Toronto Christmas Market - Distillery District

The Toronto Christmas Market opens the month of December.  It's inspired by the Old World and influenced by the new. It celebrates the sounds, sights and scents of Christmas. Set in the Victorian-era, cobblestone-lined Distillery Historic District, the Christmas Market brings together local craftspeople, musicians and artisanal food-makers for a truly festive experience. 

Relax sipping on mulled wine and European-style Christmas cocktails as you browse through the selection of hand-made ornaments, wood carvings and crafts. Then cozy up by the fire or listen to carollers and brass bands and check out authentic European dancers. Don’t forget to stop by the giant Christmas tree for your kodak moment (I know I'm showing my age here!).

Free admission Tuesday to Friday; $6.00 admission Friday evening, Saturday and Sunday. The Market is closed on Mondays.



The the Lowe's Christmas Market as it was christened is a great time for all ages, especially for the kids (which is what I think Christmas is really for anyways).  
You'll find on weekends, the crowds are over the top leaving little for wiggle room.  So if you can take some time off during the week, it may be easier to keep your eye on your kids. 
 
Every year the Market opens with the traditional Christmas tree lighting ceremony on the 22nd of November, there are Christmas carolers and dance performances, ferris wheel and a horse carousel and lots of lots of foodies. 










The kids will love activities like Santa’s House and the life-sized gingerbread house.   You will love the cold and warm brews in the beer gardens.  

A Christmas market, is known as Christkindlmarkt where it  originated in Germany and although they are held all over the world now, the basic feel to the market still remains in the Germanic theme with the street market associated with the celebration of Christmas during the first four weeks of Advent. This also will explain why Santa Claus has the appearance of wearing long robes rather than a red suit as they are keeping his attire akin to the Germanic Christmas traditions.

It's definitely worth a visit, whether you make it a part of your annual Christmas family time or just a one time visit. 

Happy 150 Years to Canada

Without the risk of jumping on the familiar band wagon and screeching Happy Canada Day in a crowd full of happy and drunken Torontonians or wherever these people are from, we all celebrated the sesquicentennial incoming with the question, "what's with the duck?"

But I was there to photograph it along with so many others trying to get that perfect shot, feeling stupid.  I even witnessed some man from Hong Kong yelling at his girlfriend for moving because he was looking for that perfect night shot of her profile in front of a giant yellow duck.  I had to laugh. 

Never before have I ever felt so stupid for being part of a 'once in a lifetime' moment.

Next up! Fireworks from the CN tower.  Are we all that spoiled that we are not fascinated by fireworks anymore?  I never heard an ooooh  or an ahhhhhh  from the crowd while these beautiful flowers of light were coming from the sides of the CN restaurant.  I did my best to take the shots as they came, but I couldn't help but feel a little bored of the colours of red.  My personal favorite is blue, so perhaps the hues of blue would have brought some more activity from my camera.

The final show was from the docks of the Asbridges Bay, where I had to chuckle as we all, as a crowd felt compelled to move and shuffle to a different direction to view because we didn't know where the fireworks were coming from.  Here's the best of the lot! :)