Christmas in Saint Louis

There are so many fun things to do in the Saint Louis area to celebrate the Christmas holiday! Here are some of our favorites and things we'd like to try.

Christmas Traditions in Historic Saint Charles

Last year was our first year visiting Christmas Traditions in Historic Saint Charles. We had so much fun we've already gone again this year. Christmas characters roam the streets and pass out cards for children to collect on Wednesday and Friday evenings, and Saturday and Sundays. You can find more details about our visit last year here. (This picture is also from last year since I have suddenly hit my blogger photo storage limit. Oddly, a whole lot of other blogs hit their limit at the same time, so I'm going to hope it's a fluke and they fix the problem before I have to get too creative to post pictures.)

Bass Pro Shop

While you're in St. Charles you can also stop by Bass Pro Shop for Santa's Wonderland. Most of you will actually pass Bass Pro Shop to get to Historic Saint Charles. Bass Pro Shop has free crafts, activities and a  photo with Santa. We've done several activities at Bass Pro Shop, and the kids always have fun.

Missouri Botanical Gardens

The Missouri Botanical Garden hosts several holiday events, including the Gardenland Express holiday flower and train show. I've never been, but since I'm a member this year, I feel like I should go check it out.

The Butterfly House also brings in special butterflies and holiday foliage for Winter Jewels. On weekends, kids can enjoy making holiday crafts. This is definitely on my list this year...I like to think I'm using my membership benefits to the fullest ;).

Light Displays

Last year we checked out The Way of Lights at Our Lady of the Snows. The drive through display is free. You can also stop for free crafts and displays, or enjoy other activities, such as camel rides, for a small fee.

My favorite light display though is Tilles Park's Winter Wonderland. It's $10 a car, but I've never felt bad paying for it. This display is closed to vehicles on Saturday night, so plan accordingly.

We've also done Santa's Magical Kingdom years ago, but we thought it was overpriced and haven't been back.

Forest Park

The Zoo does a light display called Wild Lights. It does require paid admission, and since I'm so use to the zoo being free, I've never thought about checking it out. I bet it'd be pretty cool though, and now I'm feeling kinda bad I've been so cheap.

The Jewel Box has a Poinsettia display over the holidays. It's an okay extra to another activity at the park. We had fun though when we visited last year.

A couple of the museums in Forest Park host extra activities during the Christmas break. This year it looks like the Missouri History Museum will have extra kid friendly activities starting on the 27th.

New Year's

We've never actually been to First Night, but I've thought about it before and it might happen this year.

Happy Holidays! I'd love to hear about your favorite things to do in St. Louis to celebrate, especially if it's something I've missed.

Alton, IL and Melvin Price Locks and Dam

Oh, my! How is it October? We did this adventures while my mom was here - two months ago! 

But this is a great time to post this anyway because the leaves are changing and if I lived closer I would definitely be driving the Great River Road through Alton to look at all the fall foliage.

An adventure to the Melvin Price Locks and Dam was actually planned for last year when both my parents came out, but they ended stuck in an airport instead and this activity got bumped. This adventure has my dad written all over it, but we went ahead and did it with just Grandma this year. We'll have to take him another time.

The National Rivers Museum is next to the Locks and Dam. It has river exhibits, a movie and a couple of activities.

The kids enjoyed trying to navigate a barge into the locks.

We got to see a two small fishing boat and a large barge go through the locks.

If you visit the locks, I highly recommend planning your trip around a tour (they have them 3 times a day). On the tour, you get to walk out over the locks. Brenton is petrified of heights and was scared half to death. Luckily, candy has very powerful effect on my children and we were all able to go.

On the tour, they also take you down next to a lock so you can actually see the water move up or down in order for the boats to move up or down the river. (This image would not rotate for some reason).

After visiting the Locks and Dam we explored a little bit of Alton. My kids are obsessed with giants, so we found the statue of  Robert Wadlow, also called the Alton Giant and the World's Tallest Man. My kids were very impressed.

Then we also headed up the Great River Road to find the Piasa, a representation of an old image seen along this part of the river years ago by Father Jacques Marquette in 1673.

This picture was actually taken earlier in the day outside the museum.

This was a fun trip. All of these activities were free and there are still a couple other things in the area that I would love to try out. So, I recommend crossing the river over into Alton if you get a chance.

Missouri Grown and Kid Picked

One of my favorite things of the summer ended up being visiting the local farmer's market on a regular basis. It was tiny, but the produce was yummy and I liked supporting my local growers. When I was growing up we always had a large garden, or were at least always helping my grandparents with there huge garden. My kids, on the other hand, occasionally watch mom kill a vegetable plant in a pot, and hope they are at either grandparents house when some gardening action is going on. But I still think it's important for my kids to get to experience picking their own food right off the tree or plant. What my kids don't appreciate is only having to pick what you want and not getting in trouble for leaving stuff on the plant (I've had to pick lots of green bean in my days, and you don't get to leave anything that's ready on the plant when it's your own garden). Anyway, after that long unrelated introduction, the point of this post is that apple season came early this year. So if you want to go  apple picking this season, you better go now!

Recently we headed over to Eckert's after school to do some apple picking. They were, and still are, running a pick one pound, get one free promotion. It ends September 9th. The best part about this adventure was Grandma was in town to go with us! This was our first trip to Eckert's and the boy's first time apple picking. It was lots of fun!

Besides apples, we found a birds nest in one tree.

The tractor-pulled wagon ride to the orchard wasn't running when we were there. We had to ride a small bus to the orchard. I was a little disappointed, but my kids were not. Brenton thought it was the coolest bus he had ever been on. Ethan said it was the first bus he'd ever ridden, so he was very excited.

Earlier this summer, my cousin invited us down to go blueberry picking at Liberty Blueberry Farms, south of Saint Louis in Farmington. My kids loved picking blueberries and eating them while we were there. They wouldn't eat any after we got home though, not even blueberry muffins! Oh well, we had a great time with the cousins!

Springfield, IL: Land of Lincoln

Summer is quickly coming to end, and Casey still has lots of vacation time left at work. I think he is secretly saving it all for hunting season, but just to make sure I don't catch on, he took a day off work for a day trip to Springfield, Illinois. Casey and I took a weekend anniversary trip there a few years ago and loved it! There's plenty to fill a weekend with, but since it's only a two hour drive or less from Saint Louis, it makes for a fun day trip as well.

I don't think you have to be a history buff to appreciate all the Abraham Lincoln sites Springfield has to offer. But if Lincoln doesn't excite you, Man Vs. Food has been there too, so you can enjoy some great food after you learn something.

We started at visit at the Lincoln Tomb in Oak Ridge Cemetery.  I am just in awe of this place, inside and out.

At the outside of the tomb is a sculpture of Lincoln's face. It was a tradition for soldiers going off to war to rub the nose of the original sculpture for good luck.

People still do it today.

After the tomb, we ate lunch at D'Arcy's Pint. Someone had recommended this place to Casey and I a couple years ago, but we skipped it after finding out there was a 2 1/2 hour wait. Adam from Man vs. Food had been there though, so it was on my list to try this trip. We didn't have to wait 2 1/2 hours this time, but I can see why people do wait that long. This place was fantastic! They are famous for their Horse Shoe, a Springfield tradition that resembles an open face sandwich topped with french fries and a white cheese sauce. We tried the deluxe (with hamburger, bacon and onions) and the buffalo chicken. They were both good, though it was easier to eat the ground hamburger than mess with a chicken patty.

After lunch we headed to the museum part of the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum. This place is awesome. They have a couple theatre productions with amazing effects, and then you journey through Lincoln's life and the Civil War with amazing effects and life-like wax sculptures.

The kids loved playing in Mary Lincoln's Attic, the kid's area of the museum.

We ended our Springfield trip with a visit to the historic Route 66 roadside attraction Cozy Dog Drive In. It's the home of the first cozy dog or the questionable home of the first corn dog, but either way Brenton says it's definitely the best corn dog he's ever had. It's a greasy spoon kind of place, but it's got great Route 66 memorabilia and the kids enjoyed it.

We had a great trip to Springfield! We had great food, great company and lots of great places to visit.

We didn't go this trip, but I can also recommend the Lincoln Home.

The Donut Stop

The Donut Stop has been on my to do list for over a year. Considering my sweet tooth, I really don't know why it took me so long to go there. In 2010 Bon Appetit named The Donut Stop one of the Top 10 Places for Donuts in the US. That's a good enough reason for me to visit! Recently, the local paper did an article on "to-die-for" donuts in Saint Louis and I decided it was time to skip the grocery stores and head out for some donut goodness.

There's nothing fancy about The Donut Stop. No seats, just a counter and lots of yummy looking donuts. The prices aren't fancy either, I felt like I got a good deal. I only paid between 50 - 80 cents for most of the donuts.

The boys were fishing, so Hailey and I enjoyed this adventure all by ourselves. We also enjoyed most of those donuts all by ourselves.

All the pictures were taken on my cell phone, so they don't do the donuts justice.

So yummy! In fact, we took the boys back the next weekend. Definitely worth the trip!