Your favorite "Christmas town" in the U.S.?

Friend,

What a wonderful topic.

TulaneLSU's Top 10 U.S. Christmas towns:

10. Lake Buena Vista: we stayed at the Grand Floridian last year at Christmas. The tree and the Magic Kingdom were beautifully decorated. Commercial though it was, there was a joyful spirit of Christmas throughout the air. And the weather was perfect.

9. Carmel by the Sea: we have visited twice at Christmas, and the little town is just so quaint. Both times the weather was wonderful, and if you are blessed, you may be able to run into local residents Clint Eastwood and our own SuperSaint.

8. East of Destin: the beach is not the first place you think of for Christmas destinations, but East of Destin is arguably the best Christmas beach destination. Seaside is glittering in all white lights with a marvelous tree downtown. The weather is almost always peak of season.

7. Bethlehem, PA: Though we have never visited, I have on good authority that its Christmas celebrations are world class, as are its caroling parties. One of these days we will get there.

6. The Grand Canyon: the heat has left and though it can get cold, if you can get a night at Phantom Ranch in December, you will have a great experience. We have done it only once, but the staff and other hikers joined us for a grand hot chocolate extravaganza one cool December night in 2010. Such memories!

5. Chicago: although the weather is often Baltic, it is hard to say no to a weekend in Chicago in December. The famous chicken pot pie at Macy's historic Walnut Room is alone worth the trip. Skip the Chicago Thanksgiving Parade, even though much of it is Christmas themed.

4. Grand Isle: when Uncle had a camp down there, we went caroling in the middle of December. I think it was 2002 or thereabouts. We visited over thirty houses, and by the end of the caroling, we had a troupe numbering more than 40. As we randomly knocked on the doors of strangers, they picked up what they were doing and joined us. It is one of my favorite Christmas memories ever.

3. Asheville: how does it get better than sitting in a rocking chair in the Grove Park's majestic lobby by one of its mammoth sized fireplaces and seven foot long logs? By heading over to its National Gingerbread House Competition, where Mother had the honor of being a judge in years past. Biltmore is also wondrously decorated, and the hiking is superb at that time of year, as the weather usually is not bitter and the leaves have fallen, opening up incredible views along some of the ridges.

2. New York: ice skating in Central Park, the Macy's display, the Rockefeller tree, and the world's greatest pizzerias. There has hardly been a year when we did not make at trip to NYC in December. If you can get a Plaza reservation, do so.

1. New Orleans: Christmas in the Oaks, the Roosevelt, and our family's famous displays and caroling and hot chocolate party. Christmas Eve services at church and then Midnight Mass at St. Louis Cathedral, it does not get any better. What a loss, though, two years ago, when Santa's Quarters (est. 1977) closed. The Christmas celebration truly climbs to a crescendo from December 25 onward through Twelfth Night, where the city's many Twelfth Night parties appropriately celebrate the Christmas season with king cake.

Yours,
TulaneLSU

Friend,

Are you thinking of Leavenworth, the German town? I have not decided if I will go there yet, but one of the board's recommendations that I visit because there is a nutcracker store there makes the idea enticing.

Yours,
TulaneLSU

Big Bear Lake, CA has a pretty big Santa's Village set up with ice skating, games for the kids, live reindeer, and train rides. The downtown area gets really well decorated as well with campfires set up in an area to make smores.

There are small towns all up the New England coast starting in Newbury Port, MA, through Portsmouth, NH and heading north to around Freeport, Maine that go all out for christmas. The lobster is great and there's little breweries all around, and it's not very crowded that time of year.
Wife and i did that trip a few years ago around christmas time and loved it. We had no specific plans, just stopped in small towns that looked neat.

You really like Christmas go to Bronner's in Frankenmuth, MI

Frakenmuth

I got a kick out of the list since it’s ostensibly a reasonable list, but it has Grand Isle at 4

Not a town, but something on my Bucket List. Bracebridge Dinners at the Ahwahnee Hotel in Yosemite. Need to reserve far in advance, according to my research.

LINK /

Solvang, CA. It's a Danish town that puts on a big Christmas festival and, though touristy, still feels European.