Holiday Activities for the Whole Family!

With the holidays kicking off soon there will be some extra time to spend with family and friends. If you’re looking for something to do check out some of these fun events happening around our area:

America’s Thanksgiving Day Parade

This parade is a Detroit tradition dating back to 1924 when it was first presented by the J.L. Hudson Company. It shares the spot of the second oldest Thanksgiving Day parade with New York City’s Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. The oldest one is the 6ABC-Dunkin’ Donuts Thanksgiving Day Parade in Philadelphia, PA (originally the Gimbels Thanksgiving Day Parade dating back to 1920).

The parade is held on Thanksgiving Day, November 28^th at 8:45am and the route starts at Woodward and Kirby and ends at Woodward and Congress in downtown Detroit. For more information go to: http://www.theparade.org

Christmas at Crossroads Village and Huckleberry Railroad

Every Christmas the village (which is modeled to resemble a small Michigan town in the late 1800’s) and the train are decorated with thousands of beautiful lights. Bundle up and stroll along the boardwalk at night while enjoying the lights, holiday music and unique shopping. It’s a fun day/evening for the young and old. Crossroads Village is located at 6140 Bray Road in Flint and the holiday celebration runs now through December. For more information go to: http://www.geneseecountyparks.org/pages/christmas

The Big, Bright Light Show

If you’ve never been to Rochester at night during the holidays it really is worth the trip. The downtown buildings are decorated with more than a million vibrant lights. Each year seems to get better and better and it really is beautiful. The light show debuts on December 2nd at 7pm during Rochester’s “Lagniappe” (a creole word meaning “a little something extra”) when the merchants offer their customers Lagniappe (small freebies)  to say thank you for their patronage. This event runs from 6pm-9pm on December 2^nd.

Come see the lights and do a little holiday shopping beginning December 2^nd through January 5^th, 2014. The lights will be lit from 5pm to midnight every night. For more information go to:  https://www.downtownrochestermi.com/events/big-bright-light-show/

Saginaw Bay Symphony Orchestra presents “A Tale of Two Nutcrackers”

This year the orchestra kicks off the holiday season with a program that presents two versions of Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker Suite. The first half of the program will feature Tchaikovsky’s original suite and the second half will be presented the way Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn would interpret The Nutcracker, a big band jazz era version. The show takes place December 10^th at 8pm at the Temple Theater in Saginaw. For more information go to: http://www.saginawchamber.org/events/eventdetail.aspx?EventID=2284