Christmas and New Year's in Chicago

I got together with my family in Chicago for Christmas and New Year's Eve 2007. Chicago may be a cold and downright miserable location for the holidays when the wind is blowing, but it has a few things that make it a nice place for the holidays.

Like many big cities it has some department store windows with holiday displays that passer bys can enjoy. The big ones to see in Chicago is the ones in the Marshall Field's Building (now a Macy's store). These windows tell A Nutcracker Story and are up from Thanksgiving to early January every year.

Another holiday thing we experienced were the New Year's Fireworks shot off at Navy Pier. This is an amazing annual fireworks display with even an early showing for the kids (and adults) who won't make it to midnight.

During our holiday week we had a few days with snow and cold windy weather, but we also had a nice sunny day. We took the opportunity that day to go to an accessible park with my little brother who uses a wheelchair most of the time.

Of course, our holiday in Chicago was not complete without having some real Chicago pizza. For this we chose Giordano's, although Gino's is another one of the best places in town for Chicago pizza.

Quick Tips:

Winter is definitely the off season for most tourist spots in the city. That does not keep the restaurants from being crowded, though. Be prepared for a long wait at places like Gino's and Giordano's no matter the time of year. Although if you go on one of the more wintery days with snow and wind you might find a shorter line/wait, but be bundled up because you could still end up waiting outside or end up in a very crowded lobby.

Best Way To Get Around:

With my brother we mostly stuck to driving around with our car and walking places. If you or no one in your group is disabled, then you can easily take advantage of the L Train and other Chicago public transportation to get around. Buses also work fine for those in wheelchairs, as they all have lifts, however the L Train can be limited with not all stops being accessible.

Also, when walking on Michigan Avenue be careful to get off it before getting too far south from the Water Tower if you are heading towards Navy Pier or else you have to go down stairs or back north to get there with a wheelchair (or even easily with strollers.

This is one of the best places in Chicago for pizza. There are several locations around the city. The one we went to is just a block away from the shops on Michigan Avenue. It is a great place to get some great tasting pizza before and/or after a day of shopping.

The wait for a table can often be at least 30 minutes. Best thing is, though, that you order your pizza when you put your name on the list for being seated. This way the pizza is ready not too long after you are seated even on the busiest of days.

The pizza tastes great and one slice is filling enough for most, but we always get more than we will eat so we can take it home and eat as leftovers. The service is overall good, but we did have an annoying issue related to my brother being in a wheelchair.

When my mom put our family on the list to be seated she made sure they knew we had someone with a wheelchair in our group. She was seated before my dad, my brother, and I arrived. When we got there and wheeled my brother to the end of the booth the manager came over and said we could not sit there and that we had not told them we had a wheelchair in our party. Turns out the lady putting people on the list is from a foreign country and probably did not understand when my mom said we had a person in a wheelchair. Well, they wanted to move us to a table back in the corner because apparently my brother was a hazard in case of a fire. Personally I thought that was bullshit since at least three people walking side by side could walk past the booth with my brother there. It was kind of like the person in a wheelchair needs to be put in the back of the room, so it is hardest for them to get out in case of an emergency and not really making it an easier (as it was already very easy) for others to get out. In the end they asked if my brother could transfer out, which we ended up doing, and they took the chair and put it out of the way in the wheelchair lift to the upper seating area of all places. Situation was handled, but not in a very friendly way by the manager, however the waiter for our table was very friendly through it making sure another table was being prepared in an appropriate place if the manager made us move.

Most people go to see these windows Thanksgiving weekend. The weather may possibly be more agreeable then, but it certainly is also very crowded. My dad and I decided to check these windows out on Christmas morning. For one we easily got a parking spot on a nearby street and it was a free metered parking spot because of the holiday. Secondly there really was like no one out looking at the windows. This allowed us to slowly enjoy the displays and move around to photograph them at whatever angles we wanted to. The whole half an hour to hour we looked at the windows we only saw one person that came by to actually look at them, although some people were out just bustling across the block to other destinations.

The window displays tell a Nutcracker story. The story is in sequence starting on the North side of the Marshall Field Building. The majority of the windows are on the west side, where it ends. The displays have the story at the top of the window display and then a scene related to it. The window scenes are all at least somewhat animated from the dancing figures to the hot air balloon flying at the end.

Overall this is a lot of fun to do during the Christmas season. Be sure to bundle up as the weather can be cold (and sometimes windy), but it is well worth seeing no matter how cold, windy, or snowy it is.

My 13-year-old brother has cerebral palsy and mostly uses a wheelchair at this point in his life, although in the past he did use a walker. When he was little I remember carrying him up playgrounds and sending him down the slide to our Mom or Dad waiting at the bottom. He does not remember any of that, though, so when I found out there was an accessible park in Chicago I told my parents we had to take him.

The playground is accessible in that there is a ramped way of getting onto the play structure. The whole ground is also accessible because it is a rubber like surface and not sand, which can get tough with wheelchairs. Overall however I do not think it did that well at making it a fun place for a physically challenged kid like my brother. Now if he was back up to strength and not just out of a cast from having his legs repositioned he could have at least stood with some help and enjoyed more of the playground, such as the slides.

I will give it to the playground that at least it tries and is at least good for those with physical challenges that can walk with assistance such as canes or for only short distances at a time. For example, the bridge on the play equipment has low rails on the inside walls that are perfect height for kids to hold onto for support. There is also a seat area on part of the upper playground and several seats under the play equipment.

The main thing that annoyed me was that all of the slides had a step up to them. From what I read online about the Boundless playgrounds, which this is one of, it said that slides have some kind of thing to help with transferring onto slide. Well, this one does not. Is it that hard to have made it so someone could roll up to the slide hold onto a bar above the slide and transition to go down a slide?

While I would not recommend this for disabled kids that are extremely reliant on their wheelchair, I do think that for less extreme physical disabilities this playground is great. It is also great for normal kids because it has a lot of different types of climbing things to play on.

On New Year's Eve we watched the fireworks go off at Navy Pier. We watched them from a nearby apartment building, but they are also easily enjoyed from the pier. We actually noticed a lot of people just stood on the lakeshore area near the Pier to enjoy the fireworks. Just make sure you dress warmly if you are watching from outside, as it can be quite cold and sometimes windy right on the lake this time of year.

As for parking to go see them, arrive early as the parking at the Pier does get pretty full if not entirely full. Plus the parking fees can be quite high ending up over $20. If you can I recommend taking public transportation to Navy Pier, which is pretty easy to do even at the late hour of the fireworks since the Blue Line runs 24 hours a day as well as some bus routes.

Navy Pier has 2 firework shows for New Year's Eve. The first show is around 7pm and is meant for the kids, who are likely to go to bed before midnight. We tried to see this show, but it was a foggy evening and up on the 42nd floor all we could see was clouds and here the fireworks in the distance. It may have been fine to see from the ground though.

The second fireworks show is the real New Year's fireworks and they go off just after midnight. The fog had cleared and we were able to see this showing. It was an amazing and very colorful fireworks show that was totally worth staying up to see.