The Christmas activities in Vancouver are now in full swing, especially with the arrival of the annual Rogers Santa Claus parade this Sunday. Since I have been in Vancouver for several years now, I’m confident I can recommend some pretty decent seasonal attractions that you should check out sometime this month. Following is a list that I was able to come up with that should be especially useful to newcomers to the Metro Vancouver area.

The Rogers Christmas Parade

This Sunday (December 5, 2010) at 1:00 pm, come to Downtown Vancouver to check out the annual Rogers Santa Claus Parade. If you’ve seen it a few times already, it’s nothing special since they pretty well use the same floats and acts every year, but if you haven’t seen it yet, you should definitely check it out. For the parade route map and to find out more information about it, go to the official website at http://rogerssantaclausparade.com/home

Lights of Hope at St. Paul’s Hospital

I’ve been checking this out since 2003, and I never get tired of it, though it has lost a lot of its awe-factor for me. You can see it on Burrard Street near Helmcken Street. If it’s night time, you definitely won’t miss it because you won’t see more lights in one place anywhere else. It seems they manage to make it a little bit different every year. For more information about it, go to http://www.helpstpauls.com/lights-of-hope/lights-of-hope-display.

Festival of Lights at VanDusen Botanical Gardens

In my opinion, this is the best Christmas lights attraction in the entire Metro Vancouver area. This light show is located at the VanDusen Botanical Gardens, which is located at 5251 Oak Street in Vancouver. Some of the highlights of the Festival of Lights include (taken from the official site):

• Santa’s Living Room: Dec. 10 – 24 with Santa appearances 5:30, 6:30, 7:30, 8:30 p.m.
• Svend and Jens, our Scandinavian Christmas Elves appear nightly in the Centre Court.
• Dancing Lights on Livingstone Lake: starting at 4:30 p.m. Two different shows – one show on the half hour and a different one at the top of the hour. Two different shows repeating in sequence throughout the evening.
• Gingerbread Wood
• Golden Chain Walk
• Community Choir Concerts on the Deck at 6:00 pm and 7:30 pm – view choir schedule
• Make-a-Wish Candle Shrine
• Candy Cane Lane
• Sparkling Spruce in the Centre Court
• Candy Cane Express model train

For more information, go to the official site at http://vancouver.ca/PARKS/parks/vandusen/website/events/fol.htm.

Bright Nights at Stanley Park

Here is another not-to-be-missed attraction which even features a Christmas train ride with a different theme every year. Before or after your train ride, you can take your time to walk around the plaza to check out all the spectacular Christmas light displays.  For getting on the train, you can either buy your tickets through Ticketmaster or purchase them on-site. Check out the official site for more information at http://vancouver.ca/parks/events/brightnights/

Festival of Trees at Four Seasons and Christmas Street

I was just at the Four Seasons hotel to check this out today. It’s always worth checking out, especially if you just happen to be in the area to do some Christmas shopping as I was today (the Pacific Centre Mall is connected). Situated in the lobby of the Four Seasons, and also up the escalator on the next floor are many trees that have all been decorated with a theme.

The Festival of Trees at Four Seasons

While you are in the area to check out the Festival of Trees, you may as well head through the mall into the Bay to see another nice set of Christmas displays. Located on the 5th floor of the Bay is a very nicely decorated area that they call Christmas Street. I’m not sure why they call it Christmas Street, since there is no street, but I think the name is pretty cool. What you’ll see is a lot of Christmas items for sale, but what makes it special is how they have all their items on display with colorful themes in different areas.

No, your eyes are not playing tricks on you. This is a McDonald's Christmas tree.

Gingerbread Lane at the Hyatt Regency

If you like gingerbread creations, you definitely can’t go wrong stopping by the Hyatt Regency Hotel on Burrard Street between Georgia and Pender.

From the official site:

This year, the centrepiece is again Executive Sous Chef Hans Lutz’s gigantic gingerbread house measuring 11 feet tall and 16 feet wide. Ingredients include 500 pounds of gingerbread dough, 400 pounds of confection sugar and 1,400 egg whites, plus a few secret ingredients and a little help from Hyatt’s engineering department. Four foot tall cut outs of gingerbread families are also available for picture taking. Nearly 40 individually crafted gingerbread creations from culinary professionals and amateurs, corporations and secondary schools round out the sweet smelling lavish display.

For more information, go to http://vancouver.hyatt.com/hyatt/hotels/, and click on Gingerbread Lane Celebrates 20th Anniversary in the right column.

The Vancouver Christmas Market

Step back in time … Experience A Traditional German Christmas Festival For All!

New to Vancouver this year is traditional German Christmas market located at the Plaza at Queen Elizabeth Theatre.

Welcome to the Vancouver Christmas Market, an authentic outdoor German Christmas market village featuring unique holiday shopping, seasonal music and entertainment, and delicious traditional food and drink.

I haven’t been able to check this one out yet, but I plan on heading there this week. The German Christmas Market is open until December 24, 2010.

For more information, check out the official website at http://www.vancouverchristmasmarket.com/

Even though stores and TV networks usually begin promoting the Christmas season the day after Halloween, I’ve always found that to be a bit too early, especially with my jack-o’-lanterns still smiling at me with their Happy Halloween grins. A little bit after the middle of November, however, is an event that changes all that and finally kicks me into Christmas mode and gets me looking forward to Santa’s visit. It’s the annual Christmas at Hycroft.

I decided to go there on opening day this year, which was Thursday, November 18. I figured that since it was a weekday, it wouldn’t be very busy there, and I was right. The fact that it was raining probably kept a lot of people away, too.

Upon walking through the gate, I got the usual eyeful of this huge house that I was about to enter, quite nicely decorated from the outside.

Christmas at Hycroft, exterior view

There is a small box office outside the entrance where you can purchase a ticket to enter. The cost is $10 to get inside, and the ticket includes a stub that you can write your name on and put in a raffle box for the chance to win a number of prizes including getting to use the Hycroft mansion for a day for your own private party.

Now I’m going to show you a bunch of pictures that I was able to snap while exploring all the areas of the house. These are some of the best interior Christmas decorations I’ve seen, and the main reason I keep going back every year.

One of several fireplaces in the house

Showing the upper level and ground level. There is also a basement.

Frosty's family out on the balcony

All the rooms are well done and tidy

Even Santa Claus was there

Throughout the day, there is always some form of entertainment going on. While I was there, I got to see a choir performing various Christmas songs, and something else that was definitely a first for me: a quartet of elderly ladies playing the bells.

A choir performing a set of Christmas songs

Bell Ringer Quartet - a small group from "Kerrisdale Bell-Ringers" playing Christmas music on bells at the Hycroft. Click on image to see a short video clip.

In case you missed it, you can click on the above image to see a short recording of the bell ringing performance.

I lost count of how many Christmas trees they had in there.

A nice bedroom setup. Reminded me of my own bedroom at Christmas time when I was a child.

Another nice bedroom setup. I wish my room looked like this.

The dining room

This couch can fit around 10 skinny people.

This was the 38th annual Christmas at Hycroft event. It usually takes place during the last half of November, but you better pay attention and make sure you don’t miss the opening because it’s only available to be visited for 4 days. This year, the house opened to the public on Thursday, November 18, and the last day will be on Sunday, November 21.

Hycroft is owned by the University Womens Club of Vancouver, For more information about the Hycroft and the University Womens Club of Vancouver, you can go to the official website at http://www.uwcvancouver.ca/christmas-at-hycroft/

One of my favorite decorations of the night. Let it snow!

It’s that time of the year again, when people from all over the Metro Vancouver area swarm into the downtown core and Kitsilano area to feast their eyes on the most exciting fireworks show in Western Canada. 

For those of you who are unfamiliar with this annual fireworks competition, this is actually a musical fireworks show that takes place during a timespan of around 25 minutes. So if you are looking for a non-stop barrage of fireworks in the sky with no purpose, you might be disappointed. This is a more artistic kind of fireworks show with slow moments that build up to exciting moments, and each show has a theme. 

Celebration of Light fireworks show at English Bay

The Celebration of Light competition takes place on four separate days, with 3 and sometimes 4 different countries competing with their own special arrangements and themes. It always begins on a Wednesday, and then is followed by another show on Saturday, and then Wednesday and Saturday again. When only 3 countries compete, the final Saturday show will be what is called the Finale night when the other countries use a portion of their presentation to form another full 25 minute fireworks show. 

This year, we are lucky, because 4 different countries are competing. The reason I say that is because I have never really been a fan of the Finale show. The individual shows are usually pretty good, but when they try to mix up the themes into a finale, it just never seems to work. In fact, I’m not even interested in watching any more finale shows. Since 4 countries are competing this  year, though, there will be a full presentation from that country on day 4, and if it is the same as other years when there were 4 countries competiting, that will be followed by a short finale with an especially large amount of fireworks going off at once. 

This year, the competing countries for the Celebration of Light fireworks show are:
(copied from the official Celebration of Light website) 

U.S.A.

Spain

Mexico

China

One more thing I should mention is that if you want to get some drinks with your friends after the fireworks show, it’s extremely difficult to find a place. Most of the restaurants in the Davie Street area, for example, have people standing in the entrances blocking people from entering. You might get lucky, but your best bet is to go to a place that is a bit out of the way from the columns of crowds emptying out of the downtown area.

For more information about the Celebration of Light firworks event, you can check out the offical website here.

Even though I’m now 37 years old, and I don’t completely believe that there is a Santa Claus anymore, there is one time of the year that still manages to bring quite a bit of enjoyment to my soul. That time is Christmas time, when I start to feel, more than any other time of the year, somewhat like a little boy again. I’m sure many of you out there feel the same.

One of the things I really look forward to every Christmas is putting up my Christmas tree and decorations. Even though it takes many hours to get everything up, so far, I haven’t once thought of it as a chore, and actually enjoy doing it.

Now, I’ve had the same Christmas tree since I moved to Vancouver in 2003. It’s a 6 feet tall artificial tree that I bought at Sears at the time in the hope of creating my own Christmas here in Vancouver (since I was going to be away from all relatives).

Besides buying a tree, I also picked up a few sets of lights (300 total), and some ornaments (around 100). The kinds of ornaments I went with were the solid color glass ones, and I picked them up at the Real Atlantic Superstore. This was the best choice, I think, because glass ornaments can really enhance the look of the tree by reflecting the lights. In a sense, it is similar to having even more lights on your tree. The glass ornaments were in the same colors as my mini indoor lights: green, red, blue, yellow/gold, and purple.

I like to put garland around my tree, too. No angel hair or ribbons (maybe someday, though) for me. I think of it as representing the snow you might see on a tree outside after a snowfall. I used to have gold colored garland, but now I’m using a shiny white that looks like a cross between cotton and glass. And let’s not forget about the star. Some people put an angel on the top of their tree, but I prefer a star with lights. My star has the same colors again as my lights and ornaments.

Over the years, I’ve also added more lights and bought a few different kinds of ornaments to add some variety. My lights now total 600, and they go around the back, too, because I like to open my curtains and show it in the window sometimes.

Anyway, here is the end result of my tree decorating for 2009. I hope you’ll like it. I think pictures just don’t do it justice, though, especially since I only have my cheap cell phone camera for taking pictures now. When I see these pictures, I always think, wow, it sure looks many times more beautiful in person, but this is the best I can get for now, until I get a real camera.

My Christmas tree, 2009

My Christmas tree, 2009, and other decorations

Now is the perfect time of the year to check out tons of beautiful Christmas trees in this city. I recommend checking out the big name hotels like The Four Seasons, The Fairmont, The Hyatt, and The Sheraton. The Four Seasons always has a good assortment of Christmas trees that you can find in the lobby, upstairs, and spilling right into the Pacific Centre Mall.

McDonald's Christmas tree at the Four Seasons hotel

Every year at around this time, the residents of Metro Vancouver, who are also Shaw cable subscribers, are treated with a special broadcast. It is the 24 hour, 7 day per week video of a bunch of logs burning in a fireplace, formerly known as the Yule Log, and now called the Holiday Fireplace. In this post, I will refer to it as the Yule Log.

Sometimes, when people see the Yule Log for the first time, they might laugh at it a bit and wonder why there would be a channel that just shows logs burning in a fireplace all the time. Since most of the people I have met in Vancouver since I moved here were people from other countries and newcomers, I have seen this kind of reaction a lot. However, it doesn’t take them long to realize that it’s actually quite a nice thing to have, especially during the holidays.

Just as a fireplace can make a huge impact on the overall atmosphere and comfort experienced in your living room, so can the Yule Log. It’s really nice to have it on in the room when you’re relaxing or entertaining guests, and you can even hear the crackling sounds as the wood burns.

The Yule Log on my 42" plasma TV, 2009

Of course, nothing beats a real fireplace. There are also the imitation fireplaces, many of which can also put out a bit of heat. However, if you don’t have a house and/or don’t have the extra money, the Yule Log is a good substitution. It may be “the poor man’s fireplace,” but at least it doesn’t require any maintenance, such as storing and burning wood, and making sure the room doesn’t fill with smoke or catch on fire.

You can enjoy the Yule Log this year on channel 2, as usual. If you have a digital box or PVR, you can also view it in high definition on channel 313.

Every year, visitors and residents alike get a nice visual treat while driving or walking down Burrard Street. It is the annual Christmas light display at the front of St. Paul’s hospital.

It seems to take them a couple of weeks to put everything up, and they start early, like around Halloween. I’m not entirely sure, but I think that many of the lights may have already been up and running in the middle of November. Yes, they like to get into the Christmas spirit early, but at least it’s not the day immediately after Halloween as they do at many stores and shopping malls.

Besides being an extravagant light show to get everyone’s attention, the lights also serve another purpose. It is called “Lights of Hope” because the display also raises money for the hospital. According to the St. Paul’s Hospital Foundation Web site, the campaign has raised more than 12 million dollars for the hospital since it began 12 years ago. If you go there and look at the lights up close, you can see that most of them are in the shape of stars with the names of sponsors inside them.

Here are some pictures that were taken today with my cell phone. They are not the best quality, but should give you a good idea. I’ll try to post a video clip of how it looks at night so you can see how some of the lights flash.

St. Paul's Hospital, late afternoon

St. Paul's Hospital, night time

For more information about the Lights of Hope at St. Paul’s Hospital, check out the St. Paul’s Hospital Foundation website.