A Philadelphia Christmas Story

With only two weekends before Christmas Eve, Bf and I are on the hunt for all things Christmasy. Well mostly me and Bf is a really good sport. But I think he's starting to love it  too :)

This is what is on our agenda:
Christmas shopping in Rittenhouse
A Longwood Christmas
Pennsylvania Ballet's The Nutcracker
Christmas Village at LOVE Park
Christmas lights in Rittenhouse Square
Reading Terminal holiday railroad display
Christmas movie day
Driving around to see the suburban Christmas lights
Christmas cookie baking
Getting snowed in together?

I know it's a long list, but we're pretty serious about making the most of the season. We filled the weekend up to the brim with shopping, eating, and lots of lights. I decided to take pictures of holiday inspiration as we passed it by.

Do you think they have a red door just for the holidays?

The Morris Hotel is in the spirit!

Last night we had dinner in Rittenhouse and then took the route through the park to get to Barnes and Noble. The park was all lit up and full of tourists posing for holiday pictures. We snapped a few and then ducked into B&N to browse the books and get a few present ideas!

First up today was coffee and Reading Terminal Market to see the railroad display. For some reason I was picturing a train running over our heads but found out it was standing still in a case. Either way it was cool to see an old train collection with our city as the backdrop.

Then we moved onto Christmas shopping in Center City where checked a few people off our lists.

This guy was playing "Silver Bells" outside of Macy's, which really made it feel like Christmas.

Then we headed over to Christmas Village at LOVE Park and picked up a few handmade things. We both got personalized ornaments and took some great pictures of the scenery.

Is it real?

But the most wonderful part of our day was our trip to Longwood Gardens in Kennett Square. On our way we stopped for dinner at Bistro on the Brandywine. A little wine and a good steak was just what I needed to fuel up for a night of walking in the cold. I really didn't know what to expect since it is a garden and it's December but I was pleasantly surprised. Right from the start I was impressed with the display. There was a fountain show which included colored water dancing along to Christmas music. The park was lined with lit Christmas trees, lighting the pathway through the garden. When we got to  the conservatory we warmed up a bit and wound our way through extremely beautiful lights, flowers, and trees. I want to have attend a Christmas party there - talk about festive! When we got thrown back out into the cold we stopped for some gingerbread hot chocolate. Yum! It was the perfect pairing for this Christmas night. Here is a sampling of the many, many pictures I took tonight.