Things to Do in Santa Clara

A charter member of the MLS, the San Jose Earthquakes played their first four seasons as the Clash before claiming the MLS Cup in 2001 and 2003. Though the team moved to Houston in '05, the franchise was reinstated in '08, bringing professional soccer back to the Bay Area. Buck Shaw Stadium serves as the team's current home, though a new stadium will shoot skyward in 2014, complete with luxury suites for fans and exhausted referees alike.

Today’s Groupon flexes, stretches, and twists your soul and body into a purity pretzel: for $25, you get five yoga classes at NuLife Yoga (a $50 value). It's perfect for de-stressing from holiday stresses that include taking difficult family pictures around the holiday tree, singing already-challenging holiday songs in more challenging keys, and building a home computer so you can send out holiday e-cards.There once was a flexible gal, Whose yogic skills never did fail, When forgetting her keys, She just pulled in her knees, And squeezed through the slot for the mail.

In 2011, James Bowser tried setting the Guinness World Record for the world’s largest human-heart formation. Eleven thousand people established the record elsewhere, but few showed up for James’s event. That same year, another organization broke the record for the world’s largest water-balloon fight with 175,141 balloons chucked at 8,957 attendees. On hearing of their success, James—a lifelong water-balloon-fight devotee—decided to make another bid for the record books. For the World's Largest Water Balloon Fight 2012, he aims to congregate 15,000–30,000 participants to wage a war of water with half a million balloons. Alongside balloon-flinging festivities, the World's Largest Water Balloon Fight 2012 also hosts giveaways and raffles supplied by onsite vendors, a battle of the bands, and the chance to break the record for the longest clothesline.

After buying the Exclamation Point's original location in Saratoga, owner Melanie Vancil moved the studio to Santa Clara, expanding the workshop's inventory of needlepoint and cross-stitch manuals, crochet threads, buttons, and hand-painted canvases. Needlepoint, originally developed in the 16th century to create beautiful cloth tapestries without bulky looms or expensive trained spiders, draws from a proud tradition of craftsmanship, decorating household objects such as pillows, chair backs, and rugs with patterns and pictures of colorful fiber. Students of all ages learn to master this ancient form of art, as well as machine sewing and crocheting, in fun, informative classes, creating beautiful fabric keepsakes of their very own.

Sick of buying expensive supplies and having to adhere to a class schedule just to create art, Jennifer Kurtz Rubin started the first of her chain of ceramic lounges in 1993. Each Petroglyph Ceramic Lounge is designed as a social and creative space, one that all customers can use to express themselves artistically while catching up with friends. The lounge throws open its doors for both kids and adults to decorate clay bisque pieces, such as mugs and salad bowls, with a bounty of colorful supplies, never worrying about cleanup afterward. Once they’re complete, the art pieces are glazed, fired, and ready for pickup in a few days. And because artists can stay for a whole afternoon or just 30 minutes, the lounge even grants a few moments of creativity to patrons with the busiest schedules. The company also goes beyond casual art making to host parties for kids and adults, in which they can bring in live music, serve food, and train scoops of ice cream to paint their own bowls.

Inside, Fire Works Ceramics’ studio looks more like a cozy cottage than a storefront, its shelves of blank ceramics and hardwood tables awash in sunlight as they wait to be painted at handsome kitchen tables. Visiting artists take their pick of blank mugs, dishes, vases, and figurines, all poured in-house rather than sourced from archaeologists’ garage sales. After decking out their chosen piece in as many colors as they like, guests surrender them to staff to receive a coating of glaze and a trip into the kiln. In addition to walk-in sessions, the studio can also host birthdays, bridal showers, and butterfingers’ support groups.