Does Anything Interesting Happen In Your Area For Christmas ?

[mammaduke]

Last year we had people singing Christmas carols at our door 2 days before Christmas, who gave us a plant. Then early on Christmas Eve the fire Dept. has a truck drive in the neighborhoods with santa in the bucket, all decorated with lights, they have there siren & lights on. When a child comes out the door, they give them candy. It's really a cute idea that they do every year from what my husband told me.

So I was wondering if any other community does anything special like that at Christmas time.:)&

[Annette1990]

Yes, coming up next month my town has a holiday/christmas parade. It's so nice...all the stores in town stay open late..people sell things to purchase outside of the stores to from food, to gifts.We also have carolers that buzz around. It really is alot of fun! After the parade my daughter and I usually grab a hot chocolate and drive around to look at lights. Yesterday the little shops around here have their own black friday. The movie theater also showed a Christmas movie at 12:30 and it was free..kinda nice when you want to shop without children. There was also a horse and wagon and you could ride for free...Lots of fun!


*Yippy this is my 600th post!*

[officepro4u]

Well since I live only 20 minutes or so from Walt Disney World, we have a lot going on Christmas-wise! MGM has the Osborne Festival of Lights, Magic Kingdom has the Very Merry Christmas Parade, etc.

It is very magical and very beautiful to see!

Diana

[mammaduke]

I bet being near Disney is really great. That is really great.:hi:

[Amanda Elf]

This year they are having horse/wagon rides. No parade (we've had them in the past) but Santa is in town at stores during the day, shows up at the tree lighting at the grocery store in town.

We also have a tree lighting ceremony at the community center, decorate cookies etc.

When I was younger, they used to have a large wagon pulled by a big truck with Santa and carolers that would drive by. I LOVED this, the neighbors would call when it was getting close so we could get ready. They'd pass out oranges and candy canes...loved it.

[mammaduke]

Tonight one of the streets here gets blocked off & all up & down that strip the stores open up for free samples of there products. Then give everyone 10% off whatever they buy, the restraunts give out samples of what they have for desserts. Santa is there for the children, they have people singing up & down the street, horse drawn wagon rides, hot roasted chestnuts,& hot apple cidar. Then all the stores turn on there white lights & the whole strip is lite up, they do this every year. If we had snow they would of had stuff, but they do have alot for famlies to do there.

[kerst]

In our town they have a Christmas market on the market square with wooden stalls selling all kinds of things to do with Christmas or winter at least (some sell socks and hats, etc) and of course all kinds of goodies like gluhwein (hot wine with spices), hot waffles etc.. In the middle of the square is an ice-skating rink. This stays all throughout the month of December. Mid December there is a large christmas fair in town with all kinds of stalls and also demonstrations on flower arrangements, crafts, chefs cooking up a christmas dinner, and on another side of town there is a beautiful wooden house built especially for Santa and.... the real Santa from the Northpole is coming for three days ! He lives in the Santa village in Rovaniemi in Finland, way up there on the real Northpole ! The rest of the month there will be a replacement Santa to get your picture taken with . I hope I get a chance to go ! I don't have any kids. Maybe I'll borrow my neighbours for support :-D

There are some concerts in various churches with Christmas songs.

It's a lot of fun, Christmas !!

[MerryLady]

Since the area where I live is tropical and there are a lot of water ways here, we have the Winterfest Boat Parade. People festoon their boats in Christmas and Seasonal lights and decorations and parade through the intercoastal waterway.

[Snow Faery]

Here in Brighton we have a special event called "The Burning of the Clocks" which usually happens around about Winter Solstice, a few days before Christmas. All the locals make paper lanterns with clocks drawn on them and put a candle inside and have a huge parade around the streets of Brighton. A lot of local companies and organisations get involved and sponsor giant lanterns to be made - last time we had a giant octopus, big ben, a procession of huge penguins and many others! They look amazing and the drummer and dancers add to the magic.

The parade ends up on the beach where they make a huge bonfire and burn all the clocks as a symbol of the passage of time and the procession into the next year. It's so unusual and so fun to watch!

There's more info here, if anyone is interested:

Burning of the Clocks (http://www.burningtheclocks.co.uk/)

[Christmasstar]

*Yippy this is my 600th post!*

I was reading through some older posts and found this one!
You've come a long way Annette! cheesy

[Christmasstar]

As for things going on around Christmas here, we have tons! One of my favorites is the parade of lights where we all march up from the river to down town to turn on all the lights and to light up the tree in front of city hall. There is caroling, candles, hot chocolate and fun! cheesy
:sparkle:

[George Broderick, Jr.]

Every year, around about my birthday (November 15th) Pittsburgh has its annual light-up night festivities... at that point, at least two local radio stations start playing Christmas music 24/7... plus, we have the Rite Aid Festival Of Lights at the expansive Hartwood Acres estate... and, if that's not enough, I live only an hour's drive from Oglebay park in Wheeling, WV and THEIR Festival Of Lights... Pittsburgh is Santa's "sister city"..!

[MsChristmas]

Its so neat reading through what different city and towns do for the Holidays. In my town we have a harvest for the hungry parade the weekend after Halloween usually...so it should be November 5th or 6th this year. You can bring canned goods to donate... most of it fallish thanksgiving themed but its kinda like a kickoff to Christmas because at the end of the parade there is Santa and usually the grinch or a reindeer dressed up...Santa sings too...not the best Santa I will add but I love it and so do the kids cheesy. This year I am planning on getting some people together to go caroling. I cant wait! I wanted to do it last year but ran out of time.. I have already started making copies of lyrics to certain Christmas songs.. Im setting the date in September to let people know way in advance!

[jayden28]

Here in birmingham we have the frankfurt christmas market which starts around the 20th november,german market holders bring all there christmas goodies and its all handmade,its actually the 3rd biggest christmas market in the world so i gues we'll pretty lucky to have it here.

[ClaireLovesChristmas]

Here in birmingham we have the frankfurt christmas market which starts around the 20th november,german market holders bring all there christmas goodies and its all handmade,its actually the 3rd biggest christmas market in the world so i gues we'll pretty lucky to have it here.

There is a german market that happens in Wakefield aswell, I really want to visit it this year!cheesy

[jayden28]

There is a german market that happens in Wakefield aswell, I really want to visit it this year!cheesy

These german markets are well worth a visit the handmade decorations are excellent.

[shellie12]

hi just reading you guys things and this most likely gonna sound boring as i live in northern ireland
our town just puts a tree up and some lights
just to have a town traders commintee that wood have had a day to light the town with santa and other things but there was a row and the whole thing has stopped
myself and another trader are talking this year about trying to get it up and running agian
As this happened about 3 years ago, now i do my shop window up in a theme and the christmas week leave sweets and shortbread out for my customers
last year my theme was santa on a rocking chair at a fire sleeping with a good/bad list on his knee( have no idea for this year. might put a tread on mmc to see if someone can give me some ideals)
other than that theres not a lot. carol singers go round the estate and stand under lights and collect money
i do my house up outside and they come from all over to see it.. all my stuff comes from the america as i like to be different

[Bradmac]

We have a Christmas Parade of Lights on the first Saturday in December. It's held after dark, and all of the entries have to be golf carts or ATVs. It's pretty fun! cheesy

[ejagno]

Like many of you we have a Christmas parade but we also have a lighted boat parade. We have a historic holiday tour of homes which is just beautiful to see these old grand homes all dressed up in all of it's holiday grandeur. We have about 6 city blocks known as "The Cottage Shops" and it's always a treat to tour these and shop during the holdiays. Something new is our huge public parks drive-through holiday light display complete with Santa handing out goodies to the kids and holiday movie nights where everyone can go sit under the stars and watch a holiday movie each Friday night in December.

[Sabine]

here in Germany almost every Town has a Christmas Market. Some only one Day and some about 4 Weeks. And at the end of the Season in catholic Areas are Star Boys' Singing Procession

[trackrebel]

true....over here it is not just boys doing that

[xmas365]

In my town they usually have a town wide craft fair the weekend after Thanksgiving, and then on Sunday there is a small parade where you can have cookies and hot chocolate with Santa at the fire station, and then he picks out one child to light the town Christmas tree. I don't know what is in store for this year, if it will be a bigger event due to the tornado damage this town absorbed, but they did do all they could to save the town Christmas tree after it was uprooted, it looks good right now. cheesy


They also use to do a Santa train through town where you would ride the train to the next town and back Santa would come aboard and sing Carols and hand out candy to the kids. I believe it was stopped due to insurance reasons 4-5 years ago unfortunately.

[snowflake22]

Las Vegas has an event called "Gift Of Lights" that begins in November, right around Thanksgiving. There's over 8 million Christmas lights & displays, each sponsored by a local business, and all proceeds go to Goodwill. They have hot chocolate, kettle corn, and even a radio station playing Christmas music especially for that event. It's really beautiful! My husband & I go every year. It's one of our traditions.
We also have a celebration at Ethel M Chocolates- they decorate their botanical cactus gardens with festive lights & you get to sample their chocolates. So I get two of my favorites at once- X-Mas & chocolates!
:tree:

[kerstig]

We have some saint Nicholas parades and bands that march in front of our house during the end of november and the start of november.
We have had some great carollers dressed up in old english costumes, that was lovely. There's always musicians and marching bands playing christmas songs in december, and the shops stay open late.
But that is our current area, when we move to the small village we are moving too, we'll have to find out what Christmas will be like than, but since it's entirely new, we get to make our own new christmas traditions :D

[Lacim84]

Here in San Antonio we have a the lighting of the riverwalk and my son's personal favorite, going to Seaworld & Six Flags to enjoy all of their holiday festivities.
:yahoo:

[brittd19]

Our town has a christmas sail pass. People decorate their boats with Lights, Figurines..etc and usually in the first week, they'll have one night where they sail up and down the harbour. It was one of my favourite things to watch as a child at Christmas time!

Now a couple things we used to have, but have since stopped were

Choirs from the elementary schools would go to our mall and sing christmas songs in the centre court

and

There was a house out towards the country that would decorate their house from top to bottom with wooden figurines, lights, music.. all the good stuff, and sometimes they'd have santa come out and take pics with all the kids that would come by... I can't remember why.. but im fairly certain it was for their grandchild.

[dancerXbabe]

In our town we have a light switch on then the following morning a Christmas parade where local companies, pubs, dance/drama groups and many others dress up in a different theme and drive through the town on the back of lorries throwing sweets and goodies to children, at the end of the parade is a Santa sleigh which then visits different parts of the town each week in the run up to Christmas.
In the next town they have a massive light switch on with a couple of celebs, people dressed up as children's tv characters and a fair. They also have a large Christmas tree and a santa's grotto in the middle of the town.

[Rennabelle]

In our area we have a truck light show about the second week in Dec. The town throws a big hot dog and chili feed (free) then we decorate and light up the big Christmas tree. There are games for everyone esp the kiddies and different things to do then come evening the trucks start their parade in the neighboring town and comes to our town and loops but our house to make their way to the park for the judging. We have a big gathering at our house and I make a big roaster full of Chicken and homemade egg noodles and the guests bring other things and we have a party here. We build a big fire out in the back yard to keep warm and watch the trucks as they come by. A week later the fire department has a big day for the kids, they take the kids on fire truck rides, serve cookies, hot dogs and hot chocolate. Santa is there to give out gifts, oranges, apples, and of course candy canes. On Christmas day the town has a big turkey dinner for all that want to come, this is also free to the public, we don't go to it as I think they would faint if they saw my croud of 30+ walk through the door.

[HomemakinGirl]

We have a tree lighting, concerts and an awesome craft fair that I always look forward to.

[Christmas-A-Holic]

We also have a celebration at Ethel M Chocolates- they decorate their botanical cactus gardens with festive lights & you get to sample their chocolates. So I get two of my favorites at once- X-Mas & chocolates!
:tree:
I have been to Vegas many times and also visited Ethel M. Chocolates. I saw the cactus garden, only in the summer. I recorded a special on tv showing it decorated for Christmas. It was really pretty!

[xmasallyeararound]

:grin:Im from a small town in maine and i little bit like mass. we have a huge christmas craft fair the weekend right after thanksgiving than the following weekend we have a huge christmas parade that shuts down the center street in town and all the business come out and they are award in different areas depending on what type of buisness they are...Its nice to see the whole town get together to celebrate a wonderful time of the year

[lauriebear]

I will be visiting Arcadia in Sept, I cannot wait, maybe I will have to go back from the Holiday's in December just to nose around.

On Long Island we have a lot of area tree lighting's, in Flanders (a small town here) has a "Duck" lighting, here is something I found from 2009 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DrI3z9IPVY0 on you-tube. The Girl Scots host a Holiday Light Show in the town of Bayport, another town here on LI. Also the best is Lighting the Lighthouse in Montauk... I tried to get a pix but couldn't sorry everyone.... But I guess most of you all know the Rockefeller Tree Lighting.file:///C:/Documents%20and%20Settings/LauraT/My%20Documents/My%20Pictures/lighting_the_light_2008.jpgfile:///C:/DOCUME%7E1/LauraT/LOCALS%7E1/Temp/moz-screenshot-2.pngfile:///C:/DOCUME%7E1/LauraT/LOCALS%7E1/Temp/moz-screenshot-1.pngfile:///C:/DOCUME%7E1/LauraT/LOCALS%7E1/Temp/moz-screenshot.png

[XmasDreams]

:grin:Im from a small town in maine and i little bit like mass. we have a huge christmas craft fair the weekend right after thanksgiving than the following weekend we have a huge christmas parade that shuts down the center street in town and all the business come out and they are award in different areas depending on what type of buisness they are...Its nice to see the whole town get together to celebrate a wonderful time of the year


where in Maine you from, when i was in the Navy was stationed in Brunswick and lived in Bath.

[ChristmasAddict]

The Holiday Festival at University of CO's Macky Auditorium is pretty legendary in Boulder. I've gone the last two years and it is AMAZING-decorations, chiors, brass section, and sing alongs! It is a ton of fun and is a highlight of the season for me

[XmasDreams]

I posted it elsewhere on the site but Nashville is known for a country Christmas ever year.

[xmasallyeararound]

where in Maine you from, when i was in the Navy was stationed in Brunswick and lived in Bath.

Im from the oxford hill region

[Cetacea]

In my village there is a very famous santa parade at December 5 every year. It is called "Haunting Santa" (word to word translation). It is a very traditional parade and only men are aloud to walk it. It starts around 8.30 p.m. and there even were asian tv crews who filmed it!

This is how the parade proceed:
First there are men who will crack many long whips in a special rhythm. After them there are long lines of men who play big cow bells (all in the same rhythm, some kind of a very old song), then there is Santa and his helpers after that there are again long lines of men who wears different handmade laterns made out of wood. At the end of the parade there are men who plays some kind of flute (don't know how to call it in english).

The whole parade goes on for about half an hour.

I am not sure if this is an logical explanation, that is why I try to put a couple pictures in here, for your better understanding.

http://en.ce.cn/World/pic-news/200712/06/W020071206348614900184.jpg

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_OmEebt0s9_Q/Sx-aGCeLYJI/AAAAAAAAARE/btENEXzfIk0/s200/IMG_0880.JPG

http://euro.typepad.jp/blog/images/2009/11/16/klausjagen_6.png