Recently updated on July 24th, 2023 at 02:36 pm
If you want festive joy, dazzling lights and child-like wonder, these Christmassy places should be top of your list. From giant twinkling trees and outdoor ice skating to laser light displays and Santa Speedo Runs, these Christmas towns in North America have unique ways of celebrating the silly season.
Most of the fun starts in late November, leaving time to take your family to experience the festive season somewhere new and still return home for a holly jolly Christmas feast with your extended family. These are the 11 best Christmas towns in the USA and Canada.
1. North Pole, Alaska, USA
It’s hard to get more Christmassy than by heading to the hometown of Mr Santa Claus himself. The 2,200 residents that also call North Pole home help the big man in red celebrate Christmas year-round. Dazzling decorations, twinkling lights and other tributes to Old Saint Nicholas adorn the town 365 days a year. Visit Santa Claus House, wander Santa Claus Lane and stay in Santaland RV Park!
GET INSPIRED BY: Majestic Alaska
2. New York, New York, USA
Ice skating in the Big Apple during the festive season is certainly a memory worthy of any travel bucket list. The city that never sleeps rolls out non-stop Christmas joy every December, from the 27-metre-tall (95ft) Rockefeller Centre Christmas Tree with 30,000 lights, to the giant decorations on Sixth Avenue. Peep at the window displays outside major department stores, wander Christmas craft fairs and watch parades. You’d have to be the Grinch to not get swept up in the Christmas spirit that takes over New York.
GET INSPIRED BY: New York Explorer
3. Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Take a festive December vacation to Montreal for a touch of Europe in North America. The charming French-speaking city puts on a very François-themed Défilé de Noël festival with Christmas fairs, weekly fireworks and the annual Santa Claus Parade, which has been celebrated since 1925. Guard yourself against the cool Canadian weather with hot chocolate, candied chestnuts and other French treats. Perhaps best of all, Montreal all but guarantees a white Christmas.
GET INSPIRED BY: Best of Eastern Canada
RELATED CONTENT: Where to go and what to do in Montreal, Canada
4. New Orleans, Louisiana, USA
New Orleans is one of those US cities that goes against the grain 365 days of the year. The birthplace of jazz has its own unique Christmas traditions, from dressing up the streetcars and steamboats, to setting bonfires on the levee (to guide Papa Noël, of course). Join locals singing holiday tunes and carols outside America’s oldest cathedral in Jackson Square. Afterwards explore the festive open home tours of the historic French Quarter mansions.
Hop on the train to explore City Park’s 25 acres of festive displays where the 600-year-old oak trees are dripping with lights. End the festive fun with tickets to the Hip Hop Nutcracker at the Saenger, or go ice skating, ice sliding or sailing with Santa.
And, of course, the southern city is famous for its food so join a Réveillon dinner. This centuries-old Creole tradition was the meal after midnight mass. Now dozens of restaurants do their own decadent four-course meals with dishes such as shrimp remoulade, lobster bisque, seafood gumbo, fried oyster chowder, satsuma sherbet, Louisiana pecan pie, and Bananas Foster bread pudding.
GET INSPIRED BY: Tastes and Sounds of the South
5. Durango, Colorado, USA
All aboard the real Polar Express this holiday season! Departing from Durango, Colorado, families can embark on a magical vintage steam train journey that recreates the stories from the award-winning book. The train chugs along a snowy route to the North Pole where you’ll see Santa Claus himself working in his workshop, meet many of his elves and characters from the Polar Express.
On weekends you can board the same steam train to a Christmas farm, cut down your own tree, tag it and have it transported back to town. Afterwards you can carve up the slopes on skis or a snowboard nearby.
6. Las Vegas, Nevada , USA
Snow in the desert? Anything is possible in Las Vegas. The gambling mecca swaps its reputation as Sin City for a little Christmas joy when the Las Vegas Christmas Town takes over Cowabunga Bay waterpark each year.
Here three million lights and man-made snow turn the attraction into a winter wonderland for the holiday season. Scoot down fresh pow pow on Jingle Bell Sledding Hill, visit Santa at his cottage, take Tiny Tim’s Train Ride, battle it out with Yuletide Laser Tag or Frosty’s Snow Ball Pit Fun, visit the Merry Magic Tree, see the Let It Snow Spectacular, skate around an ice rink, step inside Blitzen’s Bounce House and ride the Polar Express.
7. Quebec City, Quebec, Canada
Quebec turns into a winter wonderland straight out of a Christmas movie. Wander through the UNESCO World Heritage historic centre to see the cobbled streets lined with snow and 16th- and 17th-century buildings decked with lights and Christmas trimmings. Around the city it is possible to go ice skating, drop into the German Christmas Market downtown for roast chestnuts and enjoy a night of stories with Charles Dickens.
RELATED CONTENT: 9 reasons why Quebec City is the best Christmas destination on the planet
8. Newport Beach, California, USA
It would take an actual Christmas miracle to make it snow at Newport Beach. But there is a very twinkly, very Christmassy boat parade. For more than 110 years locals have lined the harbour here to watch boats decorated in sparkling coloured lights and Christmas ornaments parade past them. The festive event happens over a few days around mid December.
9. Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada
What’s better than a white Christmas wonderland? One that features Canada’s most incredible natural wonder, Niagara Falls! The majestic waterfall is illuminated in festive colours during the annual Winter Festival of Lights. The city hangs more than three million twinkling lights for the festival, puts on a weekly fireworks display and plenty of other festive events like musicals, fairs and concerts.
10. Boston, Massachusetts, USA
Travel back in time on the gas-lamp-lit streets of old Boston. The city oozes old-world charm at the best of times and a blanket of snow and twinkling trees only amplify the festive nostalgia. Stop into Boston Common for a few laps around the ice rink, then wander to Faneuil Hall Marketplace for the big tree and light show, Blink! It features 350,000 flashing coloured lights and holiday music.
Boston has jolly concerts to watch, Christmas markets to prowl, midnight mass to attend, festive cruises to board and the Santa Speedo Run to spectate. But equally, this city is perfect to wander around soaking in the yuletide lights and calm carolers with a mulled wine or hot cocoa in hand.
GET INSPIRED BY: Boston, Cape Cod & Martha’s Vineyard
11. Rhinebeck, New York, USA
Christmas celebrations in this tiny upstate New York town are linked back to when Rhinebeck was first settled by the Dutch in the 1600s. Every year the town throws a Sinterklaas Festival with a big parade on the first Saturday of December. Sinterklass arrives on a white steed wearing a bishop’s tall hat, red cape, shiny ring and jewelled staff. He is joined by the Grumpus (Black Peter) a wild-looking half man, half beast character. Good children get goodies from Sinterklaas, bad children deal with Grumpus who rattles his chains and threatens to steal them.
Have you visited any of these cities or towns during December? Is there a super Christmassy town we missed on our list? Let us know in the comments…