It's Beginning To Look a Lot Like Christmas

Last weekend, we kicked off our holiday season with a blitz of Christmas activities, starting off with the most insanely large craft fair we had ever been to and ending with fireworks over City Hall.

The One Of A Kind Show

With over 800 vendors, the twenty-five (very long) aisles of the One of a Kind Show can take a while to go through. Located at the Enercare Centre at Exhibition Place it is on until Sunday (December 6th). If you're looking for some unique gifts or wanting to support local artisan's this is definitely the place to go, You will find art, furniture, clothes, soap and beauty products, food, and much, much more. 

Toronto themed T-Shirts are available

If you go, here are some things to know:

• It's big. Plan on at least three hours and up to a couple of days to see it all. We were pretty speedy about it and were there for about four hours. This also means comfortable shoes are a must.
• If you buy your tickets in advance, it's cheaper and you don't have to wait in as many lines when you arrive.
• Taking the street car? Get off at the Strachan stop instead of Exhibition Place and you'll be right at the entrance.
• If you're planning on making a lot of purchases, bring a bag to hold them and which is comfortable to carry (the plastic bags provided get heavy and cut into your hands).
• Bring bottled water. There is no restrictions on bringing bottles in and they are exorbitantly priced on site. Also halfway through at the back, their is a fresh water station where you can refill them.
• There is food available if you need to stop for a meal. There are a few sit down places about the aisles such as the cafe, a sandwich shop, and a Pizza Pizza.  But also tucked away in a nook at the back are a couple of food trucks.
• All of the chocolate, cakes, and other goodies make great gifts but since they are all located in a few rows roughly around Aisles E (sorry I forgot to note down the exact area), plan to tackle these strategically. Nearly everyone of these vendor's of consumable goods are giving away snacks and it's a welcome blood sugar boost when your energy is flagging. We accidentally reached this oasis near the end of our day and were incredibly thankful for it.

Cavalcade of Lights

After shopping until we were nearly dropping, we grabbed some dinner, then headed over to the Cavalcade of Lights. Located right outside City Hall, we joined thousands of other Torontonians for this celebration featuring live music and culminating in the lighting of the Toronto tree and fireworks.

It was a lovely, if cold, event that really brought out both the Christmas spirit and the city pride.

December is a busy month and it's just gotten started. We'll be keeping everyone posted of our adventures here as well as on Twitter and Instagram. 

We are currently celebrating the one year anniversary of our move to Toronto. So many of our adventures happened before starting this blog that we will be doing a year in review. Expect some posts in the last few days of the month with all of the highlights of our fun times in this great city.