PHOTO:COURTESY OF BILTMORE
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Holiday decor in full bloom at Biltmore in Asheville, North Carolina.
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Where to Find Festive Fun |
Since his Christmas classic first hit airwaves in 1954, Perry Como’s mellow baritone has reminded us “there’s no place like home for the holidays.” And while the crooner makes a solid argument, there are some towns that just do the holidays better than others. From a horsey hamlet in the hills of Northern Virginia to a historic Texas Hill Country community, here are seven of them in the South.
—Contributing editor Elizabeth Hutchison Hicklin
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MORE SEASONAL TRAVEL STORIES |
Weird and Wonderful Holiday Events
Around the South |
Holly Dolly Christmas: Helen Ellis Visits
Dolly Parton’s Theme Park |
The Very First Christmas at Biltmore |
The Christmas Legacy of
Roanoke’s Mill Mountain Star
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Skating at THE RINK presented by UNC Health.
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EAT, DRINK, AND BE MERRY AND BRIGHT: You know what tastes great after strapping on ice skates for a spin at THE RINK at Red Hat Amphitheater in Raleigh, North Carolina? A warm bowl of the city’s most cherished comfort food dish: macaroni au gratin from Poole’s Diner. More perfect pairings around the City of Oaks: Treat yourself to a performance of Theatre In The Park’s A Christmas Carol (December 8–10) and a good-for-all-seasons platter of barbecue from Sam Jones BBQ Raleigh, Prime Barbecue, or Aviator SmokeHouse. Before gazing at larger-than-life displays at the North Carolina Chinese Lantern Festival in nearby Cary, fill up on locally sourced fare at Lucky 32 Southern Kitchen. Finally, stroll through downtown Raleigh to see more than a dozen large-scale, interactive light-based art pieces on the Illuminate Art Walk, and end the night with dessert and a cocktail at Bittersweet. Plan your holiday getaway to Raleigh.
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Waco, Texas. It isn’t the most convenient place for a weekend visit—Waco is a couple of hours’ drive, with traffic, from airports in either Dallas or Austin. But a brief work trip called me there, and I carved out some free time to explore. It had been at least three decades since I’d last visited, and whatever had existed before was gone. A city that once seemed a little surly and shadowy was now cheerful and bright, and a playground for the young and creative. Here are a few highlights:
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Wet your whistle. “Texas Single Malt” is a phrase that may seem a bit jarring, but give it a couple of years. Balcones Distilling, which just celebrated its fifteenth anniversary, is one of a handful of Texas distilleries now focusing on a style of whiskey more typically associated with Scotland. After a distillery tour, I headed a few blocks away to slake my thirst at the J.S. Barnett’s Whiskey House, which has some 1,200 whiskeys on offer, from which you can build your own Texas roundup.
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Who’s a Pepper? Waco will rarely let you forget that this is where Dr Pepper was first concocted and sold. Especially at the Dr Pepper Museum, a sprawling complex located in the 1906 Artesian Manufacturing and Bottling Company Building, where the beverage took wing. The exhibits harken back to the days when bubbly waters were curative, then bring you right up to today. A soda fountain for sampling concludes the tour.
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Waco River Walk. I snuck away from work for a few hours one afternoon to explore the Waco River Walk along the Brazos River. It’s a quiet and grassy oasis and is home to the Waco Suspension Bridge, built in 1870 with cables from the same company that would a decade later build the Brooklyn Bridge. I watched a lovely double rainbow form, with one end landing in Baylor University’s McLane Stadium, which triggered a conversation with a passerby about how surely this meant good luck for the following day’s game. (It didn’t. Baylor lost to Iowa State 30–18.)
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