Holiday activities

I thought I would share with you some of the fun free or very inexpensive holiday traditions that we do with our kids. Please add to the list

Teddy Bear Suite
Visit the Fairmount hotel (the Olympic Four Seasons) to see the Teddy Bear Suite. The hotel takes one of their Suites and decorates it with hundreds of teddy bears. They also have books about bears and Christmas out to read and free candy canes and I think hot cocoa. You are allowed to take photographs. This is free. It can be busy, so go during the day and during regular school hours.
The hotel also has a wonderful tree in the main lobby.

Gingerbread houses at the Sheraton
In the main lobby of the Sheraton they have 10 or so Gingerbread creations on view.
Macy's usually decorates their main outdoor corner windows with wonderful winter scenes with toys, trains, etc.

Carousel downtown is always fun. Lines can be long in the evening and weekends.

Winterfest at the Seattle Center
There is an ice skating rink (not sure if they will have ice skates for toddlers, but this is great for kids 3 and up). There is a carousel located right outside the ice skating rink and there is never a line when we have gone in the evenings or weekend. Inside the Center House (where the food court is) there is a large Winter Train village set up with trains running. Also, they have lots of programs running for WinterFest that are free so check out the Seattle Center website, http://www.seattlecenter.com/programs/detail.asp?EV_EventNum=60

Ornaments
We have also started the tradition of buying a Christmas ornament for our kids each year. They get to pick it out and we put their name on the box so we remember whose it is. Once they have a place of their own, they will have a tree full of ornaments. I have found the West Seattle Nursery has the best selection that I have seen in Seattle. Their ornaments start at $5.00 and go on up. They also serve free Hot cider.