Christmas is the time when we relive memories and make some new ones. Whether burdened by our tough-world realities or distracted by the ever-increasing mundane chores, Christmas cheer brings delightful relief and a blissful pause for all of us.
The Christmas season has something for everyone! You might want to celebrate Christmas strolling down one of the charming Christmas markets with your significant other.
Or, you might be by yourself in a new city and want to join Christmas celebrations at crowd-pulling iconic landmarks that get an even more enticing makeover for Christmas. Maybe you have little chirpy ones and are looking forward to revitalizing the Christmas spirit, complete with every Christmas tradition.
While holiday celebrations are never complete without Christmas decorations and lights, mesmerizing shows, and food enticing taste buds and eyes, we have picked cities known for their unique Christmassy feel and special events.
Gear yourself for trips no less than The Christmas Carol, and let’s take a journey into the best U.S. cities to visit at Christmas.
1. Showy Christmas
Speaking of the play, Christmas in the U.S. is not about holiday decorations and tasty treats. Known for their beloved holiday tradition-themed musicals and spellbinding Christmas shows, U.S. cities are home to renowned holiday music, theaters, and performances.
1.1. Orlando, Florida
This place is a crowd-puller for its themed parks, like Disney’s Magic Kingdom and Universal Studios. For Christmas, ‘the happiest place on earth’ gets even happier. Spend Christmas in the playgrounds of Mickey Mouse with your entire family for great shows like Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party.
On the streets, cheer for Universal’s Holiday Parade highlighting the rosy glow of Macy’s, or have fun in the theaters watching Grinchmas.
Bundle up with extra zeal for Ice at Gaylord Palms because you would be sliding down ice slides two stories tall, and watch ice carvers razing through ice blocks to create your favorite toon characters!
1.2. New York, NY
Popular with locals and people all over and around, the Radio City Music Hall, lovingly called the Rockettes, hosts Christmas Spectacular with dazzling dance performances and lively musicals and shows. With impeccably choreographed nativity scenes, the performances remind us of Christmas’s faithful, glorified traditional roots.
Witness the iconic performance by the New York City Ballet’s The Nutcracker, which will sweep kids and adults into a unique new dimension with its otherworldly music by Tchaikovsky and incredible choreography and visuals.
1.3. Chicago, Illinois
Performance arts like musicals and theaters bring us so much closer to the spirit of the holiday season. Downtown Chicago is famous for its iconic theater district, so get a ticket to some memorable evenings.
Relive the classics and a laughter-filled experience in A Christmas Carol at the Goodman Theatre, or at the dreamy-eyed Cirque du Soleil – ‘Twas The Night Before… at the Chicago Theatre, Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s live Christmas music specials, and so much more!
2. Best Christmas Lights
From white to multicolored, from lights blanketing the whole city to themed ones, Christmas lights transform the city with a flip. Here are some notable ones.
2.1. Leavenworth, Washington
This Bavarian-style city with Alpine buildings creates the ideal ambiance and backdrop for the Village of Lights. This might be the white Christmas you are looking for!
While there, don’t forget to drop in at the Nutcracker Museum, housing over 9000 nutcrackers, or eat cookies at The Gingerbread Factory.
2.2. Descanso Gardens, California
One of the best Christmas glows in Los Angeles, the Enchanted Forest of Lights takes you into a mile-long interactive, magical, iridescent wonderland and popular enchanting installations.
2.3. Branson, Missouri
The city is a sight to behold at Christmastime with 6.5 million lights that will arouse the kid in you at Silver Dollar City’s An Old Time Christmas.
2.4. Las Vegas, Nevada
It’s all about pomp and show, but these light shows need special mention. Mimicking winter wonderland, Enchant Las Vegas at BallPark is spread around a 100-ft tall Christmas tree and dotted with giant snowflakes and icicle pillars for you to go on scavenger hunts.
More than 5 million twinkling lights along a 2.5-mile path are ready to mesmerize you at the Glittering Lights at Motor Speedway. At the genuinely grand Bellagio Hotel, the Bellagio Conservatory and Bellagio Fountain put up a show that stops others!
2.5. Hershey, Pennsylvania
Chocolate and Christmas are the best buddies. We love our chocolate in hot cocoa and warm fudges, you name it! And what is the best place to celebrate the best Christmas ever in the US other than the chocolate capital, Hershey?
Famous for Hersheypark Christmas Candylane, the experience features 5 million twinkling lights, thrilling rides, holiday displays, and everything chocolate.
2.6. Clifton Mills, Ohio
Featuring magical creations like the 100 ft. waterfall made of lights and 4 million other lights that cover every inch of the historic Clifton Mill and its riverbanks, bridges, and trees.
2.7. Atlanta, Georgia
Known year-round for the sprawling botanical garden featuring an already fascinating collection of plants, the Atlanta Botanical Gardens’ 33 acres turn into seasonal light displays, lovingly named Garden Lights Holiday Nights.
With installations like the iconic Ice Goddess, it is no wonder the illuminated wonderland is featured in leading news and has won coveted awards.
2.8. Denver, Colorado
There are plenty of fabulous light displays in Denver. Still, the best is Denver Botanic Gardens’ Blossoms of Light, with interactive larger-than-life 3-D lighting sprawled over a snowy winter landscape.
2.9. New York, NY
When in New York for Christmas, you’d surely want to grow extra heads and eyeballs to see all the city offers. Decked with over 50K lights and topped with a 3-D Swarovski star weighing 900 pounds, the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree is the unofficial center of Christmas in New York.
After the ceremonial tree lighting ceremony, head to the residential streets of Dyker Heights Christmas Lights, where historic houses and Christmas trees are swept in dazzling traditional Christmas lights and décor. Truly insta-worthy!
Check out the dazzling light show and holiday events while doing some Christmas shopping at the luxurious Saks Fifth Avenue in Manhattan, or head to the Bronx district for Bronx Zoo’s Holiday Lights.
2.10. Chicago, Illinois
Holiday lights displays are everywhere in Chicago and draw crowds from all over despite the chilly temperatures in the windy city.
See the ZooLights at the historic Lincoln Park Zoo or the nearby Brookfield Zoo’s Holiday Magic light works with a 600-foot light tunnel and over two million twinkling lights.
Another daytime attraction for students and green enthusiasts, the Chicago Botanic Garden’s Lightscape offers illuminated trails and cheery Christmas jingles.
Do not miss Chicago’s Christmas tree lighting at the widely photographed architectural Millennium Park Campus.
3. Activity-Filled Christmas
Those who want to sweep up and smear the holiday cheer all over themselves cannot, and must not, shy away from the fun Christmas games, holiday season events, and activities. Choose from ice skating, admiring Christmas markets, or singing in massive, open-air carols.
3.1. Las Vegas, Nevada
Ice Rinks: Skating on 4200 sq. ft. of natural ice, the rooftop Ice Skating Rink of The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas will make you closer to Santa passing overhead on his sled. Let the chill not worry you. The place comes prepared for you with hot beverages and smores over the fire pits.
3.2. New York, NY
Ice Rinks: Another 17,000 sq. ft. area rink to ice skate on! At the Bank of America Winter Village at Bryant Park, work up your appetite for tasty Christmas delicacies at nearly 180 food stalls and shops.
Too crowded for some personal space? Head to other popular rinks in the city, such as The Rink at the Rockefeller Center or the Wollman Rink in the sprawling Central Park.
Gingerbread Village: You have to eat after all that skiing, so take your growling stomach straight to the world’s largest gingerbread village, humbly named GingerBread Lane.
Lined up with hundreds of gingerbread houses and truckloads of candies and gingerbread cookies, they are potent ingredients of the holiday spirit. Feeling creatively inspired? Make sure to stop by and admire the artist behind it all personally, Jon Lovitch.
Christmas markets: Are you in the mood to go Christmas shopping and get some trinkets for back home, or do you want to stroll the festive lanes? You can do both in one of the many Christmas markets in New York.
3.3. New Orleans, Louisiana
French Quarters: Spend some serious time doing some adulting (fun, that is!) at Christmas in French Quarters or the Bonfires on the Levees along the Mississippi River to guide Saint Nicholas (in French, Papa Noël) himself to join in for fun.
Celebrations in the Oaks: Afterward, take a long stroll for Celebrations in the Oaks In NOLA’s Central Park. Feeling hungry? Indulge in scrumptiously creole Réveillon Dinner specialties.
Christmas carols: For a traditional Christmas Eve experience, light a candle and break into a Christmas song with a hundred others at the Caroling in Jackson Square, or attend a midnight mass at the oldest cathedral in America that still draws devotees at the St. Louis Cathedral.
3.4. Bethlehem, Pennsylvania
German-style Christmas market: You would forget you are in for celebrating Christmas in the United States for a while. This German heritage town is the destination of one of the best dreamy, enchanting Christmas markets, Christkindlmarkt, where you can buy small and large gifts.
Book shops and Night tours: For some quality cozy time while sipping on hot chocolate and crunching on candy canes, stop by the Moravian Book Shop, the oldest bookstore in the US that is still operating, or take the Bethlehem by Night Motorcoach Tour for yourself.
4. Themed Christmas
4.1. Polar Express Themed Christmas
That was one movie we relived in our imagination repeatedly, didn’t we? Here’s the chance to hop onto one of those, for real.
4.1.1. Grapevine, Texas
You are in luck if you happen to be in Grapevine, Texas. So put on your jammies, or like the story’s poodle skirt and checked pants of the 1950s, and don’t forget to carry the tickets to North Pole Express at the Christmas destination of Texas.
4.1.2. Bardstown, Kentucky
Another enchanting Christmas destination to enjoy with the family aboard the North Pole Express of Bardstown, Kentucky.
4.1.3. Essex, Connecticut
If you are on the East Coast, the Essex North Pole Express awaits you!
4.2. Meeting Santa!
4.2.1. North Pole, Alaska
Santa Claus has multiple residences, one in the North Pole, Alaska, named Santa Claus House. The town has the most giant Santa in the world, real reindeer, and streets like Snowman Lane.
Don’t believe us? Ask those thousands of little hearts and hands that send letters to Santa at that address.
4.2.2. Santa Claus, Indiana
If you can’t make it there, there’s another doable destination by the name of the icon himself, Santa Claus in Indiana. Of course, you can meet Santa here too!
The place boasts of everything Santa Claus Land of Lights, a dazzling 1.2-mile drive featuring the man himself and his ride.
Conclusion
Christmas is THE time of the year, a festive season and holiday cheer that brings all together away from global discord and personal disharmony. If you happen to be in the US around this time, you are in luck. There is something for everyone, from events big or small, blaring loud or jingle-soft, for those above 18, and for those who are perennially kids at heart.
With this list of best U.S. cities to visit at Christmas, we hope you will also find your sweet spot on the map and head out for a memorable getaway and happy holidays. Just like The Holidays movie, you never know what magic awaits you!
Last Updated on by NamitaSoren
