Winter Holidays in Chicago 2008/2009

The Winter Festival is something they have every year inside the main ballroom of Navy Pier. They have some indoor rides including a ferris wheel and a giant rocking horse. They also have an indoor ice skating rink. There is also some interesting areas to walk through and enjoy.

The Winter Festival is free to get into and walk around. You have to pay to go on the rides or use the ice skating rink or do some of the other available activities, such as cookie decorating. They do, however, offer the entertainment for free, but the two times I visited in 2008 nothing was going on on the stage. I also cannot speak for any of the things you have to pay for, as we did not do any of that. Pretty much all the rides were very kiddish and the ice skating rink was rather crowded.

I did enjoy walking through the festival to some extent. They have a tree area with small trees decorated by different organizations around a bigger tree. The trees were inside a fenced area and you could only go inside if you were riding the train. Most could be seen from the outside, but I was disappointed that many were blocked by tables for some raffles and the information booth.

There is another walking path area, though, that had more elaborate themed trees and different Santa Claus displays. This area was easy to go through and admire the trees and displays. They had some pretty cool trees including one that was decorated to look like a snowman and one decorated to look like Mrs. Claus. The Santa displays had different Santas from around the world along with some info on the tradition of Santa in that country. The countries represented included Poland, China, and Russia, as well as probably a few more I have not forgotten.

Overall I did like going and taking pictures of the tress, however, I would never have ventured out of my way for the festival. The only reason it was convenient for me to go not just once, but twice was that I was staying in an apartment right across the street from Navy Pier over the holidays. I only recommend coming down specially for the festival if you are taking young kids or you are at least combining it with other Navy Pier activities, such as the Stained Glass Museum, shopping, or an IMAX movie.