Tag Archives: holiday

Celebrate The Season With Chicago’s Holiday Events

Posted on December 4, 2012 | Leave a comment

2012_12_1_holiday
[Photo Credit: ejrfoto]

If you haven’t noticed, Chicago is dressed in holiday style. While we love reveling in the city’s seasonal splendor, it’s easy to be distracted by frenzy of shopping, travel, and ugly sweater appearances. Don’t let the most wonderful time of the year come and go without enjoying some of the city’s holiday events.
Read the full  event roundup on Chicagoist.

What are your favorite Chicago holiday traditions?

For Further Exploration
Break the Ice and Skate This Winter – Chicago Ice Rink Schedule
A Winter’s Tale: Chicago City Hall Holiday Concert Series
A Winter’s Tale: Ice Skating in Millennium Park
A Winter’s Tale: Lincoln Park ZooLights

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a winter’s tale: lincoln park zoolights

Posted on December 28, 2011 | 3 Comments

This year’s temperate weather has made it tougher than usual to get into the holiday spirit, but a stroll in the Lincoln Park Zoo should aid your festive fulfillment. ZooLights, a dazzling display of lights throughout the zoo grounds runs through January 1, 2012.

Each winter between Thanksgiving and New Years’, Chicagoans enjoy a stunning seasonal series at the zoo which, as always, is absolutely free! The zoo’s extended hours run until 9pm nightly. If the glow of 2 million beautiful bulbs isn’t enough, ZooLights also includes live ice carvings, holiday train and carousel rides, crafts, and giant snow globes. While many of the zoo’s inhabitants are not on display, others, including lions and reptiles, can be seen in the indoor animal houses. An hour’s tour of the zoo will put you in a winter wonder state-of-mind, especially when paired with the spiced wine.

  
  
  

In another instance of personal Chicago winter firsts, my ZooLights highlights include the trippy flashing light tunne, and the electric light orchestra of seasonal splendor in sequence with the timeless caroling of Mariah in a Christmas union that evoked pure delight from my erstwhile holiday blasé. So go and soak up ZooLights’ Technicolor enchantment; when the winter blahs set in it will keep you feeling bright.

Lincoln Park Zoo
2200 N. Cannon Drive
Chicago, IL 60614

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street scene: christmas in nyc

Posted on December 25, 2011 | Leave a comment

Merry Christmas from Rockefeller Center! - New York, New York

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last minute gifts for chicago explorering

Posted on December 23, 2011 | Leave a comment

At a loss for those last few holiday gift ideas? Encourage some Second City exploration with these quick gifts for seeing new sides of Chicago.

Explore by Bus
Chicago Architecture Foundation Tour: Highlights by Bus  $42
Chicago winters are a tough time for exploration, but the Chicago Architecture Foundation offers tours by foot, boat, and bus. Check out the city’s diverse design from Hyde Park, to the Lakefront, to the Loop, and more in a curated bus outing covering 30 miles. The tour includes interior visits to Fran kLloyd Wright’s Robie House and Mies van der Rohe’s IIT campus, allowing you to avoid trekking through the elements while still exploring architecture up close in CAF’s most comprehensive tour.

Explore by Book
Chicago’s Classic Restaurants: Past, Present and Future $39.50
From lavish dining experiences to lunchrooms in the Loop, this coffee table book explores the history of “classic” restaurants in Chicago. Between old school standouts and the reflections of today’s culinary stars, including Charlie Trotter and Rick Bayless, this book serves an appetizing array of Chicago’s dining history.

Food Lovers’ Guide to Chicago: Best Local Specialties, Markets, Recipes, Restaurants & Events $15.95
Jennifer Olvera goes beyond the standard restaurant guide, highlighting Chicago’s neighborhood favorites in restaurants, bars, food festivals, recipes, and farmer’s market. Offering an accurate snapshot of establishments on every side of the city, it’s a great guide for Chicago visitors and citizens alike.

Explore by Band
Friends of the Empty Bottle Pass $149
Gift your favorite show-goer the gift that plays all year-long with the Friends of the Bottle pass from the Empty Bottle. The Ukranian Village venue is offering a year-long pass good for admission to any show in 2012 that is less than $10. In addition to free admission to most shows offered at the Bottle, members will have first access to purchase tickets for pricier shows as well as other perks.

Explore by Bar
History Pub Crawl: Chicago’s Greatest Dives $30
Give the gift of education and inebriation with a Chicago History Museum pub crawl. This tour explores the history of several of the city’s favorite dives, while you explore the goods in the glass at each stop.

Explore by Table
À la Card Chicago Restaurant Deck $32.75
This deck of cards will return more than your usual Texas Hold’em game. Each card contains a description of a delicious chef-driven Chicago restaurant and is redeemable for $10 off at that establishment any day of the year. It’s a great excuse to eat your way through the city all year!

Explore by Air
Chicago Aerial Tours $499.99
When no other view will do, explore the city by the stunning heights of a helicopter. See Chicago neighborhoods and landmarks from a unique vantage on this 30-minute tour, giving new meaning to the Chicago Skyway.

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a winter’s tale: chicago city hall holiday concert series

Posted on December 19, 2011 | 1 Comment

Looking for somewhere warm to pop in during your last mad shopping dash? If you’re in the Chicago Loop at lunchtime consider a stroll through City Hall. Children’s choirs from all over the city will be performing every weekday between noon and 1 pm through December 21.

City Hall’s gorgeous hundred-year-old hallways are bathed in festive lighting as they reverberate with the carols of Chicago’s young voices.

 

Happy holidays from the Keller Regional Gifted Center!

Chicago City Hall
121 North La Salle Street
Chicago, IL 60602

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street scene: 4th of july on the chicago river

Posted on July 4, 2011 | 1 Comment

New and old representatives of Chicago architecture celebrate America.

The Trump Tower and Wrigley Building as viewed from the Chicago River.
Happy Independence Day from Chicago!

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happy new year!

Posted on January 1, 2011 | 1 Comment

my 2011 resolutions: wear more lipstick, take more vitamins, break less bones, and keep exploring places and people both familiar and new.

here’s wishing you amazing and safe explorations in 2011!
[photo credit]

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ue poll: holiday traditions

Posted on December 12, 2010 | 1 Comment

happy holidays explorers! the season is in full swing and with it comes a host of traditions. weigh in on your favorites below, and kindly comment with any i may have missed!

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Chicago Holiday Markets

Posted on December 3, 2010 | Leave a comment

Greetings friends and fellow explorers!  Accept my apologies for neglecting you for such an extended time.  I fell victim to my own clumsiness and one of my writing arms has been [and still is] trapped in a plaster cast.  While my typing skills have been negatively impacted, fear not, for my exploration aptitude is intact.

I like to play crafty at Christmastime, but if I can’t make gifts myself I enjoy purchasing them from much craftier people.  There is such a community of uniquely talented craftspeople in Chicago, and I love perusing the various markets, especially when I can use the holidays as purchase validation.  This season, I will be venturing out to the following holiday markets:

Lincoln Square Christkindl Market
I have yet to visit either “traditional” German holiday market, but the Lincoln square location just feels more authentically appealing than the Daley Plaza version.  I am hoping this weekend’s weather holds a winter romp for me in this historically German neighborhood.  Beer, brats, and buying things?…done.

December 3-5, hours vary
Located at Leland and Western
$3 Adult Donation

Handmade Market
If you can undertake a trek out of your house between October and April I recommend the Empty Bottle on the second Saturday of each month.  The small and intimate layout encourages strolling and chatting with the thirty or so vendors.  You are at the Empty Bottle so expect an alt. vibe.  I picked up some unique jewelry gifts here last holiday season and can’t wait to find more.  If you are not into it, the bar begins serving PBRs at noon.

December 11, 12 – 4pm
1035 N. Western Ave.
Chicago, Illinois 60622
FREE

Renegade Craft Fair
I am a huge fan of the Renegade Craft Fair and am particularly thrilled to check out the holiday version this year.  At around 150 vendors, the degree of talent and variety is impressive and there are gems to be had for everyone.  Among other things, expect to find jewelry, knitwear, and paper crafts with an indie aura.  Food, drink, and jams are available, not to mention an ornament-making workshop.

December 4 -5, 11am – 7pm
Pulaski Park Fieldhouse
1419 W. Blackhawk St.
Chicago, Illinois 60622
FREE

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