Holidays in the Hammer

“Silver Bells, Silver Bells, its Christmastime in the city”

Holidays in the city: for me, this evokes thoughts of lights, shopping, trees and general merriment.

Well, normally, yes. But here we are – it’s our first holiday season in Hamilton, and I need to know what’s going on! I’m floundering a bit with respect to finding all of my usual holiday comforts (and its not just because there’s no snow!)

I’ll chalk it up to being one of the hazards of moving to a new city. Where we used to live, I knew all about 1) the Christmas parade 2) where the best lights were 3) best/most festive/most convenient shopping destinations.

Being a big fan of all the things that come along with this time of year, I’ve been pretty eager to discover what sorts of festive things are on offer in this new city of ours.

So, obviously, I took to the internet.

A quick Google search yielded these suggestions from Tourism Hamilton.

Oops, it appears we missed the tree lighting! But, I did pass by Gore Park the other day, and in addition to the monster Christmas Tree, they’ve got a great little nativity scene set up.

We also checked out one of the lower city's beautiful 100+ year-old churches the other night for a carol service, which did the job of getting us in the Christmas spirit.

More holiday events are listed here.

Part of me realizes it will take a few years to get up to par on all of the seasonal goings-on here in Hamilton. In the days leading up to Dec.25, I’ll be doing my best to find more festive activities. In the meantime, I’d love to hear some of your fave holiday traditions in The Hammer!