Cinci Christmas

In our continued quest to fully experience our first official Christmas as Cincinnatians (read about our first adventure here), my best friend and I journeyed to Fountain Square on Saturday night for the annual Macy's Downtown Dazzle in which Santa rappels down the side of the Macy's building.

It rained pretty much all evening, and we were uncertain about weather Santa would "fly" due to the weather, but we decided to brave the elements and go anyway. After all, Santa is only scheduled to appear on the roof of the building 3 times this month, so we didn't want to miss him.

We left with plenty of time to navigate all of the one-way streets and find parking downtown. When we emerged out of the parking garage, we were greeted by this lovely figure on Fountain Square:

And this majestic Macy's tree at the U.S. Bank Ice Rink:


But the best sight of all was Santa, Rudolph, and a little green elf rappelling down the side of the Macy's office building. They broadcast the action on a big screen above the square, which is what my BFF photographed in this shot:

Can you believe Rudolph is going down head-first? They were all little daredevils, doing flips and hanging upside down along the way, and it was a lot of fun to watch! When they reached the next rooftop, there was a big, spectacular fireworks show to end the night, even in the rain.

Afterward, we walked a block or so to the Hilton Cincinnati Netherland Plaza to see the gingerbread display, and a couple of blocks in the other direction to the Duke Energy Building for the model train display. And by that point we were rain-soaked and ready to leave for dinner at Frisch's in my neighborhood!

Despite the rain, a lot of people came out to see the show, and it felt really good to be part of a community in a big city. We also learned more about what the Central Business District has to offer and we plan to take part in the downtown hustle and bustle for a little Christmas shopping this week.

If you are in the area, I would highly encourage you to make your way downtown for these holiday events. Santa will make one more appearance on the roof of Macy's next Saturday, and the other sites last all month long. All of the links in this post contain information about each event, and they are all well worth the trip!

A special thanks to my dear friend for the use of her photos for this post (and this post)!