January is renewal month, and Steve Andrews, director of marketing at Villagio Inn & Spa in Yountville, said his staff have been at work on “guilt-free and fat- free” treatments to get a new year off to an invigorating start.

“We try to keep it fun,” Andrews said as he described treatments that sound scrumptious but— because, for example, you’re having your feet massaged with chocolate, instead of eating it  —  the indulgences are positively healthy.

Each winter Villagio comes up with seasonal specialties to add to the regular line-up of massages, facials and other treatments. This year the new ingredient is cranberries.

They’re offering a Mirtillo Rosso Cranberry Vinaigrette — a body scrub of sea salt and cranberry oils, which is followed by a candlelit soak in the spa’s Tuscan copper tubs — the copper keeps the water at a comfortable temperature while the soaker can enjoy a cranberry cocktail (non-alcoholic). This treatment is followed by a cranberry massage using a warmed blend of grape seed, Vitamin E and cranberry oils. The cost for this treatment, which lasts about 100 minutes, is $225.

Sounding even more decadent is the Cranberry Butter Cream Wrap, which begins with an exfoliating scrub after which a cranberry butter cream is applied to the skin and the client is wrapped, cocoon-like, in layers of soft linens. A face and scalp massage is included in this 50 minutes treatment, which costs $120.

For those who didn’t get enough chocolate during the holidays, the spa also offers a Decadent Mint Chocolate Manicure and Pedicure, which combines a soak with chocolate mint scrub, followed by a chocolate massage, a chocolate masque and a hot paraffin treatment. The choice of nail colors includes, of course, candy cane red. If it is too difficult to merely be surrounded by so much chocolate, the staff will also bring you a cup of hot chocolate to sip while your feet are soaking up the benefits of the grand stuff. The chocolate pedicure is $85 and the chocolate manicure is $75.

The spa treatments are so popular, Andrews said, Villagio has recently broken ground on a new, larger facility that will open later this year.

For a complete list of spa treatments, and winter escapes, visit www.villagio.com or call 948-5050.