Christmas at Van Dusen Gardens

If you like Christmas lights (and really, who doesn't!?), Van Dusen Gardens do a magnificent show. We had attended with my siblings quite a few years ago but this year it was something I desperately wanted to see.

Be prepared for a parking nightmare. And - word to the wise - take the time to feed your children before you go or you may have some grumpy children to contend with.

Not, you know, that I would know anything about that :)

I didn't get any pictures of it, but there was a gnome show - two men in gnome costumes doing a musical comedy act. I do believe this was the highlight of the evening for the kids. They made us watch it twice!

Santa Claus is there as well, (although if it was the Santa we saw wandering around, you might want to give me a call. My Santa suit is much better quality than his was). And there's a few other things going on as well. Oh, and food.

Many, many photo opportunities as well.

Andrew used all his time off coming to Switzerland, so he's got to work over Christmas break.  Being the crazy Christmas person that I am, I've made a calendar and marked everything we want to do over Christmas on the calendar (and in case you're wondering, that's working really well for us, thank you!)

I made a list of everything and asked Andrew to choose which activities he wanted to be part of and which he didn't care about.

Sunday night we were going to Stanley Park to ride the Christmas Train, however the online sales were already sold out. So after much agonizing between me and Kandace, we decided to go to Van Dusen instead. We bought those tickets online and were able to bypass the line up which stretched hundreds long. Word to the wise - if you find yourself in the line up log on to your phone and buy your tickets online and you can show the code at the gate and bypass the lineup too.

Another tip, don't bring up the fact that there's a lego room unless you're willing to go there immediately and spend the rest of the evening there.

 In retrospect, maybe we should have gone there first. And then done the lights. I'm not sure.

See those lit tulips below? Water bottles cut and then mounted on a stick, with a light so that they look like flowers.

That's one of the things I really enjoyed about the light display, it wasn't just strings of lights. There were wire cages with bunches of light in them. Sounds silly, but the effect was beautiful.

The tree with red umbrellas. This was outside what I'm going to call the fireside room. Vancouver Public Library had set up in there and were doing story time for the children. Small children and big children alike seemed to enjoy it.

Finally, the lego room.

And this is my favorite part. By the lake, they do a light display set to music. It's gorgeous. We watched it twice.

And all in all it was a wonderful evening.

Christmas in Vancouver

I have wanted to go to the Vancouver Christmas Market for a couple of years. The stars finally aligned  and we headed down there yesterday.

If you buy your tickets online, they're good all season. Which is only till Christmas Eve, but you know. Info  you might like to know :)

So, the VCM is set up in the square by the Queen Elisabeth Theatre. There's a ton of little cedar sheds, and loads of food vendors. Another piece of information: lots of boozy vendors. It is a German market after all.

There's also a Christmas Carousel. We love carousels!

The Haribou Bear was there giving out samples of Haribou gummies.

Thank you Haribou bear!

So,  my recommendations for if you come - bring lots of money and go hungry.

They advertise children's crafts, but they all cost money.

(Thanks, little photo bomber!)

This was my favorite stall.

David got a pretzel. He as slightly happy about it.

They also have a little market there - with all kinds of traditional toys and ornaments. You can't take pictures in there, but that part was pretty interesting.

Moving on...we didn't spend much time at the market, so we decided to walk down to the conference centre to check out Christmas at Canada Place.


We had to take a picture in front of the library.

And by the bull. The kids were super impressed about that one :)

Vancouver is really pretty.

We arrived at Canada Place where there were FREE crafts, the Woodwards window displays, and Christmas Tree Alley.

The kids coloured.

So we took selfies.

Then we went outside and met with Salty the Sea Gull.

We looked at the window displays. They're my favorite.

And the kids watched Frosty the Snowman in Rudolph's Theatre, so I took pictures.

Then we walked down to the Craft tent, so I took pictures of the window displays.

The reindeer was a little creepy.

The Seaspan tree.

The kids made Santa beards.

And Reindeer hats. The volunteers were amazing.