On November 29th, before the busy-ness of December overtook us, Kent and I drove to Pennsylvania for an overnight trip. Our first stop was Longwood Gardens to see the Christmas lights.
They put on a very nice display.
We especially liked the colored fountains that "danced" to Christmas music every 30 minutes.
Kent likes to get ideas for the Christmas lights he puts up at our house from these kinds of displays.
These blue lights were reflected in the pond in the gardens.
Inside the conservatory there were some decorated Christmas trees.
There was a "books" theme to the decorations this year in the rooms of the Conservatory this year.
These books were on top of the grand piano.
The paths in the conservatory were lined with poinsettias.
These trees were suspended from the ceiling of the conservatory.
Usually the lights are around the branches of the trees, so it was unusual to see a section where just the trunks had been wrapped in lights.
We were lucky to be there on a Thursday evening when it wasn't very crowded.
One of the last things we discovered was a train set decorated with Christmas lights.
This was the view of Philadelphia we had from our hotel room the next morning.
The hotel was just a few blocks from the Temple, which was very convenient. This was the view from our window.
After we went to the temple we took some pictures by the nativity they have on the temple grounds.
Then we walked downtown to see some of the Christmas sights of Philadelphia. Below is a street sign I saw as we were walking.
I'd read on the internet that Philadelphia had a "Christmas Village" set up in a town square during the end of November and December.
I have to say it's the closest thing I've seen to a European Christmas Market that I've seen in the United States!
There was even a Kathe Wohlfahrt shop! I bought an over-priced wooden nativity ornament there.
Next we went to the Philadelphia Macy's, which has the world's largest playing pipe organ.
Every hour they had a twenty-minute light show set to Christmas carols, which we watched.
The architecture of the building itself was also awesome.
Also in Macy's they had a Dickens' Christmas Carol village set up to walk through.
It was pretty dated and cheesy looking, as you can see from the scenes below.
It was on the list of Christmas things to do in Philly, but I wouldn't recommend it to anyone!
Our visit to Philadelphia was a nice way to kick off the Christmas season.
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