Earlier this year, I shared that Mark and I took a visit to historic Williamsburg, VA, hosted by Visit Williamsburg. It was such a fun trip and we loved it! We had talked about coming back to see this beautiful city during the Christmas holidays and they made it happen by inviting us back. Only this time, I went back with some fellow blog ladies and we had a wonderful girls’ trip back to Williamsburg just to see the holiday sights. It was magnificent (if cold, brrr!), but we sure did see a lot of lights and Christmas festiveness. Come along for a recap of this fun trip, which ended up being during my birthday on December 6th. It was a very memorable 68th birthday for me this year.
We were hosted by Visit Williamsburg, but a blog post wasn’t part of our contract, so this is a bonus. Of course, I’m going to share the trip with all of you too!
{Meet my friends from L to R: Alison, Robin, me, Tonya} These girls are all fellow bloggers/influencers and it was fun to travel with them, some of them for the second time. We had fun talking shop, of course. We had so much fun together and enjoyed our time. We were hosted in the Kingsmill Resort in a cottage by the James River and that was perfect for our group.
What a view!
We had a great time seeing all the Christmas sights, from walking around historic Williamsburg to doing a Christmas Decorations tour.
Our first evening there, we took a stroll through Busch Gardens, where the lights were spectacular. We did ride the teacups ride and would have done more if it hadn’t been so cold. We were bundled up.
It sure was pretty though! Loved all the lights throughout the park.
We also did a revisit to the Art Museums of Colonial Williamsburg, where this magnificent tree was displayed inside. It was stunning with the beautiful metallic silver and gold stars hanging.
This museum is full of history and art, a must see in Williamsburg.
Photo op for our group.
It was a beautiful day out and we did a lot of walking around the historic village and Merchant’s Square shops.
The church on the main street in town, so pretty.
On our walking tour, we took the time to go inside one of the houses, the George Wythe house, that was open and it was so fun to see inside.
There was lots of wallpaper everywhere, but it was so beautiful to see.
Dining room with flocked wallpaper.
One of the best treats was seeing the natural decorations all through the historic area on the houses and shops. I have heard about this all my life and finally got to see it in person.
See the one in the middle with the apples and pineapple? That’s what I pictured in Williamsburg. One of my friends here in my town used to decorate her house like this above her front door. It’s gorgeous! All the beautiful fruit and natural materials was just outstanding.
There’s a magnificent lighting of the big tree at night at the Courthouse steps and we got in on that as well during dusk hours. There’s fife and drums corp, as well as carolers singing classic Christmas carols and a special reading of the Night Before Christmas
All that culminated in the countdown to lighting this stunning 40 foot spruce with over 7500 twinkling lights. Now that will get your Christmas spirit going!
Another beautiful tree in the Market Square shops area.
We also strolled the 40 vendor Christmas market set up in historic Williamsburg, perfect for the holiday season and finding special gifts.
There was even a fun photo op with Santa and we all took advantage of that.
Perfect for a girls trip, the shops of Merchants Square are fun to browse. Brick and Vine has a lot of beautiful Christmas decor, as well as home decor we enjoyed.
Like these beautiful Christmas plates, aren’t they gorgeous?
We all enjoyed browsing the shops and seeing all the goodies. We also did some shopping at Monkee’s of Williamsburg, a fabulous women’s boutique. I even bought myself a birthday present, a new dress on the sale rack!
Happy Birthday to me!
We also took an afternoon break for a wine tasting with Williamsburg Winery Tasting Room and we finished up our last evening with the tree lighting in Yorktown, which was also memorable. With a procession of the Fifes & Drums of Yorktown, as well as writing Christmas cards to our military service members, and another gorgeous Christmas tree lighting, it was such a wonderful Christmas trip for us to experience. We all came away with a sense of magical awe of the Christmas holidays in historic Williamsburg.
Of course, after experiencing all of the holiday cheer that Williamsburg has to offer, I would be remiss not to mention all the fabulous restaurants we had the pleasure of dining in. Our first night,we met up and went to Cochon on 2nd, a delightful American cuisine eatery and the perfect start to kicking off our holiday trip.
I’ll list all the restaurants we visited below, but for my birthday dinner, we were booked at Fat Canary’s downstairs, which was quite the treat. This restaurant is owned by the same family that owns The Cheese Shop, which if you’ve been to Williamsburg, you’re probably familiar with this iconic restaurant. It was delicious and what a fun birthday treat for me. In fact, I’d highly recommend going to Williamsburg for your birthday, it was so memorable for me!
We had such a delightful time on our visit to Williamsburg and I wanted to share our time and give you an idea of what all we did, in case you want to plan your own trip too.
Here are the restaurants we visited while there, they were all fantastic:
Breakfast: The Bake Shop | Culture Cafe (Brunch) | Hohl’s on our last morning before we headed home
Lunch: Blue Talon Bistro
Dinner: Cochon on 2nd | Giuseppe’s Italian | Fat Canary Downstairs
Related
Don’t Miss a Post, join my list!