Christmas 2014

A French Colonial Christmas

Today, after celebrating Christmas in Italy on The Hill, we traveled to the Jarrot Mansion in Cahokia to celebrate a French colonial Christmas. The house was decorated in a simple, but beautiful style:

There was a musician playing the hammered dulcimer, which really added to the festive spirit!

IMG_6991

And, instead of a typical American Santa, they had Saint Nicholas, also the precursor to the French Père Noël, visiting with people.

IMG_6987_2

This was a unique, and still very St. Louis, way to celebrate Christmas!

Christmas on The Hill 2014

Today was one of our favorite days of the Christmas season…Christmas on The Hill!

The first thing we always do when we get there is look for all the nativities. It doesn’t matter how many times we see them, we still marvel at their beauty, and the way they tell the Christmas story!

We stopped by The Hill’s version of a Christmas market. There were items for sale, crafts for the children, and something new this year…salsiccia. It wasn’t the salamites we’ve grown accustomed to over the years, but it was still delicious!

There was Christmas spirit everywhere!

And Italian spirit everywhere, too, of course!

Bunnys’ favorite part of Christmas on The Hill is listening to La Befana tell her story at Gelato di Riso.

I love looking at St. Ambrose, the neighborhood church…it’s so beautiful!

Any visit to The Hill is fun, but Christmas on The Hill is even better!

Twin Gingerbread Displays

When we visited the Belleville Gingerbread Walk on Friday night (and again during the day on Saturday), we came across this unusual display…instead of a house, it was a counter set up for baking Christmas cookies. We all thought this was a very unique gingerbread non-house, and also very realistic looking.

IMG_6342

When we visited the Gingerbread Village in St. Charles on Sunday, we all did a double-take when we say this gingerbread creation:

IMG_6481

You guessed it…they were both created by the same person. I like that they’re not identical replicas, but still so very similar that there’s no missing the fact that they must be related. This is certainly the first time we’ve seen two displays so easily identifiable as being made by the same artist…it makes me wonder how many other times we’ve looked at houses (or not), that were created by the same person!

The 2014 Gingerbread Walk

Last weekend, we walked up and down Main Street for the 25th Belleville Gingerbread Walk. As always, I was amazed by all of the creations…the amount of detail that can be put into a structure using food astounds me!

Two of the gingerbread creations in particular caught my eye. The first was the Holiday Tradition display, which wasn’t a house, but a downtown Belleville Christmas scene, complete with Christmas tree and horse-drawn trolley carrying the mayor. I have to admit that part of the reason I like this one is because we know the trolley driver, but I also like how well it captures the spirit of a Belleville Main Street Christmas celebration!

IMG_6430

My second favorite was the Geburtstagkuchen, winner of the Mayor’s award. This is also not a house, but rather a gingerbread cake celebrating Belleville’s 200th birthday. It incorporates some of our favorite moments from the year-long party…the 200-foot long brat, the Fourth of July fireworks, the Christkindlmarkt, and the concerts among them.

Every year, I think that the Gingerbread Walk can’t possibly get any better, and every year  I’m proven wrong. I’m already looking forward to what all of the gingerbread artists will come up with next year!

Christmas Traditions 2014

On Sunday, we made our annual trip out west to St. Charles for the Christmas Traditions festival. It’s the first time we’ve ever been there for the opening weekend, and it’s also the 40th anniversary of the festival, so there was a lot of extra fun to be had!

After an incredible lunch in the old vault at Llywelyn’s Pub, we stopped by the gingerbread village. As always, there were many amazing creations…I’m constantly surprised what people can make with food! We saw historic homes, a hobbit hole, Snoopy, Who-ville, and Olaf…something for everybody!

To celebrate the festival’s 40th anniversary, 40 ornaments were placed around Main Street and Frontier Park to represent the different Christmas legends you can find at the festival. We saw 30 of the ornaments before we had to go…it was a fun addition to our annual character hunt!

Speaking of hunting, we were reminded of this year’s Stl250 cake hunt when we saw the First State Capital cake, currently located on the sidewalk, instead of the backyard where we first saw it. There was something charming about seeing Father Christmas walk past it:

IMG_6709

The children wanted to stop by the gazebo for a group picture:

IMG_6677

Not only were we there for opening weekend, we were also there early enough in the afternoon to see the parade, which was another first for us. It was fun to watch the legends strolling down the brick street, and hearing the fife and drum corps play.

Even though Santa has no place in our home, it was fun seeing the Santas from around the world carrying their countries’ flags!

We collected cards from all the characters we could find. We got 29 of the 36 cards, and we saw all but one other character in the parade (I don’t think Civil War Santa was there at all on Sunday). This may have been our best year yet, and we saw all of our favorites, including the hard-to-find Master of Revels, the incorrigible Jack Frost, and Santa Lucia!

There was yet another special activity just for opening weekend…a Christkindlmarkt. For this event, there was a bonus character, the Christkind, who taught the children the first verse of “Silent Night” in German. While I was disappointed with the market itself, I was glad to see the traditional red and white striped tents, and the Christkind was an excellent addition to the cast of characters.

IMG_6749

There is always so much to see and do in St. Charles, and we never get tired of the Christmas sights!

We make up our own cast of characters, so it was fitting that the children made their own trading card!

IMG_6498

As always, this is one of the most looked forward to events of the Christmas season for our family, and with all of the special events going on, it was even more fun than we had expected!

The Winter Village Cottage

Yesterday, we continued the tradition we started last year on the day after Thanksgiving of building a new part of our Lego winter village. This time around, we built the cottage, a Christmas gift that I received last year, and saved just for this occasion. The children started off with the snowplow and smaller buildings (an igloo and wood chopping workshop), and Ladybug worked on one of the bonus sets we received with purchase at the Lego VIP event last weekend (a cute skating scene).

IMG_6173

A few weeks ago, Turkey and I worked on modifying the other bonus set we had received. It was supposed to be an elf workshop, but we turned it into a gift stand to go with the other booths in last year’s Christmas market. I love how it turned out!

IMG_6190

Ryan and I built the house. It was very fun, if not a little frustrating after getting used to the modular method of building…it includes a light-up brick to make the fireplace glow, and an adorable Lego Christmas tree.

IMG_6241

Even though we’ve only built two sets, our winter village is a full, busy place. I love this new tradition!

IMG_6253

A Belleville200 Tree Lighting

Tonight was one of my favorite events of the year…the town tree lighting! (We also got a peek at the new Christmas Market.) The crowd was bigger this year than we’ve seen in previous years…it was nice to see such a good community turnout!