m., 3 p.m. and 5 p.m. Then it switches to the concert film Stop Making Sense, in 4K with 7.1 sound, at 7 p.m. and 9 p.m. That gives four daytime windows for families planning around dinner and two evening shows for later. Wizard of Oz gets four showings in one day. The Nightmare Before Christmas gets three, the most of any December title, and those are spread over two nights.
The rest of the long weekend shifts again. The Fin plays at 8:15 p.m. on Friday and Saturday, The Room has 10 p.m. shows both nights, and Popeye fills the Saturday 9 a.m. slot.
Every December holiday title, and every showing it gets
| Title | Date | Showtimes |
|---|---|---|
| The Polar Express Pajama Party | Friday, December 4 | 4 p.m., 6:30 p.m. |
| The Muppet Christmas Carol | Friday, December 11 | 6:30 p.m. |
| It's a Wonderful Life | Sunday, December 13; Monday, December 14 | 3:45 p.m.; 5:30 p.m. |
| The Nightmare Before Christmas | Friday, December 18; Saturday, December 19 | 6:30 p.m. and 10 p.m.; 10 p.m. |
| Royal Ballet: The Nutcracker, 2025 encore | Saturday, December 19; Wednesday, December 23 | 1 p.m.; 6:30 p.m. |
| Santa Claus Conquers the Martians, with live orchestra | Saturday, December 19 | 6 p.m. |
| White Christmas | Sunday, December 20 | 9 a.m., 5 p.m. |
The Polar Express showings come with hot chocolate and cookies, and the theater invites everyone to come in pajamas. Other titles in the same weeks fit the season loosely. Hugo plays Saturday, December 12, at 12:15 p.m. and Sunday, December 13, at 10 a.m. High Society has showings at 9 a.m. and 4:15 p.m. on Sunday, December 6.
The table shows most of the season landing on Friday nights and weekends, and one Saturday holds the most.
December 19 has four programs on one screen
Saturday, December 19, is the Lark's fullest holiday day:
- 9 a.m.: The Prince of Egypt
- 1 p.m.: Royal Ballet: The Nutcracker, 2025 encore
- 6 p.m.: Santa Claus Conquers the Martians, presented in "Scent-o-Vision," with a live orchestra
- 10 p.m.: The Nightmare Before Christmas
The 6 p.m. show is the most unusual event of the season. The Lark's listing promises a live orchestra along with "Electro-Rama, Scent-o-Vision and Partici-Rama" for the 1964 film, which runs 1 hour 18 minutes. The orchestra is the Grand Feature Film Orchestra, which describes itself as a San Francisco nonprofit of professional artists, community members and student musicians. It performs restored and arranged film scores live in movie theaters along the West Coast.
The Lark made physical room for nights like this one. SFGate reported in 2018 that 20 of the theater's 236 seats had been removed for an orchestra pit.
If you want both the Nutcracker and the orchestra show, there's a gap between them on December 19. The Nutcracker starts at 1 p.m. and the Martians at 6 p.m., so a family can do both without hurrying. The only other Nutcracker showing is Wednesday, December 23, at 6:30 p.m., a weeknight close to the holiday.
What the holiday tickets cost
The live-orchestra show costs about three times as much as a regular screening. Before the online fee, general admission is $45, compared with $14 for the Lord of the Rings. With the $2.25 online fee included, tickets for Santa Claus Conquers the Martians cost $47.25 general, $42.25 for seniors, $37.25 for members and $16.25 for students 18 and under. The listing says passes aren't accepted.
The Lark's membership page lists four annual levels: Community at $85, Contributor at $195, Benefactor at $500 and Champion at $1,000. Each runs 12 months and covers two people per showing. The Community level includes a $2 discount on movies, with some exceptions. The member price for the December 19 orchestra show is $10 below general admission, compared with a $2 gap for the trilogy. The Contributor level comes with special-cinema-event passes. The Martians listing says "No Passes," so those passes won't cover that show.
Before the show on Magnolia Avenue
Because the season runs through one building, nearby Magnolia Avenue businesses fit easily around a showtime.
The Silver Peso at 450 Magnolia Avenue reopened on May 30 after a renovation. The Marin Independent Journal reported new floors, new bar siding, upgraded bathrooms, new pool tables and a refurbished shuffleboard table. The new operating team, managing partners at Sam's Anchor Cafe in Tiburon, aimed to keep the bar's original character. According to that report, the bar is open from noon to 2 a.m. on weekdays and from 10 a.m. to 2 a.m. on weekends. Those hours cover a 10 p.m. Nightmare Before Christmas show on both ends. In its August 2026 Larkspur dining guide, Marin Magazine notes that the building opened in 1905 as a blacksmith shop.
The same guide lists several other stops close by. Emporio Rulli, at 424 Magnolia Avenue, features panettone Milanese during the holiday season. Restaurant Picco, at 320 Magnolia Avenue, makes its risotto every half hour. That steady timing suits an early dinner before a 6:30 p.m. Muppet Christmas Carol. DJ's Chinese Cuisine, at 435 Magnolia Avenue, has been open 34 years. The guide mentions its back patio and lists it as kid-friendly, which helps on Polar Express night.
At Marin Life Elevated, we follow the places that bring people to Magnolia Avenue each season, from the Lark's schedule to the bar down the street. If you'd like to talk about what keeps a Larkspur block active, or where your family's routines fit in Marin, let's connect.
