This time of year, most every community in the U.S. hosts some kind of holiday lights spectacular, in small town squares and among glittering skyscrapers—and the moment that the tree lights are turned on provides an incredible experience of good cheer as the “ahhs” are audible. If your town has a railroad, there’s often a Polar Express ride through the night that thrills people of all ages, and many people put candles in their windows and decorate for Hanukkah, Kwanzaa and Christmas. It feels good to think about others as you pick out gifts or bake sweets—and this time of year can feel earnest and repair some of the year’s wrongs as we prepare to start a whole new year afresh.
With our feature of magical holiday events, we’ve tried to come up with some more out-of-the-ordinary ones, events specially curated to elicit a sense of magic… to help us find simple pleasure in being filled with wonder. Maybe it’s been a while since our eyes widened in surprise, since we felt the stirrings of awe—maybe our Grinchy hearts are starting to get bigger and our Scroogian workaholic natures need to be adjusted. It may sound like a cliché, but trying to see the world through a child’s eyes, surprised and delighted by so many things—even if it’s just the sound of sleighbells as a horse trots by, or the glow cast by a row of bulbs, or craning your head back to see the top of a towering tree—it’s worth it to let ourselves feel something bigger than ourselves.
