Williamsburg is among the best places in the country for a magical Christmas, according to two different ranked lists.
The travel lifestyle website Local Adventurer named Williamsburg one of the 17 best places to spend Christmas, while Country Living magazine called the city one of the 30 most magical towns in the United States.
There are no other Virginia localities on the Local Adventurer’s list, but two North Carolina communities, McAdenville, right outside Charlotte, and the mountain city of Asheville, ranked in the list’s top 10. Williamsburg was No. 13.
Local Adventurer cites Busch Gardens’ Christmas Town and Jamestown — “to celebrate the holidays like the colonists” — as sites not to miss near Williamsburg. It mentions restaurants Amber Ox Public House, Food for Thought and Maurizio Ristorante as suggested places to eat.
Not surprising, leading the list is New York City with its Rockefeller Center Christmas tree and ice rink, the Rockettes Radio City Christmas Spectacular, Central Park and the dozens of Fifth Avenue window displays.
According to Local Adventurer, McAdenville, which ranks No. 2, changes its name each December to Christmas Town USA. There are over 375 trees and 450,000 lights, and the first 1,000 attendees who attend each night get free hot chocolate and kettle corn.
Asheville, at No. 10, makes the list for the Biltmore Estate, National Gingerbread House Competition and Winter Lights at the North Carolina Arboretum.
A visit to Biltmore House and its surrounding land is “magical. The entire estate is decked out in holiday decor, but the highlight is the large Christmas tree in the home’s Banquet Hall along with 55 other intricately decorated trees,” the list says.
Other communities on the list include North Pole, Alaska; Vail, Colorado; Jackson Hole, Wyoming; and the colorful Park City, Utah, with its decorated center town.
Meanwhile, Country Living magazine placed Williamsburg on its list of “30 Most Magical Christmas Towns in the U.S.”
Williamsburg ranked No. 24, while Middleburg, in northern Virginia, ranked No. 1.
About Middleburg, the magazine says: “Settle in for an old-fashioned Christmas in the heart of Virginia’s horse and hunt country, where you can cheer on a parade of loyal hounds as they ride through the streets, sip on small-batched hard cider and shop for old-world holiday decor.”
For travelers, Williamsburg provides “colonial holiday traditions like caroling by torchlight, fife and drum performances and interpretive programs” that “set the stage for Christmas” in the “charming” restored 18th century capital of Virginia.
The magazine points to Colonial Williamsburg’s Grand Illumination — the historic area’s annual fireworks and lights display — as well as Busch Gardens’ Christmas Town, where visitors can “stroll through European holiday traditions.”
Wilford Kale, kalehouse@aol.com
