Where Christmas opens its welcoming doors to a wonderful fairytale world

Why do we all love Christmas so much? Perhaps because it is at Christmas that the kindest Santa Claus opens wide the fairytale doors to the world of our childhood, where joy, love and faith in happiness reign.

On Christmas holidays, most people try to go to a place where, as they hope, they can come closer to realizing their brightest expectations and dreams coming from a joyful childhood.

There are plenty of such places in the USA, and they are all hospitably waiting for those who want to join the beauty and joy of Christmas there.

McAdenville, NC

In McAdenville, known as Christmas Town USA, you can walk or drive through an incredible lighting phenomenon: evergreen trees around a lake are draped with lights, the 1883 bell tower gleams, more than 100 homes are decorated to the hilt and an elementary school student each year gets to turn on the lights at the Tree Lighting Ceremony.

Another important component is the Yule Log Ceremony, in place since 1949, where children pull the yule log through town on a sled—scrambling to get a hold of the finite rope—then it’s ignited at an open fireplace to start the festivities.

Yosemite National Park, CA

The splendor of this national park blanketed in snow cannot be overstated. From skating under the graceful swoop of Half Dome, to taking a sleigh ride or just turning in a circle in dazed disbelief at the views, Yosemite is worth the trip. Plus, Badger Pass Ski Area is the oldest downhill ski area in the state.

Santa Claus, IN

This isn’t the only town named Santa Claus, but many people love what they offer here. Kids can go into the town’s original post office to write letters to Santa which will be answered by elves, in a tradition that goes back more than 100 years. Take pony rides through Santa’s Stables, visit the Santa Claus Museum and Village.

Take pictures at the 22-foot statue of Santa, and, of course, stop in at Santa’s Candy Castle for a sweet tooth treat. The village isn’t far from President Abe Lincoln’s boyhood home, where you can walk through 13 Lincoln-era replica cabins decorated for the holiday season at the Lincoln Pioneer Village & Museum.

Manistee, MI

Ah, the sound of sleighbells… The sound of ‘jingle bells’ as horses pull a sleigh along through the snow arouses all that nostalgia for a Christmas we may have never even experienced! But you can in Manistee, at the Victorian Sleighbell Parade & Old Christmas Weekend, where Belgian draft horses pull an upright 30-foot Christmas tree through the streets. There are bagpipers, carolers, luminaria, reindeer, Victorian bell ringers, a festival of trees, a night parade, lumbering dioramas. You will be amazed!

Canandaigua, NY

Here, you can tour the historic Granger Homestead and Carriage Museum, decked out for a Victorian Christmas, with the Festival of Trees: tons of Christmas trees inside decorated by different civic groups. Outside, the Christkindl Market has heated tents with more than 100 booths of traditional crafts and goods. You can eat traditional German foods like strudel, schnitzel and the typical fair food. A festive red trolley shuttles people from the parking lots to the action. Many other cities offer the traditional German Christkindl Markets, but this one is said to be one of the best in the U.S.

Kissimmee, FL

With a lake beach for wading and a walkable historic downtown, the affordable town of Kissimmee is just 10 miles from a certain ‘merriest place on earth,’ but has its own draw. The Ice! Featuring Elf! experience at the Gaylord Palms Resort & Convention Center is a wonderland of 2 million pounds of carved ice sculptures and slides.

This year’s theme is Elf, showcasing the elf himself, Snow Flow Mountain and a TwElf Days of Christmas Scavenger Hunt. To enter the frosty nine-degree environment, you’ll don a provided blue parka (because who’ll bring a winter coat to Florida?) to zip down the two-story-tall solid ice slide and walk through 20,000 feet of 10 immersive scenes.

The hotel has a huge Christmas tree and lighting display. At Sunset Walk entertainment district, there’s a new Pearl Express Train Tour.

Duluth, MN

Check out the Christmas City of the North Parade at night with festive lights ablaze. The historic Glensheen estate, built with last-century iron mining money, is dressed for the holidays. The biggest draw, however, is the Bentleyville Tour of Lights, billed as “America’s largest free walk-through lighting display.”

Walk through the beautiful lights, and get a free knit cap and cookies after visiting Santa if you can convince anyone you are 10 and under.

Cleveland, OH

Each year, Cleveland kicks off festivities with WinterLand (ice skating, pop-up stores, food trucks, fireworks, carriage rides) and tree lighting. The zoo has a holiday lights display, and drive-through light displays throughout the city. But the thing many people love most is the house used in the movie A Christmas Story. Tour the decorated home and stop across the street for a museum where costumes and paraphernalia are displayed.

Cleveland Botanical Garden Frost invites guests for an unforgettable winter adventure. Its indoor and outdoor gardens transform with dazzling light installations, a tunnel of flowers, larger-than-life animals, seasonal soundscapes and much more to create a completely immersive world for the holiday season.

Santa Fe, NM

Santa Fe starts its Christmas season off with a Plaza Lighting Ceremony the day after Thanksgiving, upon the signal from Santa and Mrs. Claus seated atop the town’s vintage fire truck. The city’s Pro Musica baroque ensemble performs the “Bach Festival, a Baroque Christmas” in the New Mexico Museum of Art. But the true standout is the Canyon Road Farolito Walk on Christmas Eve, a half-mile stretch closed to cars with hot chocolate stands, food trucks, artists’ booths and thousands of farolitos (Spanish for “little lanterns,” it’s Santa Fe’s preferred term for luminarias). The nighttime display is unforgettable.

By Alex Arlander | ENC News