2021 Christmas

Every year at Christmastime, we try to visit somewhere with holiday decorations and spirit. This year was no different. Our destination: Williamsburg, Virginia. Specifically Busch Gardens Christmastown, where Christmas shines brightest with over 10 million lights and Colonial Williamsburg. Both are reported to be decked out with holiday decorations and holiday spirit! We purchased our ‘Bounce’ tickets that would allow us to park hop back and forth, purchased our Wreath Tour tickets, reserved our Clydes and Collies tour, packed our bags, loaded the car and off we went on a holiday road trip.

Our trip starts at the hotel where this beautiful fireplace welcomed us. Then, in our room, Karen surprised me with a lovely red Christmas cactus, which I hope to keep alive! The Santa figurine was a bonus that neither of us expected, placed in the middle of the plant! I had brought the candy cane tree and gingerbread snowman with me to brighten the room for Christmas.

Our first visit was to Colonial Williamsburg to shop the Market Square and grab some local food. We knew that a holiday weekend could be difficult to find open restaurants with available seating, but we did OK as we ate at DoG Pub, Outback, Mellow Mushroom, Colonial Pancake and not so great fare at Busch Gardens.

We visited Colonial Williamsburg during the spring a couple years ago. So we knew we wanted to specifically see a couple of places – the Governor’s Palace for sure, hoping to see some fantastic decorations – outside was great, inside did not have even a tree, wreath or garland. We also took an organized wreath tour – see separate post, Wreaths of Colonial Williamsburg 2021.

We enjoyed stolling through Colonial Williamsburg. I had an interesting exchange with a costumed lawyer who seemed to take offense that I would not give him my last name. I told him I was Lady Dee of Fairfax. LOL I guess I wasn’t prepared to banter in a colonial way! Lots of costumed characters walking about on this beautiful December day. The carriage rides are very popular and all were sold out very early.

If you look carefully, you may be able to see a single candle in the windows. From its very beginning, this tradition has been a sign of hope, safety, warmth, and love. It’s origin in Irish.

We took the complimentary trolley to the Art Museum, ate lunch at the museum cafe and enjoyed looking at the displays. Loved the quilt displays!

Now that we’ve done Colonial Williamsburg proud, well, all except for my encounter with the attorney, we headed to Busch Gardens Christmastown, land of over 10 million lights. Lots of walking and uneven terrain – they need to put oxygen tanks at the top of some of the hills! But definitely, the lights were something to see, especially in Christmastown. We also saw some pretty great live entertainment, for an amusement park. The lights going across the street in Christmastown remind me of going to my grandparents at Christmas. The streets of Canisteo, NY always had decorations spanning the street. The worst lights for me were the areas with blue lights. Having limited vision to begin with, these blue lights made it incredibly difficult to see people, strollers, wandering kids and the edges of the walkways.

Probably one of the bigger disappointments was our Clydes and Collies tour. A very short interaction with one Clydesdale, named Eddie and one persnickity border collie who didn’t care to be petted much. The tour was at 5:30PM, it was dark and the lighting cast shadows making photography difficult. A bonus that I didn’t participate in but Karen enjoyed was feeding some black face sheep nearby.

Just a note about Busch Gardens – if you have any mobility issues at all, whether it’s hips, heart or health, I strongly recommend paying the exhobitant amount ($80) to rent a scooter. The first day there, I used my walker. I would have never made it a second day without that expensive scooter! And don’t be ‘cheap’ and get the wheelchair either. It won’t be easy for the person pushing you!

After an exhausting 4 days with beautiful weather at Christmastime, it was time to check out of our hotel, pack up the car once again and head home. We turned on our Christmas lights when we arrived to enjoy for a few more days before taking on the task of packing it all away again for another year.

We hope that all our friends and family had a great Christmas. We wish us all well in the new year and hope that the world gets healthier again so we can get back to our regularly scheduled travels that have been put on hold for over two years.

The business of life is the acquisition of memories.
-Carson, the butler, Downton Abbey