Holidays
Toasting St. Pat
For a day, everyone gets to be Irish.
Why do we love St. Patrick? Because when the landscape still is icy and white, he makes everything else turn green — clothes, beer, even rivers.
For that, the Irish priest deserves sainthood. Here are some good ways to celebrate his day. And if you miss the parties, four Irish inns are green year-round.
In 2012, St. Patrick's Day falls on a Saturday, so expect festivities to be particularly exuberant.
Milwaukee at Christmas
During the holidays, this city shimmers like Cinderella.
No one ever accused Milwaukee of being flashy.
Best known for tractors, motorcycles and beer, it’s a meat-and-potatoes kind of town, stolid and practical like the Germans who built it.
It’s not what you’d call a trendy destination. And yet every time I go there, I have a great time.
Chicago at Christmas
During the holidays, this glittering, festive town becomes the City of Broad Smiles.
Visiting Chicago during the holidays, I'm always bowled over by how merry everyone is.
Can it be . . . Chicago Nice? It's either that or pixie dust.
Chicago is an exciting place to be any time, but at Christmas, it pulls out the stops. The Magnificent Mile sparkles. Ice
skaters do pirouettes in Millennium Park. There are free concerts everywhere.
Old World Christmas
On the shores of Elkhart Lake, a resort imports a slice of Europe.
No one knows how to celebrate Christmas like the Germans.
It's thanks to them that Americans decorate Christmas trees, hang wreaths and put nutcrackers on mantels. Because of them, we bake gingerbread men, open Advent calendars and fill stockings with treats.
Still, not every German Christmas tradition has crossed the Atlantic.
10 great ways to celebrate New Year's
Here are some fun ways to welcome 2012.
If you want a good way to greet the new year, plan a great getaway.
First, look around for a party. One fall, we saw that Cherish the Ladies was performing at DECC in Duluth on New Year’s Eve. Rooms were cheap — we got a room at The Suites on Canal Park for $90 — so we made a weekend of it.
After the concert, we continued the Irish theme downtown at the Dubh Linn Pub, where some of the performers joined us for a pint.
A jolly holiday in Minneapolis
A lighted parade draws tourists and locals alike into the lively heart of the city.
During the holidays, there's no place like home. In fact, it's the perfect getaway.
Every year, I go to downtown Minneapolis to see the Holidazzle parade. I get tickets for Handel's "Messiah" at Orchestra Hall. I hunt for stocking stuffers on Nicollet Mall.
I don't stay overnight. I live here, after all.
Great holiday festivals
In November and December, check out Santa, Scrooge and shopping markets.
As soon as the leaves have fallen and cold winds start to blow, the holidays get under way. This is the season for craft fairs, theme feasts and Christmas parades.
Here are some of the best holiday festivals in 2011.
For holiday feasts, see Indulging at the holidays.
In search of Christmas past
At Old World Wisconsin, pioneers party like it’s 1899.
Once, every child in America celebrated Christmas without battery-operated toys.
Instead, they played flap jacks and dominos. They made paper ornaments for the tree. They got an orange brought all the way from Florida.
That’s still what kids do during Christmas time at Old World Wisconsin, where it’s always the 19th century. Danish, Norwegian, German, Polish, Finnish and Yankee families toil there, trying to get ahead on the American frontier.
Old World Christmas markets
Another German tradition is a hit during the holidays.
For 500 years, Germans have done their holiday shopping at open-air Christmas markets in town squares.
Named for the Christ child, the markets traditionally start on the first Sunday of Advent, with shoppers warming up with hot spiced wine while browsing at garland-draped timber kiosks.
It's a tradition worth importing, and that's what Chicago did in 1996 with its Christkindlmarket, where two-thirds of the
vendors come from Germany.
Homes for the holidays
For holiday tours, historic mansions up the ante on opulence.
Two centuries ago, Minnesota and Wisconsin were ripe for the picking.
Iron ore lay under forests of tall white pine, fertile farmland lay under prairie grasses, and rivers teeming with beaver led to the Great Lakes and the Atlantic Ocean.
It all turned into money when ambitious men arrived, gathering up the goodies like kids on Halloween. They logged, they mined, they traded and they shipped. The men who made the biggest fortunes did it all, plowing their first round of profits into railroads, land and banking.
Indulging at the holidays
At old-fashioned feasts, eat like a king or tycoon.
If you're in the mood to loosen belts as well as wallets, the holidays are the time to do it.
At madrigal dinners, channel portly Henry VIII in a Tudor castle settling. During Dickens dinners, wallow in 19th century England — the England of "A Christmas Carol,'' not "Oliver Twist.''
Which is to say, there's no gruel course.
© Beth Gauper, 2007 - 2012 all rights reserved
