Elaborate gingerbread houses, boat parades, train shows and dazzling light shows that illuminate entire neighbourhoods are all part of the holiday fun this year for the Christmas and New Year's season. Here's a selection of beautiful things to see and interesting things to do around the US now through early January.
In Manhattan, the Rockefeller Centre tree stays lit until January 7. This year it's a 74-foot-tall Norway spruce illuminated by 30,000 lights. You can go skating at the rink onsite, see the Christmas show at nearby Radio City Music Hall or visit St Patrick's Cathedral on Fifth Avenue. Other favourite Christmas trees around Manhattan include the tree and Neapolitan Baroque creche at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, up through January 8, and the origami holiday tree at the American Museum of Natural History through January 2.
In Washington, you'll find the National Christmas Tree, a 26-foot Colorado blue spruce, located on the Ellipse, a park that lies between the White House and the National Mall. The tree was planted earlier this year to replace a previous one that had blown down.
New Orleans offers Creole traditions and other festivities throughout the Christmas season, including a holiday-light display in City Park, filled with twinkling 100-year-old oak trees; holiday displays at the Botanical Garden and Storyland; and New Orleans Reveillon, an old French Creole holiday dining tradition available in restaurants around the city with prix fixe menus and dishes such as absinthe oyster soup and sugarcane smoked duck.
They don't get much snow, but a Christmas tradition in many Florida towns is the holiday boat parade. There are nearly 50 of them held from Pensacola to Key West this time of year, with lighted boats illuminating waterways and harbours. Visit www.floridabywater.com/component/content/article/1647-boat-parades for details.
Holiday train shows are a tradition at many botanic gardens with model trains running through elaborate scale replicas of landscapes and landmarks. At the New York Botanical Garden in the Bronx, the holiday train show on display through January 16 in the Enid A. Haupt Conservancy features miniature versions of Yankee Stadium, the Statue of Liberty and the Brooklyn Bridge. At the Chicago Botanic Garden, through January 1, the Wonderland Express holiday train exhibit includes more than 80 miniature Chicago landmarks including Navy Pier, Soldier Field, the Art Institute and more.
Snow and lights
Many ski resorts offer special events at this time. Taos Ski Valley hosts torch light parades on Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve. The resort says "crowds gather at the bottom of the mountain to watch as skiers make their way down the mountain in the dark with flares as their only means of light".
Making a gingerbread house is no longer a simple activity done at home with children. Many hotels are hosting displays of gingerbread houses created by pastry chefs and artists. The Capital Hotel in Little Rock, Arkansas, The Clifton Inn in Charlottesville, Virginia, and The Jefferson, in Washington DC, are hosting ornate gingerbread displays. At Le Parker Meridien hotel in Manhattan, through January 6, some of the city's top bakeries have contributed gingerbread masterpieces for a display that benefits City Harvest, which provides food to nearly 600 community programmes.
At Universal Studios Hollywood in California, CityWalk is hosting a Holiday Lights Spectacular. At Universal Studios in Orlando, the Macy's Holiday Parade is held every evening through January 1 with some of the same floats, characters and balloons that were seen on the streets of Manhattan Thanksgiving Day. And at Universal theme parks in California and Florida, you can take in a Grinchmas show and meet the Grinch and the Whos.
Trees, wreaths and tours
In North Carolina, Christmas at the Biltmore estate in Asheville features 57 Christmas trees in the Biltmore House and nearly 500 wreaths around the estate. Thousands of lights illuminate the National Historic Landmark and grounds, and the estate offers a variety of tours and events. Christmas celebrations have a long tradition there, going back to Christmas Eve 1895, when George Washington Vanderbilt first opened Biltmore House to family and friends.
In Riverside, California, The Mission Inn Hotel & Spa is hosting its 19th Festival of Lights — with 3.6 million lights — until January 8, plus horse-drawn carriages and carolers.
Arkansas is offering a downloadable Trail of Holiday Lights brochure (www.arkansas.com/things-to-do/trail-of-lights/), with details on lighting displays and other events in more than 60 communities around the state. Of course, Arkansas' most famous lighting display has been transported to Disney's Hollywood Studios in Florida, where visitors can see the Osborne Family Spectacle of Dancing Lights through January 7. The huge display of 3.2 million lights originated at the home of Jennings Osborne in Little Rock, but the spectacle drew complaints and, eventually, a lawsuit from neighbours. Osborne passed away in July; the light show has been at Disney since 1995.
In Wheeling, West Virginia, the Oglebay Resort & Conference Centre hosts the Winter Festival of Lights through January 8. The show covers more than 300 acres over a six-mile drive with larger-than-life lighting displays including a Ferris wheel, dinosaurs, a poinsettia wreath, and The Twelve Days of Christmas.
In Dallas, a huge electronic music event called Lights All Night is scheduled for New Year's Eve. The festival features six top DJs — Tiesto, Laidback Luke, Dada Life, Wolfgang Gartner, Benny Benassi and Porter Robinson — and will take place from December 30-31 at the Dallas Convention Centre.
