Each December I enjoy walking around downtown Austin to take photographs for my annual O Christmas Tree blog entry. This year it seems appropriate that local merchant, Toy Joy, also has an entry featuring their wildly-decorated trees.
This year’s Trail of Lights was bigger and better than ever, with more food, more music, more days, more crowds, and, most importantly, more lights!
“Classic Movies” was the theme for this year’s Holiday Window Walk in Austin’s 2nd Street District. Theater design students from St. Edwards University and Texas State University decorated storefront windows in our neighborhood with scenes from famous movies. The students competed for several scholarships which were awarded in mid-December. See if you can guess the winners…
O Christmas Tree, O Christmas Tree
Of all the trees most lovely.
Each year you bring to me delight
Gleaming in the Christmas night.
O Christmas Tree, O Christmas Tree
Of all the trees most lovely.
Texas State Capitol Grounds
If you are visiting downtown Austin in the next few weeks, I’d recommend a quick visit to The Driskill. A special attraction this year is a gingerbread replica of the hotel itself. Gingerbread and icing are quite compatible with the tan and white exterior of this historic hotel. The gingerbread hotel is also decorated with wreaths, poinsettias, and a huge Christmas tree inside.
“Then the Grinch thought of something he hadn’t before! What if Christmas, he thought, doesn’t come from a store. What if Christmas…perhaps…means a little bit more!” —Dr. Seuss, How the Grinch Stole Christmas!
Last Saturday morning, large crowds lined both sides of Congress Avenue to watch the annual Chuy’s Christmas Parade. Continuing a tradition started 25 years ago, toys were collected for the Operation Blue Santa Program. About 30 minutes after starting, the entire parade was stopped while children piled up their toy donations on vehicles that were scattered throughout the lineup.
The 24th annual Feast of Sharing took place at the Palmer Events Center on the Tuesday before Thanksgiving. As in previous years, this free dinner was organized by Texas grocery chain, H-E-B.
The HOPE Outdoor Gallery is not your typical art exhibition. Besides being completely outside, the gallery is three stories high, the canvas is concrete, spray paint is involved… and the artists destroy each others’ work.
