Tis the season of light: 2014

Ornaments await new homes in the Kathe Wohlfahrt booth at Baltimore’s Christmas Village.

NOTE FOR 2014 — I have rechecked all of these links for the 2014 holiday season and they are all on again. I hope you’ll have a chance to visit one of these wonderful places or visit a warm and bright place closer to your own home. I add my best wishes for a happy holiday season and a peace-filled 2015. 

Trees at the Brandywine River Museum are filled with handmade ornaments, all made entirely of natural materials.

These may be dark days meteorologically speaking but some of my favorite local attractions are experts at making the season bright. Some are perennial favorites:

• Brandywine River Museum, Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania
• Historic Homes of Odessa, Delaware
• Ice! & Christmas on the Potomac, National Harbor, Maryland
• Longwood Gardens, Kennett Square, Pennsylvania
• Yuletide at Winterthur, Wilmington, Delaware

Longwood Garden’s conservatories are filled with traditional poinsettias and a few more unusual blooms — all in festive hues.

And then there are the drive-through and walk through light displays that fill the night with magic:

• Symphony of Lights, Columbia, Maryland
• Lights on the Bay, Sandy Point State Park, Maryland (Scroll down the page for details)
• Winterfest of Lights, Ocean City, Maryland
• Garden in Lights at AnnMarie Garden Sculpture Park, Solomons, Maryland

The Symphony of Lights brightens Symphony Woods in Columbia, Maryland.

I have a new favorite this year: the Christmas Village in Baltimore’s Inner Harbor. Though not on the scale of the great European markets I loved in Paris and Aix-en-Provence, the lovely wares made my heart glad. The Christmas Market is also a part of celebrations in Washington, D.C. and Philadelphia.

I posted this original message on Christmas Eve. And then as now,  I want to wish my readers from around the world — that’s people from 105 countries (and every continent except Antarctica) so far — warm wishes in this holiday season and prayers for peace in 2015.

All the best to everyone who had read my posts in 2013 and 2014. Hope you have as much fun reading them as I’ve had writing them.

The Christmas Village in Baltimore’s Inner Harbor