With snow, pine trees, and the charming Early American and Pennsylvania Dutch influence, New England is a special place to visit during the holidays. Besides the quaint annual Christmas celebrations, many towns also include the opportunity to indulge in outdoor winter sports, such as ice skating, downhill skiing, cross country skiing, tubing, snowboarding, and snowmobiling. In addition, you will find unique Christmas gifts and enticing food. So, pick one or more of the 19 suggested locations and enjoy Christmas in New England.
Mystic, Connecticut
In Mystic, Connecticut, you can enjoy the lighted boat parade from either bank of the Mystic River. Then, you can gather at the Mystic River Park to observe the judging. Santa arrives on a tugboat and proceeds to the tree lighting at the Mystic River Park. The Lantern Light Tours provide the feel of a Victorian Dickens Christmas. Enjoy the luminaries when participating in the Ghosts of Christmas Pasts Strolls along the Olde Mistick Village paths, where you will find holiday treats and live music. Join in the Community Carol Sing at the Mystic Seaport Museum. Those who enjoy outdoor winter sports can participate in hiking and downhill skiing.
Freeport, Maine
The Sparkle Celebration at Freeport features the Amtrak Downeaster Sparkle Express, the Sparkle Parade of Lights, the Jingle Bell Run, the Talking Tree, concerts, and visits with Santa. Freeport also offers shopping.
Kennebunkport, Maine
Kennebunkport invites you to their Christmas Prelude. The Prelude includes a hat parade, a pooch parade, craft fairs, gingerbread house building, Christmas caroling, fireworks, and Santa and his lobster elves arriving on a lobster boat. Create your own hat for the hat parade and join in the fun. You can also enjoy trolley rides, horse-drawn carriage rides, concerts, breakfast with Mrs. Claus and the elves, breakfast with Santa and Mrs. Claus, a Merry Tuba Christmas, and a Cookie Crawl. Your shopping choices include an outdoor market. Outdoor activities include beach walks and ice skating.
Boston, Massachusetts
Boston adds Christmas cheer to its well-known sites. At the Boston Common, you will find ice skating and one of Boston's two large Christmas trees. You can find the other tree at Faneuil Hall along with the light and music show, BLINK. Other holiday shows you can enjoy in Boston include the Holiday Pops concert, Black Nativity, and The Nutcracker. You can also view the lights at Columbus Park or take a Christmas cruise around Boston Harbor. Of course, Boston offers plenty of shopping and dining choices.
Nantucket, Massachusetts
The island of Nantucket features a decorated lighthouse, a talking 20-foot Christmas tree decorated by a local artist, and seven-foot Christmas trees lining Main Street and decorated by businesses and schools. The Coast Guard escorts Santa Claus to town in a boat as a town crier leads residents to the port. Then, Santa and Mrs. Claus ride on an antique firetruck to the Jared Coffin House library. Nantucket also holds an annual Christmas Stroll. It features costumed carolers, mulled wine, ice sculptures, cookie decorating, tours, an art show auction, shopping, and an ugly Christmas sweater competition.
Newburyport, Massachusetts
Newburyport starts its Christmas celebration with the annual Santa parade and the Market Square Christmas tree. You can enjoy Christmas shows, holiday house tours, and shopping.
Stockbridge, Massachusetts
Stockbridge focuses on the Christmas image of the town created by Norman Rockwell. It offers horse-drawn carriage rides, caroling, holiday house tours, visits with Santa, and a recreation of Rockwell's painting for one afternoon. You can also enjoy shopping and dining.
Sturbridge, Massachusetts
In Olde Sturbridge Village, you can enjoy the decorations on the common and follow the Christmas Tree Trail to the Christmas Wish Bridge. The Christmas Tree Trail includes 50 lighted trees. At the end, you can visit the Christmas Wish Bridge and create a Christmas Wish. Along the trail, you can warm up at bonfires. Historic interpreters show how to prepare a traditional Christmas meal. They create tin punch lanterns, make ice skates, knit stockings, build a sled, and make wreaths and other decorations.
Jackson, New Hampshire
Jackson celebrates by decorating its charming covered bridge and conducting an Inn-to-Inn Cookie Tour. It is close to the two-hour Journey to the North Pole train ride through the White Mountains. You will visit Santa and his elves at the North Pole workshop. Jackson also offers shopping.
North Conway, New Hampshire
North Conway starts their holiday festivities with a tree lighting ceremony. Then, your family can join Santa and Mrs. Claus for a ride on the Conway Scenic Railroad with a view of Mount Washington. You can also enjoy skiing, tubeing, snowboarding, and snowmobiling.
Portsmouth, New Hampshire
Portsmouth's Vintage Christmas includes a Gingerbread House competition, holiday shows, shopping, dining, and the Candlelight Stroll at the Strawbery Banke Museum. The stroll features costumed characters and caroling. You can also enjoy sledding, ice skating, and cross-country skiing.
Lake Placid, New York
Lake Placid, with its ice-covered lakes and snow-covered mountains, features the Holiday Village Stroll. You can go sledding, cross-country skiing, snowshoeing, ice skating, dog sledding on Mirror Lake, or the guided downhill run on Whiteface Mountain. Lake Placid also offers views of ski jumping and bobsledding.
New York City
Christmas in New York City is known for the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade and the Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree. You can enjoy the Holiday Train Show at the New York Botanical Gardens. The display features decorated trains and well-known sites around the city. Join the ice skating at Bryant Park, and don't miss the Radio City Rockettes holiday show.
Skaneateles, New York
Skaneateles, located in the Finger Lakes, features a Dickens Christmas complete with your favorite Dickens characters, a Charles Dickens enactor, and a Queen Victoria impersonator. Explore the shopping, dining, and holiday decorations downtown. Enjoy hiking, cross-country skiing, snowshoeing, and ice fishing.
Bethlehem, Pennsylvania
Bethlehem features a Live Advent Calendar, a German holiday market on Main Street, the Christmas plaza, and Christmas tours of various sites around the city. Explore the city on a guided tour with an enactor dressed in 1700s-era Moravian garb or take a horse-drawn carriage tour. Santa shares story time with children and welcomes them to his Santa Haus. Bring your own camera for your visit with Santa.
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Philadelphia's Christmas celebration features the Christmas tree at City Hall, a light show at Franklin Square, and ice skating at Dilworth Plaza. Macy's offers animated windows, the Wanamaker Organ, and a Dickens Christmas Village. The holiday season ends on New Year's Day with the Mummers Parade.
Manchester, Vermont
Enjoy the Manchester Lighted Tractor Parade, an Elf Train ride, and explore decorated historic inns. If you're looking for winter sports, join a hockey game on Lake Morey or ice skate around the 4.5-mile loop trail on the lake.
Stowe, Vermont
Stowe offers wagon rides with Santa, live reindeer, a parade, and tree lighting. Enjoy cookie decorating, wreath making, ice skating, and visiting the Trapp Family Lodge.
Woodstock, Vermont
Celebrate Wassail Weekend in Woodstock, join Santa for breakfast, watch the parade, visit historic homes, shop at the craft fair, and visit the Billings Farm. At the Billings Farm, you will experience a 19th-century Christmas and farm. Your children will enjoy activities such as ornament making. You can also enjoy some hiking, snowmobiling, and Nordic or downhill skiing.