Why you should visit Chicago in December

There's no shortage of ways to keep the kids entertained when visiting Chicago in December. First stop: Navy Pier, where alongside the iconic Centennial Wheel and other classic fairground rides, there's also a full-on festive extravaganza in the shape of the annual Light Up the Lake event. And it's really quite the spectacle – think ice-skating rinks, massive light sculptures, Bavarian beer gardens, gift markets and thousands of twinkling lights and you'll be about halfway there. Kids can also ride the mini train and pay a visit to the big man himself in Santa's Village.

Also on Navy Pier, Chicago Children’s Museum is less a traditional museum and more a place for kids to interact with and discover the world around them, playing firefighters, excavating dinosaur bones, creating water-based experiments and exploring the multi-level Cloud Buster structure.

Other crowd-pleasing attractions for families seeking to escape the winter chill include the Legoland Discovery Center, the mind-bending Museum of Illusions and the mind-expanding Adler Planetarium. Hot tip: entry to these, and dozens more top Chicago tours, activities and attractions is included with the Go City Chicago pass, which can save you a stack on your sightseeing, leaving you plenty of spare cash to splash on other Chicago essentials like deep-dish pizza and rainbow ice-cream cones (guaranteed delicious even in sub-zero temperatures).

Commuting may not sound like the kind of thing that would rank highly on your Christmas vacation to-do list, but the Allstate CTA Holiday Train and Bus – in service from the end of November through to the Christmas shutdown – may well change your mind.

A beloved Chicago tradition since the early 1990s, the Holiday Train is festooned with festive decorations. Its entire exterior is also garlanded in lights, making after dark trips a must. But that’s not all: Santa waves to passengers from his sleigh, complete with reindeer and Christmas trees. The train's younger sibling – the Holiday Bus – is a 60-foot winter wonderland with holiday music and, of course, another jolly Santa. That guy sure gets around. Each service integrates seamlessly with the usual Chicago bus and metro routes, so check schedules locally to get your festive transport fix.

Dazzling displays of holiday lights aren’t difficult to find in Chicago during December. The Morton Arboretum Illumination is another must-see. Far from the standard Christmas lights you might expect, its 50 acres of trees are are transformed into a magical world of light, color and sound.

Closer to downtown, the Magnificent Mile's seasonal lighting displays are the stuff of legend. Here, each storefront vies to outdo its neighbor, which, given there are around 500 stores, creates quite the festive spectacle. Get there for the Mile's tree-lighting festival just ahead of Thanksgiving if you can, in which some 200 Michigan Avenue trees are illuminated as part of a major parade, including Disney characters, live music and fireworks over the Chicago River.

It's easy to fill those chilly Chicago December evenings with fabulous festive fun. The Christkindlmarket in Daley Plaza has the power to bring holiday cheer to even the most curmudgeonly of Christmas scrooges. Open daily from mid-November until Christmas Eve, this German-themed market is the biggest in the US, with dozens of stalls, a huge Christmas tree, a nativity scene and live entertainment from dance troupes, brass bands, carolers and more. Meet up for a hot mulled wine with friends or cruise the stalls in search of unique Christmas gifts and ornaments, splendid souvenirs and a long list of edible treats, from currywurst to cookies.

Lovers of culture and tradition might also want to seek out the city’s theater spaces. The Goodman's adaptation of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol  has been staged annually for half a century, whilst ballets to look out for include Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker, set on Christmas Eve.

As elsewhere, New Year’s Eve is all about the midnight fireworks, with a spectacular volley of pyrotechnics launching from barges at the end of Navy Pier. Grab a ticket for the Resolution Gala at the pier’s Grand Ballroom and you’ll be able to enjoy the spectacle with a glass of champagne in hand. Alternatively, the display is visible from much of Chicago’s Lake Michigan shoreline as well as, of course, from special midnight dinner cruises.

Occupying the only structure still in existence from the 1893 World Columbian Exposition (or World’s Fair), the Museum of Science and Industry is packed to the rafters with artifacts and objects relating to scientific discovery and human endeavor – lunar modules, German U-boats, and a 40-foot indoor tornado you can have a go at controlling. 

In December, it also hosts its celebration of Christmas around the world – a tradition at the museum since 1942. Today it includes around 50 Christmas trees decorated by volunteers to represent seasonal traditions around the world as well as incorporating non-Christian winter festivals such as Hannukah.

Further north, the Field Museum is catnip for anyone fascinated by the wider natural world. Among its most popular exhibits are Máximo – the largest dinosaur skeleton ever found – treasures and relics of Ancient Egypt, and the DNA Discovery Center, where windows reveal real-life scientists working to map out the genetic codes of a whole range of species.

Chicago regularly sees snow accumulate to about 2.5 inches in December – enough to create an Insta-perfect wintry blanket without bringing things to a shuddering halt. Millennium Park typifies scenes across the city as with its massive Christmas tree and no-less-substantial outdoor ice rink. Sightseers, rejoice: McCormick Tribune Ice Rink sits in the shadow of another of Chicago's must-see modern icons – the mirror-like sculpture Cloud Gate sculpture by Anish Kapoor, better known to most locals as 'The Bean'.

For dreamy vistas from higher up, look no further than the Willis Tower. A 60-second elevator ride zips you to the ear-popping height of 1,353 feet, where this iconic tower’s 103rd floor Skydeck promises unrivalled views of the city by day and night, taking in sights such as the Magnificent Mile and Lake Michigan. On a clear day, views extend across four different states: Illinois, Indiana, Michigan and Wisconsin. Sure, you won't see much in the middle of a Midwest blizzard, but at least you'll be warm in there.