Welcome back to my Newlyweds Travel series! If you saw my first travel post you'll know that Pigeon Forge, TN stole our hearts on our Honeymoon but we didn't know at the time we would be back in just 6 short months. A series of both fortunate & unfortunate events lined up perfectly that led us back to the Great Smokey Mountains in November.
The Backstory
When we got married and began discussing what we should do to celebrate birthdays & holidays I requested that instead of presents I would like quality time outings for my birthday and "presents." So we began planning a birthday trip. We decided the trip would be the beginning of Thanksgiving week (even though my birthday is at the beginning of the month) since we could take less vacation days off work. In the first round of planning we considered places like New Orleans, LA & Savannah, GA for a weekend trip. After some friends of ours spoke so highly about cruises we began to look into a Carnival Cruise since they opened a new port in Mobile, AL. The timing for the cruises didn't work out so we moved on to round three. During our Honeymoon we had done a timeshare tour and were "gifted" a "free" stay at one of the participating hotels. The limitations on this were so strict that basically the only option was a beach location, which I wasn't too thrilled about for the end of November, plus it turned out it wouldn't actually be a free stay. So my husband suggested that we venture back to Pigeon Forge, TN.
A key component of this story is my love of the Christmas season. I love the magic, the decorations, the time spent with family, and the list goes on. During our honeymoon we spent a lot of time exploring The Incredible Christmas Place , the largest Christmas shopping village in the South. There's an ornament shop where you can get any ornament personalized by an "elf" on staff, a candy shop that serves fudge and all kinds of Christmas treats, and in the main shop every room is a different Christmas theme. In short, it's my happy place. Just across the street from the shopping village is The Inn at Christmas Place, a resort hotel where it's Christmas all year long. You can have breakfast with Santa or Frosty, cookies are served every night at 8:00 pm, and there's a Christmas tree in every room. It is perfectly themed and every little nook and cranny was decorated with the most beautiful decorations.
Flip through to see the entire Christmas Place Album.
Christmas in the Smokie's
As I mentioned in my previous blog, Pigeon Forge, TN is nestled in the foothills of the Great Smoky Mountains. Christmas in the Smokies is unlike anywhere else I have experienced Christmas. It just has that little touch of extra magic. The light displays are larger than life. My favorite display was along the main road as you enter Pigeon Forge from Gatlinberg where the twelve days of Christmas each had it's own light display. The dinner shows are also transformed from their normal themes to incorporate Christmas. On this trip we saw both Dolly Parton's Lumberjack Christmas Show and Dolly Parton's Christmas at Dixie Stampede.
The first photo is borrowed from the official Dixie Stampede website. Flip through to see the images I took at the shows.
Most of our trip was spent taking in the Christmas season but we also made time to visit the interactive Titanic Museum. When you purchase your tickets you are given a profile from one of the real Titanic passengers, at the end there is a room with the passenger manifest and you will find out the fate of your passenger. The first few rooms of the tour are filled with artifacts and pictures but then you are transported by the grand stair case to replicated ship rooms. You can touch a real iceberg, experience the slope of the ship as it sank and hear stories from survivors. Reading the stories of the passengers was a really moving and sobering experience.
Helen survived her voyage but Stanley did not.
The Great Smokey Mountains
On this trip I was brave enough to take a sky tour on the Gatlinburg Sky Lift. The views were breathtaking, but as someone who is afraid of heights I think I'll stick to The Great Smoky Mountain Wheel during future trips. We had hoped to do some amateur skiing at Ober Gatlinburg but the temps were not quite low enough for the slopes to be open.
Christmas Vacations
This holiday trip planted a seed for future holiday travels. To me, the best part of the holiday season, is spending time with family, and vacationing together with my husband is truly one of my favorite things we do as a couple. We spent the first part of Thanksgiving week celebrating Christmas in the Smokies and then made the journey back to Alabama to spend time with family on Thanksgiving day. If you are looking for a weekend getaway, or want to spend a week in a cabin, travel to the Smokies you won't be disappointed.
Where will we spend our next Christmas Vacation?
