Christmas

Nov

2024

National Harbor Photos

Visiting National Harbor in the Washington, DC suburb of Oxen Hill, MD for Christmas was on my list for a while. Marriott puts on a yearly Christmas extravaganza at all of its Gaylord hotels and National Harbor is the most convenient for us. The centerpiece is their “ICE!” display which features 2 million pounds of ice carved into a walkthrough display kept at 9 degrees. Don’t worry, they provide you with a parka. When I heard the 2022 theme was A Christmas Story, we decided to make this one of the first trips we took as the COVID pandemic was in its last throes. It was a fun trip and certainly put us in the mood for Christmas! Take a look at all of the photos here.

Mar

2021

Winter in Wilmington Photos

I just posted some photos from another one of our socially distanced Christmas activities this past year, a visit to Winter in Wilmington. It was a light display set up in a parking lot on the waterfront in Wilmington, Delaware. You may recognize this (but you probably won’t) as the area where Joe Biden gave his victory speech when he finally won the presidency a month or so earlier. It was a fun excursion since we weren’t doing much else over the holidays due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Conveniently, it also is right across the parking lot from one of our favorite seafood restaurants, Big Fish Grill, so we did some curbside pickup and took home a delicious meal. Check out the photos here.

Mar

2021

South Jersey Christmas Lights Photos

I’ve finally gotten around to posting the few photos I have from this last Christmas. In a normal non-COVID year, we would spend Christmas week visiting with friends and family, cooking big meals at my house, meeting them at restaurants, going to Christmas shows, traveling to their houses, etc. Of course, thanks to the pandemic, none of that was in the cards. So, we did something we haven’t done in a long time. We researched some of the most wildly decorated homes in the area and drove around to look at them. From a small home in Hi-Nella to a compound in Hammonton, we found a high tech digital light display, an entire street that goes way overboard with lawn decor, and more. It was a fun way to spend a few socially distant evenings. There’s even a video! Take a look at the photos and video here.

Dec

2020

National Lampoon House Photos

In December 2019, when I heard there was a guy in East Greenwich Township that decorated his home to look like Clark Griswold’s house from National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, I knew I needed to go see it. On a cold and icy night, we drove down there and I’m glad we did! Besides covering his house with lights, he even had a Ford Taurus station wagon with an uprooted tree on the roof, a period Chicago Police car and Cousin’s Eddie’s RV. The little touches like a mannequin of Cousin Eddie himself, a burned out chair with a fried cat on the bottom and a disc sled with hole in it made us feel like we were in the movie. Oh, and did I mention that Clark himself was hanging from the rain gutter? His neighbors probably hate him for the crowds he draws to their dead-end street, but this guy truly wins Christmas!

Click here to view the photos.

Feb

2016

Shady Brook Farms Holiday Light Show Photos

Every year we look for fun “Christmas-y” places to visit during Christmas week. One new place we discovered this year was Shady Brook Farms in Bucks County, PA. Their Christmas light display consists of over 3 million lights and includes displays ranging from light tunnels to iconic structures from around to the world to almost anything else you can imagine.You can drive through or ride on a tractor pulled wagon. We opted for the open air wagon ride because who wants to take pictures from behind glass while driving. Of course, I took full advantage of the wagon ride to take a bunch of photos.

You can check out the photos right here.

Dec

2013

12 Days of Christmas

I’m happy to see Apple embracing the 12 days of Christmas with their 12 Days of Gifts app. The gifts have been of varying quality but they seem to want to find something for every taste which is cool.Personally, I have always been a fan of the 12 Days of Christmas. No, I don’t mean the song (no offense to partridges or turtle doves). I mean the 12 days following Christmas Day. December is always a crazy month. You’re running around preparing for the holidays, decorating, gift shopping, trying to get caught up at work before leaving for the holiday, baking cookies and on and on. It feels like the buildup to the holiday is more and more stressful with each day and then when Christmas Eve arrives things finally wind down and you can relax. To me, this is when the holidays truly begin. I’m lucky enough to be able to take off between Christmas and New Year’s Day so this is when I go to “Christmassy stuff” and visit with friends and family.

Most years it’s more like the 9 days of Christmas, but this year with the way that the weekends and my days off have fallen (minus some working at home), I’ll be going back to work on the 12th day of Christmas. So, counting Christmas Eve and Christmas Day which really days -1 and 0, I certainly can’t complain!

So, on this 5th day of Christmas, here’s wishing you and yours a very Merry 12 Days of Christmas and a Happy and Healthy New Year.

Dec

2010

Politically Correct Scrooges Lose In Philly

If you live in the Philadelphia area, you’ve no doubt heard about the short-lived renaming of Philadelphia’s annual Christmas Village. Just in case you aren’t familiar, Philadelphia has, for the past few years, has put on a Chriskindlmarkt in Center City outside city hall. They don’t call it a Chriskindlmarkt. They instead call it a Christmas Village. Earlier this week, the city decided to remove the word Christmas from it to avoid offending people. This ridiculous move was met with a proper level of outrage from the public and Mayor Michael Nutter had the name restored.

While I think he made the right move, it’s insane that they ever changed the name to begin with. I don’t think he’s a hero for putting out a fire that the city started to begin with. I also don’t think this is the last time we’ll hear about this. So, I feel like I should get on my virtual soapbox and shout into the wind.

I’m not a member of any religion, Christian or otherwise, and I don’t care about what religion anyone belongs to any more than I care what race someone is. Whether you’re Christian, Jewish, Muslim or Pastafarian has nothing to do with the situation. I think the separation of church and state is extremely important and I think religion has no place in government. However, my argument is, and always has been, that there are really two Christmases. First, there’s the “baby Jesus Christmas.” I’m referring to the religious holiday that the Christians only celebrate. Then there’s the Christmas that’s for everyone, the “Santa Claus Christmas.” Yes, Christmas started as a religious holiday, but it has evolved into the secular version that most of us celebrate today. Christmas is about decorating, giving gifts & cards, being with family and friends and spreading goodwill. Those parts of Christmas are unrelated to religion. Christmas is my favorite time of the year and it sickens me when I hear of schools, businesses or anyone else referring to Christmas as “The Holiday” or “The Winter Holiday.” It just seems ridiculous. I’ve never read the Bible but I’m pretty sure that there’s no mention of Santa Claus, eggnog, candy canes or flying reindeer in there.

So, I’m very glad that the for once, the whiney minority was shut down by the sane majority. It doesn’t happen often, but it’s a sweet victory when it does.

The Philadelphia Inquirer’s article regarding the Christmas Village debacle is here.

Some photos from previous visits to the Christmas Village can be found in the Photos section of this site.

Oct

2010

It is towel season again

I just updated my mother’s towel catalog for the first time in a while. Halloween, Fall, Thanksgiving and Christmas are all coming up and there are towels for each! Of course, the everyday ones make great gifts too! Take a look look at what’s available here.

Jan

2009

Christmas at Longwood Photos

Longwood Gardens is a fun place to visit all year long but at Christmas time it’s a totally different place. The amount of lights and flowers is astounding. They’ve really exapanded the displays since the last time I was there two years ago.

Because we were there after dark this year, there aren’t as many great photos, but there was plenty of cold weather and Christmas lights which is all it takes to make me happy apparently! Check out the photos here.

Dec

2008

Merry Merry Merry!

I wish you and your family a very Merry Christmas!