• Home

The Complete Pilgrim - Religious Travel Sites

Howard Kramer's, The Complete Pilgrim, Religious Travel Site

  • AMERICAN RELIGIOUS SITES
  • CHRISTIAN SITES
  • JEWISH SITES
  • CATHOLIC SITES
  • INDIAN/HINDU SITES
  • HOLIDAY SITES
  • CASTLES
  • BATTLEFIELDS
  • MOUNTAINS
  • NATURE
  • WILDLIFE SITES
  • PHOTO GALLERIES
  • ARCHIVES
  • ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

GREAT CHRISTMAS CELEBRATIONS ACROSS AMERICA

December 11, 2021 By Howard Kramer Leave a Comment

From coast to coast, from Thanksgiving through New Years, America is awash in holiday celebrations. There are parades and pageants, concerts and markets, Christmas light drive-thrus, festivals and even themed sporting events.  There is no way to encompass a “best” list, certainly not a short one.  I have read dozens of such lists, and they’re all completely different from one another.  So, here is a list I have made of some great things to see around America at Christmastime that don’t always get a lot of national press:

 

Clackamas County Christmas Tree Harvest

Estacada, Oregon

November & December

Web: www.estacadachamber.net

Christmas Tree Farm (wikipedia.com)

Over one hundred million natural Christmas trees are grown, harvested and sold around the world every year; and all of those miniature fir, pine and spruce trees have to come from somewhere. The United States produces over thirty-five million Christmas trees per year, and over seven million of those come from Oregon, the most of any state.  Oregon, at the heart of the Pacific Northwest, is one of the most heavily forested states in America.  It is therefore natural that Oregon produces some of the largest crops of top-quality Christmas trees anywhere.  In particular, Clackamas County is famous for its Christmas tree farms, with nearly three million trees produced in this county alone every year.

At the heart of Clackamas County’s Christmas tree harvest is the small town of Estacada. Because of its central importance to Clackamas County, and therefore to Oregon’s Christmas tree industry, Estacada considers itself to be the Christmas Tree Capital of the World, a claim with reasonable merit.  Hundreds of thousands of visitors from all over the northwest descend on this tiny town every December to pick and cut down their own perfect Christmas tree.   Among the town’s major farms, in alphabetical order, are Bill’s Tree Farm, Buckner Farms, Frosty Forest Farm, Magill Farms, Mills Farm, Park Forest Products and Randall Farm.

 

Great Dickens Christmas Fair

San Francisco, California

November 17-December 23, 2018

Web: https://dickensfair.com (official website)

Charles Dickens (wikipedia.com)

Every year, in the weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas, the San Francisco Cow Palace Exhibition Hall in San Francisco is transformed into a 19th-century London neighborhood, where entertainers and guests frolick in Victorian holiday splendor.  Now over three decades old, the Great Dickens Christmas Fair is reminiscent of a typical Renaissance Festival with a Victorian holiday twist.  In fact, some of the merchants and entertainers work the Renaissance Festival circuit in summers.  Victorian-style stores overflow with toys and gifts of all sorts, while Victorian-style restaurants and pubs overflow with 19th century English delicacies.

The highlight of the fair is the variety of holiday entertainment, from dance performances to wandering entertainers in costume. Among the annual highlights is the ongoing Dickensian Christmas party held at Fezziwig’s Warehouse.  There is also the Sugarplum Playhouse, where children can hobnob with a European-style Father Christmas.  Meanwhile the streets of the fair are packed with the characters of such popular Dicken’s stories as Oliver Twist and a Christmas Carol, not to mention an abundance of Christmas wassailers strolling around.

 

Natchitoches Christmas Festival

Natichitoches, Louisiana

December 6-15 (Thursdays, Fridays & Saturdays)

Web: www.natchitocheschristmas.com (official website)

Natchitoches Christmas Festival (christmasfestival.com)

The Natchitoches Christmas Festival is one of the oldest and largest traditional Christmas celebrations in the American south. Founded by French traders in the early 18th century, Natchitoches was possibly the first place Christmas was ever celebrated west of the Mississippi River.  The Natchitoches Christmas Festival as it is now known can unofficially be traced back to 1926.  In that year, Max Burgdof, the town’s electrician, convinced the community to string up festive lights in the town for the holidays.  The lights were a huge success, and from that year on became an annual part of Natchitoches’ holiday celebrations.

In subsequent decades, the Natchitoches Christmas Festival became the most popular holiday party of its kind in the south.  The fame of this small town’s festival, which was way out of proportion to the size of the local population, drew visitors in from hundreds of miles in all directions.  Over the years it grew to epic proportions, adding fireworks, parades, home tours, beauty pageants and college football games (though not all of these are still ongoing).  The festival achieved additional fame after appearing in numerous movies, most notably Steel Magnolias.

 

Boar’s Head & Yule Log Festival

Cincinnati, Ohio

December 29-30, 2018

Web: https://cincinnaticathedral.com/boars-head (official website)

Boar’s Head Festival (boarsheadcleveland.org)

The traditions of the Boar’s Head Feast and the Yule Log both date back many centuries, and celebrations of both can be found around the world. However, in the United States, no place celebrates the Boar’s Head and the Yule Log like the congregation of Christ Church Cathedral in Cincinnati, Ohio.  It is one of the longest running Boar’s Head feasts in the New World.  Boar’s Head Festivals can be traced back to England in 1340.  In 1940, Reverend Nelson Burroughs, rector of the Episcopal Christ Church Cathedral in Cincinnati, organized a Boar’s Head feast to celebrate that tradition’s 600th birthday.  It has since become a major local celebration of the holiday season in Ohio.

Since the beginning of the festival in the 1940s, authenticity has been an absolute must. Everything from the costumes and decorations to the food and the music must evoke 14th century England, at least as far as possible.  There are over a hundred and fifty performers in full renaissance regalia; live entertainment featuring medieval music; homemade dishes made from century-old recipes; and a boar’s head (actually a hog’s head) fully prepared in grand Middle Ages style.  All of it is set in the soaring, magnificent halls of the Christ Church Cathedral.

 

Dive for the Cross

Tarpon Springs, Florida

January 6, 2019

Web: www.visitstpeteclearwater.com/event/tarpon-springs-epiphany

Diver Statue (wikipedia.com)

The Dive for the Cross is one of the most important festivals of the holiday season for Orthodox Christians in America. In 2006, which marked the 100th anniversary of the Dive, the Patriarch of Constantinople, leader of the world’s 200 million Orthodox Christians, personally presided over this annual Epiphany celebration.  In the late 19th century, Tarpon Springs attracted an influx of Greek immigrants to dive for the area’s wealth of sponges.  They brought with them their sponge diving skills and their religion, establishing what became one of the largest Greek immigrant communities in the United States.

Epiphany is a major part of the holidays in the Greek Orthodox Church, and this was especially true of the Greek immigrants in Tarpon Springs. In 1907 the Dive for the Cross tradition was established to celebrate the last day of Christmas.  The centerpiece event of America’s preeminent Epiphany festival, it features a ceremony in which a wooden cross is tossed into the Spring Bayou.  Afterwards, a small horde of teenage boys jump in after it.  The one who retrieves it receives a special blessing from the Orthodox Church, usually bestowed by either the Metropolitan of Atlanta or the Archbishop of America.  It is considered an extraordinarily auspicious honor.

Filed Under: Articles, Christmas

Where would you like to go?

Africa (North) Africa (Sub-Sahara) Arabia Armenia/Azerbaijan/Georgia Australia/Pacific Austria/Switzerland Balkans Belgium/Netherlands British Isles Canada Caribbean Central Asia China Czech Republic Egypt France Germany Greece Hungary/Romania/Bulgaria India (NE)/Nepal India (NW) India (South)/Sri Lanka Iran/Iraq Israel Italy/Malta Japan/Korea Latin America Mexico Palestine Poland/Lithuania Russia Scandinavia Southeast Asia Spain/Portugal Syria/Jordan/Lebanon Turkey/Cyprus Ukraine US-California US-Mid Atlantic US-Midwest US-New England US-New York US-Pacific Northwest US-South US-Southwest

About Howard Kramer

Howard Kramer is the creator and author of The Complete Pilgrim. He first took an interest in religious sites in his early twenties when traveling through Italy after college. In the two decades since he has traveled to more than two dozen countries and almost every state, visiting and photographing hundreds of the world’s greatest churches, synagogues and other places of religious interest. Howard has been writing about religious sites for the better part of the last decade, and The Complete Pilgrim is a culmination of years of his work and passion.

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

THE COMPLETE AMERICAN PILGRIM – NOW AVAILABLE ON AMAZON

THE COMPLETE PILGRIM

Welcome to The Complete Pilgrim(TM)! This site, created by Howard Kramer, is a combination travel blog and online guide to the world's greatest sites of religious interest (with some historic and recreational places thrown in for good measure). All written content has been originally researched and produced and is provided free for public research and enjoyment. Thank you for visiting!

Site of the Week

WITTENBERG CASTLE CHURCH

WITTENBERG CASTLE CHURCH

Wittenberg, Germany The … [Read More...]

Friends of TCP Spotlight

5 PLACES TO VISIT IN HISTORIC PHILADELPHIA – MUSLIM TRAVEL ROCKS

5 PLACES TO VISIT IN HISTORIC PHILADELPHIA – MUSLIM TRAVEL ROCKS

by Glory Ali The City of Brotherly Love offers tons to see and do and get this, it’s FREE. That’s right you heard it right it’s FREE. Click here for complete article  

MOVING THE U.S. EMBASSY TO JERUSALEM – FAITH IN FAITHS

MOVING THE U.S. EMBASSY TO JERUSALEM – FAITH IN FAITHS

by Mary Neuhauser President Trump recently announced his intentions to move the United States Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, thereby recognizing Jerusalem as the official capital of Israel. The purpose of this article is to give you a brief overview of what this decision means and why it matters. Click here for […]

Photo of the Week

BASILICA OF ST. DENIS

Last month, I visited one of the most fascinating churches I have ever been to, the almost completely ignored Basilica of St. Denis in the northern suburbs of Paris.  Almost every French monarch is buried here, and almost nobody goes here.  Here are some pics I took:

Basilica of St. Denis

Tomb of Clovis

Tomb of Clovis

Tombs of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette

Tombs of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette

Tomb of Louis XIV The Sun King

Tomb of Louis XIV The Sun King

Royal Tombs

Royal Tombs

The Crypt

The Crypt

 

 

 

 

Follow us!

Where would you like to go?

Africa (North) Africa (Sub-Sahara) Arabia Armenia/Azerbaijan/Georgia Australia/Pacific Austria/Switzerland Balkans Belgium/Netherlands British Isles Canada Caribbean Central Asia China Czech Republic Egypt France Germany Greece Hungary/Romania/Bulgaria India (NE)/Nepal India (NW) India (South)/Sri Lanka Iran/Iraq Israel Italy/Malta Japan/Korea Latin America Mexico Palestine Poland/Lithuania Russia Scandinavia Southeast Asia Spain/Portugal Syria/Jordan/Lebanon Turkey/Cyprus Ukraine US-California US-Mid Atlantic US-Midwest US-New England US-New York US-Pacific Northwest US-South US-Southwest

Contact Us

Have a comment, a great photo or a religious site you'd like to nominate for the weekly spotlight? We would love to hear from you. Email us at hkramer@thecompletepilgrim.com.

About the Author

Howard Kramer is the creator and author of The Complete Pilgrim. He first took an interest in religious sites in his early twenties when traveling through Italy after college. In the two decades since he has traveled to more than two dozen countries and almost every state, visiting and photographing hundreds of the world’s greatest churches, synagogues and other places of religious interest. Howard has been writing about religious sites for the better part of the last decade, and The Complete Pilgrim is the culmination of years of his work and passion.

Return to top of page
Copyright © 2025 The Complete Pilgrim, LLC || Marietta, GA 30068 || Legal Disclaimers

Website by: Kristina McInerny, Notes From Kris, Inc.