Give Grandma's house a break this season

By Barbara Gibbs Ostmann

The countdown to the holiday season has begun, and it's time to start planning your holiday getaway. Instead of the usual get-together at Grandma's house, grab Grandma and round up family and close friends and go over the river and through the woods to an exciting destination. It will be a Christmas to remember—and no one will have to worry about decorating elaborately, cleaning the house, or cooking the meals.

• An Ozark Mountain Christmas Celebration

• Holiday Magic in Orlando

• Winterfest in the Smoky Mountains

• Eureka! It's a Victorian Christmas

Labels: Arkansas, Branson, Christmas, Eureka Springs, Florida, Gatlinburg, Holiday, Missouri, Orlando, Pigeon Forge, Tennessee

By Barbara Gibbs Ostmann

Nestled in the Ozark Mountains in northwest Arkansas, the Victorian Village of Eureka Springs provides a picture-postcard setting for Christmas celebrations. The winding streets and historic buildings lined with twinkling white lights set the stage for a whirlwind of holiday activities.

The festivities begin in November with Santa’s appearance at historic Basin Spring Park and the lighting of the town Christmas tree. A Christmas parade, candlelight tour of homes, tea party, and several concerts in the historic City Auditorium stoke the holiday spirit. The Pine Mountain Jamboree and Ozark Mountain Hoedown, longtime local country music shows, both offer special Christmas productions throughout the season. Turpentine Creek Wildlife Refuge, just south of town, offers special services to bless the beasts and the children.

Perched high on a hillside, the 1886 Crescent Hotel and Spa overlooks Eureka Springs. This historic hotel’s annual Christmas at the Crescent includes brunch with Santa, special concerts, and the traditional New Year’s Eve gala. Book a room there, or just stop by for a meal, a drink, or a tour.

If you’re exhausted from all the holiday hustle and bustle, visit the New Moon Spa (newmoonspa.com) on the garden level of the Crescent Hotel for a relaxing massage, facial, or manicure—a holiday gift for yourself!

The historic Palace Hotel and Bathhouse (palacehotelbathhouse.com) is another popular choice. The spa has been restored to its original 1901 condition and is like a step back in time. Other lodging options are abundant and range from rustic cabins to quaint bed-and-breakfasts to modern motel chains. There are more than a dozen spas, designed to pamper your mind, body, and spirit.

Allow plenty of time to wander through the heart of the downtown area, stopping in the one-of-a-kind boutiques, gift shops, and art galleries.

Only a scenic two-hour drive apart, it’s easy to visit both Branson and Eureka Springs during one vacation.

Labels: Arkansas, Christmas, Eureka Springs, Holiday

By Barbara Gibbs Ostmann

The Smoky Mountains literally sparkle in the wintertime. Both Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg, Tennessee, poised near the entrance to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, celebrate Winterfest from November through February. The activities vary somewhat in each town, but both are decked out in millions of twinkling lights that are guaranteed to put you in the holiday spirit.

The Pigeon Forge Winterfest kicks off in early November for four months of holiday spirit, fun, activities, and most noticeably, five million lights. The best way to view the lights is onboard the Trolley Tour of Lights, featuring heated enclosed trolleys with step-on guides. Theaters in Pigeon Forge produce special holiday shows in November and December, and nearby Dollywood becomes a winter wonderland recreation of a traditional Appalachian Christmas celebration. The outlet malls team up to offer The World's Largest Outlet Sale in December—a true shopping frenzy.

Also included in Winterfest are the 18th Annual Wilderness Wildlife Week (January 12-19), 17th Annual Smoky Mountains Storytelling Festival (February 7-9), and the 8th Annual Saddle Up! Festival (February 21-24). During Wilderness Wildlife Week, visitors explore the Smoky Mountains via workshops, lectures, and guided hikes that range from easy walks to strenuous treks. The storytelling festival brings some of the country's finest storytellers to the Smoky Mountains to spin tales of fact and fiction, ranging from folk-lore to ghost stories. West meets southeast during Saddle Up!, which features cowboy poetry, Western music, songwriting workshops, and a Cowboy Clothing Mart.

In Gatlinburg, Winterfest kicks off with a Chili Cook-Off on November 7. During that day's festivities, a flip of a switch will trigger Gatlinburg Winter Magic, the second phase of a three-year roll-out of more than one million dollars of custom-designed LED outdoor lighting displays. The first phase, introduced in 2006, featured winter forest scenes along sections of the Downtown Parkway. This year's addition will illuminate the entire parkway, from one end of town to the other, plus adjacent River Road and the triangular junction of the two. Some of the new lighting displays will feature animals typical of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Next year's lighting additions will include an international zone, Santa area, snowman land, and whimsical children's characters.

Visitors can enjoy the light displays from the comfort of the Gatlinburg Winter Magic Trolley Ride of Lights.

Winter Magic Tunes & Tales also debuts this season. Throughout November and December, visitors can meet storytellers and costumed characters and enjoy caroling and entertainment along the Downtown Parkway every evening.

Other Winterfest activities include the Great Smoky Arts and Crafts Holiday Show, the nighttime Fantasy of Lights Christmas Parade, old-fashioned hayrides, and a gala New Year's Eve celebration with a street party, ball drop, and fireworks show.

Labels: Christmas, Gatlinburg, Holiday, Pigeon Forge, Tennessee

By Barbara Gibbs Ostmann

If your idea of a holiday hiatus is warmer climates, think about Florida—palm trees, sunshine, and ice slides. That’s right, ice slides.

At Gaylord Palms Resort at Orlando (gaylordhotels.com), nearly two million pounds of ice steal the show. The walk-through ice spectacle features interactive holiday scenes and ice slides for adults and children. The ice scenes are hand-sculpted by forty artists from China.

Mickey Mouse is the most famous character in Orlando, so it is only fitting that he hosts a Very Merry Christmas Party at Disney’s Magic Kingdom. The festivities feature a series of fun nighttime events for the little ones, including holiday shows, fireworks, and magic treats with Minnie and Mickey.

At nearby Epcot, a Holidays Around the World theme features international holiday storytellers, a daily tree-lighting ceremony by park characters, and an
eye-popping display of white lights. At Disney-MGM Studios, the Osborne Family Spectacle of Dancing Lights electrifies the studio lot with millions of sparkling lights.

Here’s some Disney trivia to sprinkle in your holiday planning conversations: Walt Disney World Resort hangs seven million lights throughout
the property to celebrate the holiday season. More than eight hundred musicians, characters, storytellers, singers, and entertainers perform daily throughout the Disney theme parks at Orlando.

Orlando knows how to ring in the New Year with style. You can take your pick of fabulous New Year’s Eve celebrations at SeaWorld Orlando
(seaworld.com), Universal CityWalk, Downtown Disney Pleasure Island, Epcot, or the Magic Kingdom. Activities range from live music, street dances, champagne toasts, and parades to elaborate fireworks displays at midnight. At the Gaylord Palms Resort, a black-tie masked ball called the Grande Masque (grandemasque.org) rings in the New Year while supporting the local arts community. The ball offers fine dining, performances by the Orlando Ballet, the Orlando Opera, and the Orlando Philharmonic Orchestra, as well as silent and live auctions.

On December 29, the Orlando Citrus Parade features more than fifty entries, including citrus-themed floats and marching bands from across the country. It takes five hundred volunteers three days to attach more than one hundred thousand grapefruits, oranges, and tangerines to the floats with rubber bands. After the parade, the fruit is donated to local food banks.

Labels: Christmas, Florida, Holiday, Orlando

By Barbara Gibbs Ostmann

Deep in the Ozarks, the Christmas season begins early at Branson, Missouri. Throughout the month of November and early December, every show in town sports a holiday-themed performance, and the area attractions transform themselves into winter wonderlands.

One of the most magical places at Christmastime is Silver Dollar City. The theme park started in 1960 as a recreated 1880s Ozarks mining town atop Marvel Cave. Since then, it has morphed into a megapark complete with thrill rides, a dozen musical shows, plenty of shopping, and one hundred resident craftspeople demonstrating their skills. For the park’s An Old Time Christmas festival, Silver Dollar City becomes a twinkling fantasyland with four million lights, hundreds of decorated trees, holiday-costumed characters, and special wintertime treats. The festival includes a Broadway-quality production of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, a living Nativity, a five-story special-effects Christmas tree, holiday light parade, and new this year, Christmas on Main Street, a light show incorporating all the buildings and trees around the square.

Another Branson classic, the Shepherd of the Hills Historic Homestead and Old Mill Theatre, is a nostalgic stop during the Christmas season. This year marks the one hundredth anniversary of the publication of the book, The Shepherd of the Hills, by Harold Bell Wright, the book that started the Branson tourism boom. Following its publication, visitors flocked to the Ozarks to see the places and people Wright had written about. Soon Silver Dollar City, the Baldknobbers, and the Presleys began entertaining visitors, too. The visitors kept coming, and Branson kept growing.

The Shepherd of the Hills park offers the nightly outdoor drama based on Wright’s book, the Sons of the Pioneers Chuckwagon Dinner Show, guided tours of the historic homestead, and horseback trail rides. It’s easy to spend the entire day at the homestead.

For the holidays, the Shepherd of the Hills produces the Trail of Lights, an elaborate drive-through light display, and Christmas on the Trail, a chuck wagon dinner show featuring cowboy Christmas music and singalong.

For a memorable vacation, book a cabin at Big Cedar Lodge, one of the finest resorts in the country. Located off Route 86 about fifteen minutes south of Branson, Big Cedar (bigcedarlodge.com) overlooks Table Rock Lake and offers a luxurious experience in a rustic setting. Even if you don’t stay there, at least drop by for a meal in the Devil’s Pool Restaurant. The exposed beam-and-log hunting lodge décor is typical of Bass Pro Shops, which owns Big Cedar Lodge and nearby Dogwood Canyon, a ten-thousand-acre nature park that offers special Christmas in the Canyon holiday dinners.

The flagship store of Bass Pro Shops is in Springfield, about thirty minutes north of Branson. It’s one of the top tourist destinations in the state of Missouri—and a store like no other you’ve ever visited. There’s also a Bass Pro Shops in the new Branson Landing district of downtown Branson, but it is smaller than the Springfield store. You’ll still want to stroll through Branson Landing while you’re in town and browse through the stores, dine in the restaurants, and enjoy the holiday lights and decorations. Don’t miss the elaborate water-light-sound show at the Branson Landing Fountains in the town square near the Lake Taneycomo waterfront.

The Branson Area Festival of Lights includes drive-through light displays at Branson, Kimberling City, Indian Point, Hollister, and along Route 76.

Labels: Branson, Christmas, Holiday, Missouri