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For the first time in years, my Christmas celebration took place outside of Cincinnati in yet another Queen City (there are about 30 in the United States): Charlotte, North Carolina. This is where my sister and her New England-born husband have lived for close to 30 years. Here’s a sample of where residents there celebrate the holidays:

1. Charlotte Christmas Village and Christkindlmarkt (Nov. 20 – Dec. 24, 2019): This Uptown Charlotte holiday event features a German/Austrian-themed market, Santa and all the Glühwein you can drink. The best part? Free admission!
2. Self-guided Holiday Walk: This 1.9 mile tour of Uptown Charlotte includes a bevy of Christmas-themed photo ops, starting with the Mint Museum Uptown (there are two Mint Museum locations), through Thomas Polk Park, The Square and Founders Hall, where the Leonard Bearstein Symphony Orchestra of terrifying animatronic bears performs on the hour.  
3. Holidays at the Garden (Nov. 29, 2019 – Jan. 5, 2020) at the Daniel Stowe Botanical Garden: Take a walk through the Mile of a Million Lights, which is much more doable than the Million Miles of Lights.
4. U.S. National Whitewater Center: Take a half mile stroll through an immersive outdoor art exhibit called “Lights” or ice skate on a 17,000 square foot rink. The USNWC has been open since 2006, with only one brain-eating amoeba incident on record.
5. Christmas Town USA (Dec. 2 – Dec. 26, 2019): Take a 30-minute drive to McAdenville, North Carolina, where you will find the second of the USA Today 10 Best Public Holiday Light Displays in the United States. Make a reservation for dinner at nearby Nellie’s Southern Kitchen in historic Belmont. It’s owned by the parents of the Jonas Brothers. We didn’t have a reservation and the wait was 1.5 hours, so we ended up at The String Bean, a Southern bistro and market just up the street.  For what it’s worth, Bentleyville, near Duluth, Minnesota, tops the list. But who has relatives in Duluth?
6. BONUS ROUND: There is a cute, very walkable little street street called Hillside in the Myers Park neighborhood where the houses are all decked out for the holidays. Stringing gigantic light balls way, way up in the old oak trees seems to be the thing to do.