The Ultimate STL Christmas Bucket List

Winter in St. Louis is such a special time! It is truly magical. Here is a list of our family favorites over the years, plus some new ones!

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Jingle St. Louis

This new addition to the holiday celebration in St. Louis is going to be epic! From ice skating to snow tubing on real snow to a sing-along piano bar to Santa Claus, there is something for everyone.

 

Website: https://www.jingleholiday.com/stl 

Dates: November 22- December 31

Where: CarShield Field, O’Fallon, MO

Photo Credit: Jingle St. Louis

Garden Glow at the Missouri Botanical Garden

This is one of our favorite walk throughs! This has over 2 million lights throughout the gardens. I think our favorite section is the Central Axis across from the Climatron where the trees are synchronized to music! The unique display along the Tower Grove house is amazing too. 

 

Get your photo with Santa Claus on Mondays & Tuesdays from November 18- December 10 from 5-9pm (included with Garden Glow admission). New this year, Ana and Elsa will be here on select Thursday evenings!

 

Website: https://www.missouribotanicalgarden.org/events-classes/signature-events/garden-glow 

Dates: November 16- January 4 (member preview is November 15)

The Weirdly Wonderful Holidays at the City Museum

The Weirdly Wonderful Holidays in included with general admission and there are lots of lights, visits with Santa (4th floor, outside of Art City) and story time with Mrs. Claus (4th floor, Sullivan Gallery). There will be Holiday Karaoke (3rd floor) and special eats and drinks too! 

 

Website: https://citymuseum.org/event/ww-holidays/ 

Dates: November 29-December 24

Winterfest through Gateway Arch Park

Free festival at Kiener Plaza featuring live music, reindeer and ice skating (charge for ice skating rental). There are s’mores stations and igloos for rent, all underneath 100,000 twinkling lights. There are events throughout the six weeks, such as hockey, princess and superhero visits and a family-friendly New Year’s Eve celebration. 

 

Website: https://www.archpark.org/events/winterfest 

Dates: November 23- December 31

STL Brewery Lights at Anheuser Busch

General Admission tickets include brewery tours, light show, Clydesdale parade and more! More than 1 million lights! Guests over 21 years old can have a complimentary beer and there is free park on a first come, first served basis. Ages 5 and under enter for free! 

 

Website: https://www.budweisertours.com/brewerylights#id=brewery-lights-2024-st-louis 

Dates: November 22- December 30

Polar Express at Union Station STL

This is just magical! Take a train ride to the North pole and get to meet Santa! The train ride has lights along the way too! This year is the 20th anniversary of Polar Express. There are different train car tiers and there are multiple sensory-friendly experiences on select nights. 

 

Website: https://www.stlpolarexpressride.com/the-polar-express-train-ride- 

Dates: November 15- December 30

Wild Lights at the Zoo

Walk through the Zoo and take in over 1 million lights with festive menus and Zoo attractions! 

Included with admission: Penguin and puffin coast, Sea Lion Tunnel, 4D Theater (showing “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer”), take-home craft for kids and parking!

 

Website: https://stlzoo.org/events/wild-lights

Dates: November 29- December 29

Candy Cane Lane

Every November, the 6500 Murdoch Avenue block becomes Candy Cane Lane! Buy some Ted Drewes one block away and walk (or drive) along the lights. I just love watching this neighborhood transform!

Grant’s Farm Holiday Lights

Walk through light displays, drive through holiday lights and reserve a fire pit for s’mores. Take a tram ride to see even more lights and listen to Christmas carolers! They also have Breakfast with Santa and Mrs. Claus on select days. We haven’t done this yet, but I’ve heard great things. 

 

Website: https://grantsfarm.com/holiday-lights/ 

Dates: November 23- December 30

Christmas in St. Louis at the WWT Raceway

Huge synchronized LED light show with over one million lights! You get to actually ride throughout the race track too, which is so cool!! Open nightly, including holidays. 

 

Website: https://www.wonderlightschristmas.com/st-louis

Dates: November 15- January 5

Christmas Traditions in Historic Main Street St. Charles

Walk along Main Street St. Charles and see historic characters dressed up singing and acting. The shops are all decorated and my kids love collecting the character cards! This year marks 50 seasons of the Christmas traditions!! 

 

Website: https://www.discoverstcharles.com/events/christmas-traditions/ 

Dates: November 29- December 24 (select dates and times)

Free Mini Train Ride

Located at 4008 Healy Ct, St. Louis!

Kids under 100lbs are welcome to take train rides in this front yard on one of the two trains. My kids love this!!

The Magic House

We love visiting the Magic House year round, but especially at Christmas. We love the Breakfast with Santa event, as well as storytime with Mrs. Claus. The holiday decorations are so fun to look at while taking in all the fun exhibits. 

 

Website: https://www.magichouse.org/events-programs/breakfast-with-santa/

Dates: Breakfast with Santa is Dec 8, 15, 22

The Fabulous Fox Theatre

Is there any place better than the Fox during the Christmas season?! 

 

Website: https://www.fabulousfox.com/events 

 

Here are some upcoming holiday shows and great family-friendly options:

Straight No Chaser: December 19

A Magical Cirque Christmas: December 20

Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer: December 21

Nutcracker! Magical Christmas Ballet: December 22

Dr. Seuss’ How the Grinch Stole Christmas! The Musical: December 27-29

Winter Wonderland

Winter Wonderland is a staple here in St. Louis! Located at Tilles Park, this has been a tradition since 1987. Open nightly from 5-9pm and only drive-through (closed on December 24). 

 

Website:https://www.metrotix.com/events/detail/winter-wonderland-vehicle-pass 

Dates: November 27- December 30

I wish you and your family such a wonderful holiday!! 

Happy exploring!

A Weekend in Springfield, Missouri!

We traveled to Springfield, Missouri for the weekend. Being just 3 hours from St. Louis, this was a perfect distance for a family-friendly weekend trip! I’ve compiled our favorite activities, hikes and restaurants below. We really enjoyed visiting Springfield, MO and we are looking forward to another trip there soon! 

Snapshot of our weekend:

Friday: 

  • Drove down from St. Louis (3 hours)
  • Checked into our hotel (Tru Hotel)
  • Dinner at Black Sheep Burgers
  • Walked around downtown to view their murals

Saturday:

  • Gailey’s Breakfast Cafe
  • Springfield Conservation Nature Center (Boardwalk trail)
  • Smallin Civil War Cave
  • Discovery Center
  • Cider Days on Historic Walnut Street (and grabbed lunch here)
  • Hitsory Museum on the Square
  • Treats at Modern Sips Acai Bar
  • Dinner at Pappos Pizza
  • Wizard of Oz at Springfield Little Theatre

Sunday:

  • Mass at St. Agnes Cathedral
  • Breakfast at Aviary Cafe
  • Bass Pro Shop
  • Springfield Botanical Garden
  • Giant Hamburg’s for lunch
  • Dickerson Park Zoo
  • Fantastic Caverns
  • Drive back to St. Louis!

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Smallin Civil War Cave

Smallin Civil War Cave was used by ancient Native Americans. Arrowheads found here date back to 9000 years ago! Later, both Union and Confederate soldiers used the cave to hide Civil War supplies. It was also a common spot for soldiers to cool off while the Company H Union Camp was being built close by. This was a paved trail into the cave and the guided tour was a little over one hour. We saw 8 cave salamanders, 11 leopard frogs and 1 blind bristly cave crayfish! This was our family’s first time seeing the frogs and crayfish inside of a cave, so we were excited!! 

Springfield Conservation Nature Trail

We loved exploring this nature trail and conservation center! The center is free and there are fun nature-themed exhibits, as well as reptiles to view! We hiked on the Boardwalk trail (blue trail marker), which was so lovely! It was a nice walk through the woods with a beautiful boardwalk over the water. The trails here are family-friendly, for example, this trail was just .4 miles. 

Discovery Center

Discovery Center in Springfield is a non-profit organization and such a great science and children’s museum. It is all community supported and their mission is to inspire a lifelong love of learning. Our favorites here were digging fossils at the dinosaur exhibit, story time from space and working at the grocery store! There were also water tables, a cloud machine and so much more!

Cider Days

We loved walking along Historic Walnut Street to experience Cider Days! There were many stands set up to view art, shop and grab food…of course yummy apple cider! There were several stages set up on the street with musical performances going throughout the day. Check out Visit Springfield’s website to view future events and festivals. 

Fantastic Caverns

This was such a neat experience! Fantastic Caverns is one of the only complete drive-through caves in North America! This cave was accidentally discovered by a dog! The dog was lost, so the dog’s owner started looking for him. To the owner’s surprise, the dog had found a cave! We loved this guided tour to learn more about Missouri.

Dickerson Park Zoo

Dickerson Park Zoo is AZA certified, just like our St. Louis Zoo. We loved feeding the giraffes, who were SO friendly and came right up to us! My kids also loved feeding the goats and riding the train. My kids were in awe of the many peacocks walking around the zoo too!

Springfield Botanical Gardens

The Springfield Botanical Gardens located at Nathanael Greene/Close Memorial Park are FREE! There are dozens of themed gardens and it connects to the South Creek Greenway. There is a main playground behind the Botanical Garden’s Visitor’s Center, but if you walk along the trail around the lake, there are 5 mini playgrounds, called playpods. They are small, nature-themed playgrounds right along the trail. There are also fun facts listed at each playground based on that theme. We walked to the tree and leaf playpods and had a great time!

History Museum on the Square

This is a great local museum that explores the area’s history through a variety of permanent and temporary exhibits. Because Springfield is the official birthplace of Route 66, they have a wonderful exhibit. My girls loved sitting in one of the classic cars! They also had signs throughout the exhibits saying “please touch” which was SO cool and so inviting. Some highlights were walking into a teepee and staying warm by the pretend fire or driving through time on a trolley!

Springfield Little Theatre

Mark took our older daughters to see Wizard of Oz one evening. It was a great show, very family-friendly and it had the most aerials that our family had ever seen. There was fake snow and they shot out streamers too! After the show, they got invited up to the stage for a picture with the cast! Check out the rest of their season here!

Lodging

We stayed at Tru hotel, which was in downtown Springfield. It was in walking distance to restaurants, which was so great! We had a connecting room with one King bed in one room and 2 Queen beds in the other room. There was a pool and a great lobby (all decorated for Halloween)!

Overall, we had the BEST time here as a family. There was a great mix of indoors and outdoor activities, and we loved exploring more of this area. We can’t wait to come back!

Top 5 Family Nature Activities

Camping as a family is my favorite family activity. It really encourages us to have time focused on each other, by removing other distractions we may have at home. 

Here are five fun nature activities to do as a family, and they are quick and easy to bring along on a camping trip. 

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We camped in our new tent from White Duck Outdoors! We love it.

Nature Bracelet

Take masking tape and attach it to a child’s wrist inside out (so sticky side out). 

Explore the trail together and pick leaves, berries or flowers to stick on the tape. My kids love creating patterns on their bracelets or try to create a bracelet all green or all red, depending on the season we are in. 

Have fun creating a nature bracelet! You can even put another piece of tape on the bracelet to “laminate” it. 

Paint Sample Scavenger Hunt

We went to Home Depot and picked out paint samples that are in the color of nature. I like to choose greens, browns, tans (or reds and oranges in fall). 

Next, I took a hole puncher and punched holes in the paint sample sheets. 

My kids enjoy looking through the holes in the samples to match different shades of color in nature. They also like to place the paint samples on the ground and find leaves or items in nature and lay them on the paint colors. 

This is such a fun activity, especially with the changing colors of the seasons!

Leaf Animals

With it now being fall, there are plenty of leaves around to make art! We love looking for all different shapes and colors. We love searching the trails or campground collecting leaves and then come back to our tarp and try to make animals, like elephants, bears, lions or turtles. 

I did a Google search for “leaf animals” and then printed out some ideas for inspiration for my kids. I think it helped them to visualize some animals before creating their own. 

Credit: blog.teacollection.com

Leaf Bookmarks

My husband gave me a laminator one year for Christmas and it has been the best gift over the years with the amount of time we have spent using it! My laminator is lightweight and easy to bring on camping trips. On our most recent camping trip, we made leaf bookmarks! My kids picked leaves and flowers that stood out to them, then rearranged them on the laminating sheet. We have also laminated leaves, cut them off and created a leaf garland!

Campfire Orange Cinnamon Roll Recipe

This was a big hit on our most recent camping trip! We hollowed out oranges and filled them with cinnamon roll dough. Then, we wrapped the orange in tin foil and placed it next to the campfire. We kept it there for 5 minutes and rotated the orange for another 5 minutes until the cinnamon roll was fully cooked. The cinnamon roll has some flavor of orange and is so tasty!

A little more about our new tent: We have the 16.5′ Avalon Bell Tent through White Duck Outdoors. The first time we saw this tent was in 2022 at a local state park. It was November and we were staying in a cabin. But, we watched in awe as a family set up their White Duck Outdoors tent and even put up a woodburning stove in there! We asked for a peek inside and were completely enamored with these tents. We are over the moon to have one of own now. We camped with it for the first time this past weekend and just LOVE it. It is durable, spacious and has great height to easily stand up and walk around. We are excited to do winter camping next with the woodburning stove! 

Camping and being outside in nature really is such a blast and a great way to build more family memories. What are your favorite fall activities? 
 
Happy exploring!

A Weekend in Murphysboro

Just 2 hours from St. Louis is a complete hidden gem! Not only is Murphysboro surrounded by beautiful family-friendly hiking trails, but their food scene is nationally recognized. We had such a wonderful time exploring this area that was new-to-us. 

Here is our weekend itinerary from our visit. As a reference, my kids are 7yo, 5yo, 3yo and 9 months old. 

Where we stayed: 

Holiday Inn Express & Suites at Murphysboro

Address: 120 Muddy Monster Road, Murphysboro, IL 62966

We stayed in a Queen Suite room that had two Queen beds and a pull-out couch. Free breakfast and free chocolate chip cookies when you check in! There was also a nice indoor swimming pool and workout center. Note: make sure to bring a pack n’ play if you need one. There was plenty of space in our room to fit our portable crib!

Day 1:

We left our house after lunch and drove past Murphysboro to explore a state park that has been on our list for ages. 

Stop 1: Ferne Clyffe State Park

Address:  Rte. #37, Goreville, IL 62939

This park has been on our list for ages! The rock formations and shelter caves, it started to rain. We had heard that the Big Rocky Hollow Trail has a waterfall when there is a lot of rain. It was .3 miles to the waterfall on a flat and on a wide path…and the waterfall was flowing! We were blown away by this beautiful area. There was a side trail off to the left as you are walking towards the waterfall. If you keep following this trail up the bluffs, it will take you right behind the falls. 

Stop 2: Dinner at 17th Street BBQ

Address:  32 N. 17th St., Murphysboro, IL 62966

Murphysboro was proclaimed the “Barbecue Capital of Illinois” by the State Legislature in 2014. There is just so much history here, thanks to Mike Mills. Mike was inducted into the Barbecue Hall of Fame in 2020 and has won world recognition. We went there for dinner and have never had a better barbecue dinner. Period. Those ribs are life-changing!! I’m still dreaming about the loaded potato skins with brisket! They make their own root beer here with honey, which is delicious. 

Mike’s daughter, Amy Mills, and her trusted crew continue to build the legacy and carry on Mike’s work. Amy opened a barbecue sauce factory around the corner from 17th Street. She also opened Faye’s Cafe two years ago (named after Mike’s mom and Amy’s grandma). I think this food legacy really added to our experience in Murphysboro!

Day 2: 

Stop 1: Faye’s Cafe

This cafe is located inside of the oldest car dealership in town, and I just love the renovations that give nods to the automotive industry throughout the design. There are coffee, breakfast, lunch and gourmet grocery items all under one roof! We loved sitting outside around the fire pits in the nice patio area. My favorite menu item was the Eggs Benedict with brisket (from the 17th Street Barbecue). My girls’ favorite item was the homemade French toast sticks!

Stop 2: Pomona Natural Bridge

Address: Natural Bridge Rd, Pomona, IL 62975

This trail is just .3 miles from the scenic natural bridge. I think that it is SO cool how you actually walk across the bridge on this trail before you climb underneath the 90 foot long formation. My kids loved walking under the bridge and looking for animal tracks. The trails in this area are so reasonable in length You don’t have to hike far to have some awesome views! After our hike, we ate lunch at a picnic table near the trailhead. We packed lunch with us from Faye’s (we had yummy BLT sandwiches and salads). No restrooms at this trailhead. 

Stop 3: Little Grand Canyon

Address: 346 Etherton Rd., Murphysboro, IL 62966

Just 20 minutes from the Pomona Natural Bridge is this beautiful trail and overlook. It is just 1.1 miles to a gorgeous view of the canyon. We rested at the bench while taking in the sight! From here, you can continue on the loop (where you go down into the canyon). We turned around and walked back the way we came. I really enjoyed this trail! There are restrooms at this trailhead. 

Stop 4: Milieur Orchard 

Address: 1-72 Mileur Orchard Rd., Murphysboro, IL 62966

Lisa and Howard own this beautiful orchard in Murphysboro. 3 generations of being an orchard! The land has been in their family since the 1850s. There is a U-Pick for apples at the end of this month! Lisa took us into their massive walk-in fridge where they store the apples and peaches. My girls also sat on their forklift! We left the orchard with peach ice cream, apple cider donuts, apple crisp, peach pie and fresh apples and peaches. Everything was delicious and so tasty! There is nothing like fresh fruit!

Stop 5: Scratch Brewing Company 

Address: 264 Thompson Road, 62907

We ate dinner at Scratch Brewery. They have a great beer selection (we had a flight of beers) along with wood-fired pizzas. 90% of their ingredients are grown and foraged on the land. There is seating indoors (which is filled with bright and interesting designs) and outdoor covered seating around the property. Just a heads up, arrive here earlier in the evening to avoid a longer wait. Order your food at the bar and then you will receive a buzzer to know when your food is ready. 

Day 3: 

Stop 1: Breakfast at Faye’s

Another wonderful breakfast here!! I just can’t say enough great things about this cafe and its food and vibe. Highly recommend!

Stop 2: Geocaching 

What a great and fun activity! We used the free geocaching app. There is a location right behind some rocks at the General Logan Museum (General Logan was born here in Murphysboro). We walked through the small butterfly garden and learned some more information on General Logan too. He fought for equal rights for African Americans, especially after the Civil War. He also created Memorial Day as a National holiday!

Stop 3: Mural Walk

We went on a fun mural walk around the downtown area! We drove by 9 murals ranging from General Logan to books to deer! You can scan the QR code by these paintings to learn more behind each art piece too. 

Stop 4: Kinkaid Lake Marina

Address: 2069 Marina Road, Murphysboro, IL 62966

We rented a pontoon boat at Kinkaid Lake through Lake Stride, which I recommend! Kory was great. This lake is just outside Murphysboro. It is 2750 acres in size, has a shoreline of 82 miles and has a maximum depth of 80 feet. The Northwest portion of the lake is a no wake zone, which was perfect for dropping our anchor and jumping in the lake! There are no houses around the lake, which makes it so peaceful! There are some great cliffs for cliff jumping into the lake too. 

Thank you Southern Illinois Tourism for having us! Between the epic family-friendly hikes and the great food scene, we quickly became big fans of Murphysboro. We had such a blast and we can’t wait to return!