A Guide To The Top Wintertime Festivals & Hot Happenings
Most people – in America, at least – know the holiday season is here when we start getting barraged by holiday commercials. Especially those endless ones from the car companies that are the same each and every year. The Lexus “December to remember” ones run so often you can’t wait to forget December.
But PubClub.com thinks of the holidays for other, more pleasant reasons. Being with the family, holiday house and office parties, lively themed group happenings like Santa and 12 Bars of Christmas pub crawls – I’ll deal with all those events in a different post – and fun public events like the lighting of Christmas trees, boat parades and even a spectacular holidays fireworks show.
And, of course because this is PubClub.com, a bit of beer.
Listed here are the massive free, public events.
London Is Calling For This Festival
It all starts on Nov. 21 with the Hyde Park Winter Wonderland in London, a carnival with rides, performances and, for those like PubClub.com, a giant beerhall. It’s free, tho certain aspects of it require tickets, and runs thru Jan. 5.
Link: hydeparkwinterwonderland.com
The Lighting Of Trees
It’s Dec. 4 in New York City in Rockefeller Plaza, Dec. in London at Trafalgar Square, December 9 in Washington, D.C. These are the three most recognizable tree lightings in the world.
Manhattan Beach Holiday Fireworks
Dec. 8, Manhattan Beach, CA
Without question, the most unique event of the holidays anywhere is the annual Manhattan Beach Holiday Fireworks. Think of the 4th of July with a Christmas theme. A band plays at the pier, thousands sit on beach chairs in the middle of the street and thousands more party along the beach and at the beachfront house parties. All this and a sensational fireworks show set to Holiday music. It’s awesome.
Holiday Boat Parades
All up and down the East and West coasts, as well on lakes and rivers all over the country, holiday boat parades take place all over the USA. They are just another reason for friends (and soon-to-be-friends) to party, too. Here are two of the biggest ones.
The “Greatest Show on H20” is the massive boat parade in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., that takes place on Dec. 14. Yet the grandaddy of them all is the Newport Beach Boat Parade in Newport, Beach, CA. Now in its 111th year, it’s so big it lasts for five nights. It’s the single biggest party event of the year in this upscale Southern California beach community. The 2019 dates are Dec. 18-22.
Lichterschwimmen In Switzerland
Dec. 19, Zurich
Here’s another unique holiday event. In Switzerland, miniature “boats” of candles are let loose to float down the River Limmat. Needless to say, this sparks all kinds of socializing by the river and in the cafes (it’s legal to drink by the river without being in a cafe). Tourism Zuirch also provides food and drinks (“warm punch and something sweet” they say).
Christmas Day
Dec. 25, Worldwide
The culmination of the festival Holiday Season.
#holidayseason2019
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