Wild Lights at the St Louis Zoo

I hardly got to finish my piece of pie at Thanksgiving when I realized that Christmas was right around the corner. It's kinda amazing how having 6 less days between Thanksgiving and Christmas can throw you for a loop. Our tree went up the day after Thanksgiving and the calendar started filling up with holiday events. I do love participating in Christmas activities, and since the weather was nice we headed to Wild Lights at the zoo. This was our first time ever attending. I figured I had enjoyed plenty of free days at the zoo, so the $5 a person to walk through the display was the least I could do. We invited some friends to join us and enjoyed a beautiful, night at the zoo.

Only a few animal exhibits are available to view, the Insectarium, the Herpetarium (Reptile House), and Sea Lion Sound. Sea Lion Sound is pretty cool anyway, but I thought it was pretty neat at night with all the lights. Unfortunately, I don't know how to use my camera well enough to capture all the action. And the one shot I did like is loading washed out. It doesn't look like this anywhere but here, so I'm not sure how to fix it.

The kids had a great time making crafts, listening to storytelling, and wandering through the lights. 

It was a fun night!

Wild Lights is open on weekends from 5:30 - 8:30 pm and then every night Dec. 20-23 and 26-30. Parking is free in the south parking lot, next to I-40. There is an entry fee of $5 per person or $4 for members. Children under the age of 2 are free.

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.

Way of Lights

We did this great Christmas Activity three weeks ago, but things have been so busy since then, I haven't had time to blog about it. I have to at least blog about it before Christmas though. So even though I should be cleaning my house and getting ready for one awesome Christmas Eve dinner (and it better be awesome because I just spent A LOT of money on tenderloin), I'm going to throw some pictures in this blog post and wish you all a very Merry Christmas!

National Shrine of Our Lady of the Snows' Way of Lights is very popular in the St. Louis area. Why we had never gone, I don't know. They provide a free drive though Christmas light display centered on Christ's birth with over a million lights and a beautiful manger scene. My camera did not take beautiful  pictures of the manger scene though, so you'll have to settle for a Wise Men.

They also host several free Christmas activities. The kids enjoyed a puppet show, making a craft and checking out Christmas trees with storybook themes.

They also do camel rides and a laser show for a fee.

If you've never been, it's worth the drive over. Activities will be going on though January 1st. 

Christmas at Historic Main in St. Charles

Let the Christmas festivities begin!
I love Old Main Street in St. Charles! We use to go there on a regular basis, then we had children. Strollers and kids who touch everything aren't a good match for the shops on Historic Main Street. However, their Christmas activities lured us back. Though we didn't take them into any of the stores, the kids had a blast.

Historic Main Street in St. Charles allows you to stroll down the brick lined street hosting speciality shops and restaurants housed in building from 200 years ago.

During the holiday season, Historic Main hosts Christmas Traditions.  An "old-fashioned Christmas with storybook characters, Victorian Carolers, and Santas from around the world." Characters from Christmas pasts, stories and legends roam the streets, greet you in character and pass out character cards (similar to a baseball card) for the children to collect. Here is Hailey with a few of her cards at the beginning of our adventure (she ended up with about 25 out of 33).

Brenton receiving a card from the Ice Queen.

The kids with the Civil War Santa.

A visit with Santa Lucia.

All the characters do a small parade in the afternoon and a short show. I don't think either one is really necessary to attend. The parade is short and you have to be right next to the show to hear it, but the kids had fun with their cousins anyway. It might be a good place to finish collecting cards though.

We also saw roasted chestnuts (who knew they weren't just part of a song?)

and heard the carolers perform.

There are plenty of treats available to purchase...cookies, hot chocolate and icecream (and the weather was nice enough that people were actually eating icecream). We got our treats from the English Shop since Dad's grandmother is from England and he has a soft spot for Cadbury candy.

Historic Main is right next to the Missouri river with a nice trail and grassy area. The weather was beautiful the day after Thanksgiving, so we spent some time down by the river playing with our cousins as well.

Dad slept through this part. He did all the crazy hour Black Fridays shopping so he's forgiven.

The kids loved meeting all the characters and collecting the cards. The Santas, Tiny Tim and Clara from The Nutcrackers were some of their favorites. I think we'll definitely try to go again next year.

VP Parade and Fair St. Louis

Happy Independence Day Weekend! Thanks to Casey's work, we decided to celebrate at "America's Biggest Birthday Party!"

Fair St. Louis kicked off with the Veiled Prophet Parade. Casey got VIP passes for the parade from work. I don't know if I'll ever want to go to a parade any other way... free parking, reserved seating and free food.

Snow! No, it was really hot, but a fire truck float blasted everyone with confetti!

The kids collected lots of candy, beads and tooth brushes.

After the parade we walked over to the Arch and Fair St. Louis. Fair St. Louis offers free concerts, kid activities, air shows and fire works. We thought the kids would love the Air Show.

But they decided it was too hot to just sit there and watch planes, even if the planes were doing lots of tricks. It really was hot though, 97 degrees, but it felt like 106 degrees (and I'm not making up the felt like...it's an official part of our weather here). So they did a craft and played some games.

But what they most wanted to do was play in the water, courtesy of the St. Louis Fire Department.

It's been a great holiday weekend and it's only Saturday. The 4th is still to come. I'll post about our Friday adventure later. As for today, I'm so glad we did our first St. Louis Parade and tried out Fair St. Louis. It was definitely worth the visit.