Finding the best place to spend Christmas in the USA

Finding the best place to spend Christmas in the USA

Picking the best place to spend Christmas in the USA is all about how you prefer to spend your holiday vacay. Do you picture yourself with snow-globe like surrounds? Maybe cutting the ice to Jingle Bell Rock and decking the halls of a pine-scented, lodge-style cabin with a towering evergreen. Or is a warm respite just what you need to avoid the holiday hubbub, exchanging warm cider for something tropical and fruity.

Festive settings for the best Christmas vacations in the US

Two horse pull a sleigh through snowy woodland

Wintry escape to mountainous wonderlands full of ski slopes and sleigh rides, hot cocoa, and gingerbread are plenty enticing for a holiday break. But how about kicking off the boots and digging your toes into the sand, instead? You can’t go wrong with either option…

Christmassy towns for family getaways

Bring on the candy canes, twinkly lights, and Santa hats. If you like your holiday season to be full of everything red and green, merry and bright, cheer-filled towns are ready to answer the call. They range from big cities with outdoor skating rinks and endless window shopping to small villages like Solvang in So Cal’s Santa Ynez Valley wine country and Bavarian-style Leavenworth, Washington, that ramp up the festivities with parades, carolers, and Christmas concerts.

A wintery wonderland

Nothing says holiday spirit like munching on a fresh-baked gingerbread cookie cozied up by a warm fireplace with snow falling just outside. Whether it’s a spot of romance in a luxury chalet with a private hot tub near the slopes of Utah’s Ogden or Wyoming’s Jackson Hole, or big family reunion in a grand lodge full of merrymaking and snowman building, a frosty break to the mountains can be the best place to spend Christmas in the USA.

Someplace warm for Christmas

If you’re looking to trade the powdery snow for a different shade of white to dig your toes into, a beach house rental may be just the ticket to a Christmas vacation in the US full of swimming, sunning, and, well, staying warm. Whether its singing “Mele Kalikimaka” to the sways of palm trees in Hawaii or heading south on the mainland to test out just how balmy the Gulf coastline stays in December, you can nix frosty fingers in favor of breezy balconies and beachside bonfires.

Destinations for the best place to spend Christmas in the USA

New York City's Rockefeller Center at Christmas

From big city streets buzzing to the beats of holiday tunes to quiet hamlets buried in Rocky Mountain valleys where folks gather by firelight for carol sing-a-longs followed by cookies and cocoa, these festive destinations set the bar high for Christmas vacations in the US.

East coast Christmas vacations in NYC

If skating circles at Rockefeller Center to peppy jingles and watching the famous kick line of the Radio City Christmas Spectacular are on your holiday bucket list, a trip to the Big Apple may be the best place to spend Christmas in the USA this year. Come early in the season to hit the mega toy emporiums and jewelry counters at buzzing department stores in preparation for the big day or book a stay over Christmas to celebrate in Home Alone 2 style in a vacation loft personalized with a twinkling tree and a kitchen for whipping up a traditional turkey dinner.

Florida Beaches for tropical vibes

When the weather outside gets a little too frightful or you’ve really just had enough of winter already, an escape to the ever-warm sands of Florida may be the best Christmas gift you can give to yourself. Head far south for the best chance of swimming – think a beachfront villa in Miami where Atlantic temps still average in the low-70s in December or a bungalow in Naples or Sarasota to take advantage of tepid Gulf breezes.

Try the Rocky Mountains for snow

From the time Bing Crosby first crooned for a White Christmas, folk have been dreaming about waking up on December 25 to twirling flurries and a fresh-painted landscape of white-tipped evergreens and rolling fields of snow outside the frosty window of a wooded cabin. To guarantee a Norman Rockwell-esque Christmas morning, you might have to look to higher elevations in the Rocky Mountains. Ski villages like Breckenridge in Colorado and Park City in Utah place you oh so close to the lifts and slopes, with downtowns that dazzle with twinkly lights and throw in Santa meet-and-greets and treasure-filled craft markets for good measure.