Seasonal & Holidays
Things to do the weekend before the Christmas Holiday!
Here are some great local ideas for what do do this weekend to get you in the Festive Spirit!
How can you get into the Festive mood this weekend without straying too far from Cobb County? Let me count the ways!
Lights of Life (Life University)
The Lights of Life (at Life University, off of Barclay Circle) is my favorite thing to do just before Christmas in the North Cobb area!
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If you know a few secrets, it can be a very pleasant experience!
Even if the weather is bad and you do not have any spare cash, you can take the whole family in the car, hand out Christmas candy or chocolate, perhaps drinks of hot cocoa too (but be safe!) and just drive through the lights and let the kids eyes light up in wonder. It is totally FREE to drive through the lights so long as you do not turn off from the main road going through the campus.
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At the weekends, if you DO turn off the main road you will be charged $10 per car load. However, it is well worth paying the $10 if you can spare it! They have an amazing walkway through the lights on the hill with beautiful christmas music playing (see video below). The kids can spend hours just running from one end to the other singing carols and playing.
If you have a little extra money, take a visit with Santa and get a souvenir photo, or take a ride on the fun train, or have hot cocoa and marshmallows roasted on a fire, or visit the petting zoo. For less than $20 per child you can have hours of fun! There are also other things to do there this weekend! So much fun!
Free Christmas Light Shows!
If the weather is cold or rainy (though the weather man tells me it should be fairly clear this weekend!), take a drive in your car following the Cheer Map from Nextdoor.com. It is a great way to get in the festive mood and is something the whole family can do together. The kids have even more fun if they are doing the navigating using the map on a phone - and its a great way to teach them how to read a map properly!!
https://nextdoor.com/cheer_map...
Do not forget to check out Indian Hills subdivision - a little south of our area (North East Cobb) they have some amazing lights this year, see my short videos below.
Stone Mountain
Stone Mountain is another of my favorite things to do around the Atlanta area. I like to spend a whole day there at this time of year. We have Stone Mountain Membership (Mountain Member Plus) so we can go to enjoy Snow Mountain virtually whenever we want to. I strongly recommend this level of membership if you like to go to Snow Mountain and like to visit Stone Mountain more than once per year. It may be an expense up front but it saves you a lot of money throughout the year if you go often! Snow Mountain allows kids of all ages to go tubing time and time again (2 hour limit is plenty - no one ever wants to continue after 2 hours anyhow). For the younger kids (older kids also love it), Little Angels is the ideal hangout - a great safe place to play in fake snow, make snowmen, slide down the mini slides into the snow and play with toys in the snow. Also a great place to make family memories and take photos and videos!
The video below gives you an idea of what the tubing area is like:
My favorite part of a day at Stone Mountain is the Christmas Parade held at around 6pm on weekend nights. The lights are truly amazing! And the parade is fun especially for younger kids. There are also a number of shows afterwards - all of which are really enjoyable for the whole family. The video below describes the evening entertainment very well but do not forget that between your time on Snow Mountain and the start of the Christmas Parade can often be 5 or 6 hours - you have a lot of choices for how to fill that time - the Summit Skyride, Scenic Railroad, 4-D Theater, Dinotorium, Great Locomotive Chase Adventure Golf, Historic Square, and Discovering Stone Mountain Museum.
And, of course, if you want to make a weekend of it, you can also stay at one of the hotels in the park!
https://www.stonemountainpark....
Marietta Square
Do not forget to visit Marietta Square before Christmas! Marietta Square boasts beautiful lights, visits with Santa, ice skating, a choice of two amazing ice cream parlors, and so many restaurants to eat at I cannot even list them!
Merry Christmas! Happy Holidays!