You might think that with all the sunshine around here, we don't really get in the holiday spirit. Not true! You can attend a holiday event nearly every day for six weeks somewhere in the Greater Phoenix area from mid-November through the end of December. Use this guide to help you plan your activities and family fun during the winter holidays.
In Arizona you can't just drive up to the high country, pick a tree, and chop it down. Our national forests control the cutting of Christmas trees and grant permits by lottery. Here's how it works.
If you didn't go up to northern Arizona's forests to cut your own Christmas tree this year, you'll be able to find live, cut Christmas trees all over the metro Phoenix area.
Just a few hours from Phoenix you can get that cold and wet holiday feeling at Arizona's ski resorts. Will there be enough snow this year? Here is the information about our ski resorts and how to get snow report from each one.
You love to go out on weekends with the family, or take relatives when they come to visit, but did you ever think of some of our attractions as shopping destinations? Here are my favorite shops to buy gifts with Arizona and Southwest themes. You may be surprised at which ones are on my list!
You will see average temperatures for the Phoenix area published in various places, and they will vary by a degree or two. Keep in mind that the official temperature for Phoenix is monitored at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport in downtown Phoenix. Suburbs of Phoenix may have slightly cooler temperatures on average, maybe as much as five degrees or ten degrees. It does get cold here on December evenings.
Traveling by air is hectic and more complicated than it used to be. If you travel on holiday weekends, add even more stress and uncertainty to the travel experience. Sky Harbor International Airport is one of the busiest airports in the U.S., so you can assume that just before and after Christmas our airport will be a challenge to navigate. Here are some tips to help you get your holiday trip off to a pleasant start.
If you are a newcomer to Phoenix, you'll find that all sorts of friends and relatives (usually from northern states) will drop by to visit in the winter. Why wouldn't they? When guests are in town you might need some ideas for things to do to entertain them. Here are some ideas.
Just print theis page from your computer and you can use these unique Arizona gift tags.
Same concept as the Christmas tags, these show three saguaros arranged to form a menorah.
Unfortunately, there are creeps out there who will take advantage of your holiday spirit by posing as a charitable organization and requesting a donation. Here are some tips to help you avoid being scammed.
If you bought a real Christmas tree, when the decorations finally come down you'll need to know how to properly dispose of that tree. Every city and town in the area has its own rules for recycling Christmas trees. Find out if your city picks up or if you have to drop off the tree. Why not just cut it up and put it in the trash? Because that just ends up in our landfills, which doesn't do us any good. Recycled trees are turned into mulch and are used to fertilize more trees. That's a good thing.
