My parents are coming into town tomorrow to get the “Christmas in the Big City Experience”. They live at the end of a long dirt lane on a farm, so pretty much just being in the city at Christmastime will be plenty cool. But in true Griswold fashion, I am working on my itinerary. Here’s what I have so far:
Light show and Dickens Village at Macy’s.
Reading Terminal Market.
Comcast Christmas Show in 3-D.
Christmas Village at City Hall.
Any other suggestions? Anyone know of any good Christmas shows or anything going on? Please let me know in the comments.
xmas dinner at oneals
Johnny, the Fairmount Park houses are pretty amazing at Christmastime. Lemon Hill is just a stone's throw from the Art Museum. $5 admission includes a tour by a docent, and the history and furniture collections in the houses are amazing too.
I'd cut out the Center City Christmas village, or just briefly swing through there from Macy's to the Comcast Center. It's one of those things that looks nice from far away but not so pleasant upon closer inspection. Longwood Gardens if you have the time is also great during Christmas.
Get 'em drunk on egg nog and rum. Then, come up to the NE neighborhoods and “ooohh and aaahhh” at the yard displays. There is one in my neighborhood that plays tinny Christmas tunes ALL F—ING night! LIttle plastic men dance to the music, I think. Craptastic! Tackyriffic! But, be sure to take Roosevelt up here so that they can be scared out of their minds from the bad drivers. Now, THAT'S a real Philadelphia experience!
A serious suggestion… Dinner at the City Tavern, I think its called. The one that claims to be the oldest pub in the city or the country. Its actually quite nice, and I bet they do one hell of a holiday dinner. Their pot pie was pretty darn good, as I recall. Its sort of cool to eat in a place where our founding fathers used to imbibe (if you ignore the fact that the tavern has actually been rebuilt due to fire and maybe moved from its original loc… not sure about the latter…).
Merry Christmas!
The City Tavern is a re-creation of the original hangout of many of our Founding Fathers and was built by the Nat'l Park Service for the Bicentennial (along with some of the great tacky tourist sensations such as Franklin Court—you should take the folks down to that truly awful museum with it's old Trimline phones that when you pick them up, someone sounding like William Shatner answers as one of the Founding Fathers—get there before it is redeveloped!).
If you want the true Philly experience, you have to take the folks to a South Philadelphia Feast of the Seven Fishes. A number of South Philly Italian restaurants do this and I'm sure Trivia Art could tell you the best one. Try to find a family style dinner for the true “close to row home” experience. Alternatively, you can join all your Jewish brethren in Chinatown and have your parents exclaim in wonder: “We never knew there were so many Jewish people in Philadelphia.”
As far as the traditional bs, if they haven't seen the light show at what now is Macy's, it's Ok (better for small kids sitting in their parent's laps looking up), but find out when the Wanamaker organ will be playing a concert (usually a couple of times a day during the Christmas season) and get there for that—great sound in the big court and it's free. Also, someone mentioned Longwood Gardens. Bit of a ride, but it is the light show of all light shows in this area.
Have fun.
JGT, are you familiar with this so-called City Tavern? I could draw you a map.
I couldn't possibly be more familiar with the City Tavern.