Through 12/23
Going “downtown” for the holidays used to be a big deal in cities big and small, back in the heyday of department stores with big display windows. During the holiday season, they’d be filled with fantasies: piles of toys, miniature trains, North Pole scenes, luxurious gowns, tiny snow-covered villages resembling Thomas Kincaid villages where urban dwellers may have briefly dreamed of living before boredom set in. And after oohing and aahing at these scenes, you’d go up to the “tea room” or in-store restaurant for some belly-warming food. (The Walnut Room at the former Marshall Fields in Chicago, with its giant, multistory tree, still exists and reservations are all booked.)
Those days are long gone. But Tours of Cleveland’s Downtown Cleveland Christmas Walking Tour will share stories of those holidays past and point out the locations where they occurred: the now-gone department stores along Euclid Avenue such as Higbee’s, Halle Bros and Sterling-Lindner, which all had their distinctive beloved holiday traditions.
The hour-and-a-half tours start at holiday-adorned Public Square, where you can catch a strong whiff of that nostalgic vibe. Tours take place Tuesdays through Sundays @ 6pm, with an additional 4pm tour Friday-Sunday, through December 23. Reservations are a must. Go here.
Cleveland, OH 44114