Provo, UT

We took down our Christmas tree today but weren’t quite ready to let go of the holiday spirit, so my family headed over to see Ogden City’s Christmas Village, located on historic 25th Street and Washington Blvd. This is another one of those things that I always meant to do and kept putting off until “next year”. Well, I’m so glad we went! It felt like Christmas Day all over again.

I didn’t count, but I would guess there are at least 50 cottages (including a replica of Union Station), each one about eight to ten feet tall, if not taller. Each one has a different theme and is sponsored by a local business. I was so surprised how many houses there were, how beautifully decorated and unique each one was. Holiday music was playing, snow was on the ground, and there were tons of people strolling through the village. It was an unexpected, magical winter wonderland.

One of my favorite cottages had a display that told the story of the Christmas spiders, which I’d never heard before: In a tiny German village, a woman was cleaning her house for Christmas. As she finished sweeping she came across three little spiders, and put them in the attic so they wouldn’t leave dusty webs as they crawled around. After everyone went to bed on Christmas Eve, the curious spiders crept downstairs and crawled all over the tree to see each ornament up close, leaving behind beautifully spun webs. Santa knew, however, that the lady of the house would be upset to see spider webs all over the tree, so he transformed the webs into beautiful strands of silver—thus giving us tinsel!

We browsed around for about an hour, strolling down “Rudolph Way” and “Icicle Path”, charmed by the creativity of each Christmas cottage. We could have stayed even longer if we’d had a cup of hot chocolate and snow boots (the paths are cleared but it’s still pretty snowy and slushy). I wish we’d gone before Christmas, because when I checked Ogden City’s website I realized just how many activities there had been in conjunction with the Christmas Village earlier in the season: visits and photos with Santa, a parade, live music, and a snowman building contest to name just a few.

The Christmas Village cottages are lit each night from 5 p.m. to midnight until January 1, 2009. Admission is free. This winter or next, definitely put this on your Christmas list of things to do!