Finished all of your holiday shopping? Well, don’t just brag about it – try some of these ideas that you just couldn’t have experienced a month ago!
1. Check out a new film just released for the holidays – Casey Affleck in his Golden Globe nominated, Boston-based film, Manchester by the Sea, or Mark Wahlberg, in the much anticipated Patriots Day, are sure to be winners;
2. Feed all of your senses (including of course your shopping sense) while enjoying the Holiday Lights show at Faneuil Hall. Sample the great selection of foods, visit the shops and carts and see 350,000 LED lights blink to holiday music at Blink! A Light & Sound Extravaganza;
3. Enjoy the amazing talent at the 58th annual Christmas Eve caroling event where Weston locals, and most of their friends, accompanied by Weston High School brass musicians, sing all the traditional favorites, on the porch of the Josiah Smith Tavern;
4. Attend the 5th annual gingerbread house design competition. This year’s teams worked from the theme “Boston, You’re My Home” to create candied likenesses of the city. Now through January 2nd at the BSA Space, 290 Congress St., Boston;
5. Take in Boston Ballet’s The Nutcracker, a holiday tradition that never, ever disappoints, at the Boston Opera House;
6. Read one of the many new books released this month. You can’t go wrong with Brian Jay Jones’ “George Lucas – A Life”, if your preference is biographies. Tom Clancy’s “True Faith and Allegiance” is right up your alley if your secret pleasure is suspense. If brilliant nonfiction is your thing, be captivated by the real-life subjects of Michael Lewis’s “The Undoing Project”;
7. Spend an extraordinarily long afternoon at Eataly Boston (because you just won’t want to leave)! Be sure to time your visit to take in the daily tasting hour between 5 and 6 p.m. when, at each counter, free samples of the freshest products are offered for tasting;
8. Sip some bubbly and check out festive holiday displays at your favorite Boston hotel, whether that means The Taj, The Liberty, Fairmont Copley Plaza, Omni Parker House, Boston Harbor Hotel, The Ritz Carlton or The Four Seasons;
9. Ice-skate within the confines of a true winter wonderland at “Boston Winter”, newly opened at Boston’s City Hall Plaza. A festive installation open 7 days a week, with a holiday market running through December and ice skating through the end of February;
and, while you’re at it…
10. Drop off a new, unwrapped toy at Wellesley Fire or Police Station, Roche Bros Supermarket, Magic Beans, Bellini Baby, or Weston Fire or Police Station.
Take in one of these new, and sometimes fleeting, experiences and, most of all, have a Happy, Safe and Healthy Holiday Season!
