Holiday Travel Packes in the Heartland

❖

john kloster

Midwest

Holidays in the Heartland Dreamy visions of Christmases past come to life at Pabst Mansion in Milwaukee.

Christmas traditions warm travelers’ spirits in some of the region’s most group-friendly places he holidays are a great time for groups to explore the Midwest, where festivities abound in towns large and small.

Courtesy of the Captain Frederick Pabst Mansion

T

CHICAGO Let’s begin in Chicago, the region’s largest city and one that goes all out for the holidays. The season begins on the Saturday afternoon before Thanksgiving with the Magnificent Mile Lights Festival. As the parade travels down North Michigan Avenue, more than one million white lights adorning the trees illuminate the city’s prime shopping street. Also lit for the holidays are Lincoln Park Zoo with its ZooLights 66 June 2010

Christmas shoppers in Chicago make a beeline to North Michigan Avenue.

LeisureGroupTravel.com

and Navy Pier, where Winter WonderFest activities lure crowds to Chicago’s most popular tourist magnet.

Christmas Around the World at the Museum of Science & Industry has been a Chicago tradition for over 60 years. More than 50 trees are decorated to honor different ethnic groups. A newer tradition is Christkindlmarket, dating to 1996. Held in Daley Plaza, this is the largest German Christmas market in the country. The goods, many handmade, include glass ornaments, cuckoo clocks, toys and nutcrackers. There are also vendors offering traditional German sausage and sauerkraut as well as German beer and wine. (explorechicago.org) MILWAUKEE A Grand Avenue Christmas, held Nov. 19-Jan. 9 in Milwaukee, is an annual event that showcases the 37-room

LeisureGroupTravel.com

Midwest

Captain Frederick Pabst Mansion, built in the 1890s by a beer baron, whose brewery at the time was the largest in the world. Interior designers, florists and residents are brought in to make a dozen or so of the opulent rooms even more so. Each room is decorated differently each season, so there’s every reason to make return visits. The home also hosts Dickens Dinners in December. This is a traditional English feast where Dickens himself reads sections from the classic A Christmas Carol. (pabstmansion.com)

FRANKENMUTH, MICHIGAN There’s Christmas shopping and then there’s Christmas shopping!

Bronner’s Christmas Wonderland in the charming German village of Frankenmuth is the world’s largest

Cleveland’s Tremont neighborhood is home to A Christmas Story House and Museum.

June 2010 67

❖ midwest Christmas store. It offers over 50,000 different items in a building the size of 5½ football fields. More than 350 Christmas trees are adorned with 6,000 ornaments. The 27 acres of grounds are landscaped with Christmas displays, and there’s a nightly year-round display of outdoor lights along Christmas Lane, with life-size Nativity scenes outside each entrance. Its more than two million annual visitors, including more than 2,000 groups, make it one of the state’s top attractions. Bronner’s only has snacks, so groups will want to head into downtown Frankenmuth for an iconic family-style chicken dinner at either the Bavarian Inn or Zehnder’s. (bronners.com) CLEVELAND The 1983 film A Christmas Story had modest success in theaters but has since become a classic, running around the clock on cable during the holidays. A Christmas Story House and Museum, located in Cleveland’s Tremont neighborhood, is the original family home from the film in which Ralphie is hoping for a Red Ryder BB gun for Christmas. The home was purchased by a fan in 2004 and has been renovated to match the sound stage of the film so visitors can see sights such as the Old Man’s leg lamp in the front window.

There are also hundreds of photographs and original props, such as the “I can’t put my arms down” snowsuit. An annual convention allows guests to meet members of the cast, screen and discuss the movie, ride on the movie’s fire truck and shoot BB guns in the back yard. The weekend coincides with Cleveland’s annual tree lighting and Christmas parade, this year on Nov. 26-28. (achristmasstoryhouse.com) SANTA CLAUS, INDIANA The town of Santa Claus, in South68 June 2010

Movie fans in Cleveland flock to the filming site of A Christmas Story.

west Indiana, has the only post office in the world with this name. As a result, it receives thousands of letters from children from around the world, and a group of volunteers answers each of them. For three weekends in December, the town’s Santa Claus Christmas Celebration features a traditional Christmas with the lighting of the town’s Christmas tree and attractions. These include a drive through the Santa Claus Land of Lights, Santa’s Great Big LED Tree of Lights at Kringle Place and a chance to learn the history of the town at the Santa Claus Museum. Enjoy a holiday arts and crafts show, many themed restaurants and shops, and visits with Santa himself. (santaclauschristmascelebration.com) LGT LeisureGroupTravel.com