This weekend Downtown Cincinnati Inc (DCI) invited several local parenting bloggers, including myself, downtown to learn about everything downtown is offering during the Holidays.  Several of us brought children with us, I brought BMan (SM had soccer…..).

The day started at Nicholson’s one of my favorite downtown restaurants. Over lunch Emilie & Mindy with DCI told us a little bit about their organization, and gave an overview of all the things going on downtown this year during the holiday season. I knew a little bit about downtown holiday activities as we have brought the  boys down in the past, but one thing that I was really surprised by was how much was free.  They rattled off a list of at least 10-15  free things you could do with your family like the Duke Energy Train Display, visit Santa at Macy’s, Gingerbread Village at the Hilton and Trolley rides.

After lunch Emilie and Mindy invited us all to bring the kids and experience some of the holiday activities they’d talked about.

The first stop was the Holly Trolley, which takes you around town, and stops at various holiday hot spots around downtown. You can get on and off as many times as you like and it’s free.

BMan gets ready to board the Holly Trolley

Next up was the train display at the Hyatt hotel.  This was a new one for me. They Hyatt actually has a small train display and ginger bread village in their lobby, and the display is open to the public.

BMan checking out the Hyatt Train Display

From the Hyatt we headed over to Macy’s to see Santa.  At Macy’s Santa is FREE! Parents just need to bring their own cameras to snap a photo of their child with him.

BMan shares his "wish list" with Santa

After Santa we  hopped on a “Carriage” Trolley for a tour of downtown. Each carriage holds 15-20 people so you could easily bring a group with you.

BMan's favorite part (after Santa) was riding with the horses

At the end of the day I have to say  I was really impressed with everything there is to do downtown during the holidays and how affordable it all is. We spent a good 1.5 hours doing things around town that were all free. Next weekend on top of all the free activities, on Saturday Santa will rappel down a building and there will be fireworks. We’ve seen it before and the boys love it.

If you are interested in checking out what downtown has to offer during the holidays, DCI has a Downtown Cincinnati Holiday Guide on its site that lists out all the events and activities downtown with their prices, hours, etc.

Here are a few more photos from our afternoon. It was a blast getting to check out the happenings downtown, and hang out with Susan & Tela from Working Moms Against Guilt, Amy from AmyinOhio and Marianne from The New Frugal Mom!

Related posts:

1. Holiday Wishes – Bloggy Holiday Card Exchange
2. Tis The Season….
3. Santa Claus is Coming to Town