It’s the most wonderful time of the year! Christmas!

Christmas is one of the most popular holidays all over the world and almost everyone celebrates it in one way or another. Do you remember what you did growing up for Christmas and the family traditions? Go back to those days when you were only a child and made s’mores next to the fireplace or you would sing Christmas carols with the family. One of the most fun things to do when Christmas comes around is going to a festival! Festivals are colorful, fun, full of joy, great for spending quality time with the family and they are a great spectacle to watch! Festivals get you excited for Christmas and the entire holiday season! They get you in the Christmas spirit! Let’s take a tour through the world and see what everyone’s Christmas festivals are like!

 Let’s start with London! London is a huge city and they have a huge Christmas festival called The Winter Wonderland in Hyde Park. This festival runs from the day before Thanksgiving, all the way to January 5^th. The festival includes many stores and shops where you can do your Christmas shopping, buy food, get on rides, watch a circus that simulates (Cirque du Soleil) and you can also take pictures with Santa Claus and tell him what you want for Christmas! Now, let’s take a ride to Portland, Oregon for The Grotto Festival of Lights. This festival has the largest choral festival in the world and has over 150 indoor holiday concerts! You can also check out the animal petting zoo, puppet shows and a wide array of Nativity sets and scenes. Hurry let’s fly to Budapest, Hungary for the Christmas festival. Let your sense of smell come to life with the fragrance of wine, cookies, honey, jams and cinnamon. This Christmas festival keeps the Hungarian Christmas tradition alive every year! And best of all, it keeps your tummy nice and full with left overs to take home! Now, let’s wander over to sunny Miami, Florida for Santa’s Enchanted Forest and visit the world’s largest Christmas theme park! It has over 100 rides, games, attractions and a  huge spectacle of lights! Let’s go to Santa’s home and go to the North Pole, except, it’s not his real home because this North Pole is in Alaska! The Christmas In Ice festival has amazing life size lit up sculptures of ice! Better yet, combine those sculptures with a snowflake drop and fireworks! Let’s check out Strlezelmarkt (Christmas Market) in Dresden, Germany. This is the oldest Christmas festival/market in the world! It has been around since 1434 and is celebrating its 579^th Christmas festival! It also has the world’s largest nutcracker, a carousel featuring life-size nativity figures and angels, as well as, a 45 foot wooden pyramid. Watch the Gingerbread princess get crowned and your Christmas spirit will come alive with the great church service and organ concert! Lastly, let’s head over to Vienna, Austria for the Wiener Christkindlmarkt at Rathausplatz. This Christmas festival has a wide array of Christmas treats such as; gingerbread, mulled wine and sweet chestnuts. Let the little ones enjoy a pony ride or the merry-go-round, while you go the 140 vendors on site that sell many toys and goodies!

Christmas is definitely the most wonderful time of the year! It is one of the most celebrated holidays around the world and as we have illustrated above, it is celebrated by most and it is an amazing spectacle! Going to all these wonderful Christmas festivals should be part of your bucket list! So get in the Christmas spirit and make it a tradition to go to your nearest Christmas festival!