The Most Christmassy Towns in America

Can’t get to the North Pole this year? The editors at Aspen Grange rounded up the five holly-jolliest Christmas villages in the U.S., each an idyllic snow globe scene sprung to life.

Press photo courtesy Icicle TV, via Leavenworth Chamber of Commerce

Leavenworth, Washington

If sugarplum fairies retired, they’d beeline straight for this Bavarian-inspired hamlet (population: 1,995) in Washington’s Cascade Mountain range.  Not only is it surrounded by frosty peaks, but it’s home to Christmas-themed fun galore, including Leavenworth Ski Hill (where you can hit the slopes of Wenatchee National Forest) and abundant hikes along 32-mile Icicle Creek. Your first stop? The Leavenworth Nutcracker Museum, a nonprofit that’s home to some 7,000 nutcrackers made everywhere from Denmark to Ethiopia. Don’t miss the Bavarian Christkindlmarkt (held annually on Thanksgiving weekend) or the Christmas Lighting Festival, when the whole town dons some 500,000 Christmas lights.

Stowe, Vermont

There’s a reason the entire state of Vermont is like a time warp to the Victorian era: there are no billboards allowed there (local law since 1968). In their place? Centuries-old church steeples rising over rolling farmland, storybook villages, and plenty of rural, real Vermont Country Stores with all you need—and nothing else. Ski bunnies flock to Stowe to take advantage of their more than 300 inches of snowfall annually at Stowe Mountain Resort, and insiders will make time for a sleigh ride around Stoweflake. Fans of The Sound of Music won’t want to miss stopping by the Austrian-themed Trapp Family Lodge, set on 2,500 acres and home to a Kaffeehaus helmed by Bavarian baker Maurizio Odermatt (order the heisse schoki mit schlag, a.k.a hot cocoa with a dusting of whipped cream). If you visit the last week of November, you’ll find Stowe transformed into a Christmas wonderland—with Santa and his reindeer parading through town, plus DIY delights (candy cane pulling, wreath making workshops, and more).

Press photo courtesy Discover Lancaster, discoverlancaster.com

Lancaster, Pennsylvania

Maybe it’s the myriad horse-and-buggies that clip-clop across surrounding farmland. But for our money, there’s little that beats Lancaster at Christmas. For starters, you can tour 15 historic inns—all dressed for Christmas, of course—on the Find Your Belsnickle Christmas Tour (proceeds benefit the Make-a-Wish foundation). All ages obsess over the Strasburg Rail Road, running since 1832, for its Christmas trains; board The Night Before Christmas Train for a Victorian-era jaunt through cinematic farmland. Christmas decor buffs love the DIY classes at Landis Valley Village & Farm, a living history museum where you can learn to fold German paper stars or craft a felted wool snowman.

Charleston, South Carolina

Southern comfort gets kicked up a notch at Christmas in Charleston, when centuries-old architectural gems like the 1801 Nathaniel Russell House get decked out for the season in evergreen boughs and fruit-dotted wreaths. If the very thought of two million twinkling lights puts a sparkle in your eye, don’t miss the Holiday Festival of Lights in James Island County Park—complete with train rides, a three mile tour through eye-popping Christmas lights and photo ops with Chris Kringle himself. To see period-appropriate holiday decor put together by the Garden Club of Charleston, stop in at the Joseph Manigault House, where a restored spiral staircase laden with evergreens is as Christmassy as it gets.

Photo of Aspen’s Maroon Bells, courtesy of Upsplash

Aspen, Colorado

Aspen Grange’s home state is chockablock with Christmassy sights, thanks to a profusion of snowcapped mountain peaks and 19th-century gold rush villages. Aspen may be the toniest among them, but it’s also one of the most Christmassy (to name one prime example: every afternoon at four pm, you can sing along with carolers in the lobby of the circa 1889 Hotel Jerome.) Fervent skiers can hop on the Little Nell Powder Cat to explore the fluffy-snow-topped back bowls of Aspen before climbing aboard a sleigh ride into the alpine splendor to dine on roasted Boulder chicken with chive mashed potatoes and Rocky Mountain elk chops in rosemary cabernet sauce at Ashcroft Pine Creek Cookhouse.

Editor’s Note: Due to varying local and state regulations surrounding Covid-19, confirm all travel plans before booking.

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