Every December, Grand America in Salt Lake City holds a Holiday Window Stroll. There are little windows to view, as well as a huge gingerbread house that is made from real gingerbread.
In the lower level of their hotel, you can walk a circle and admire the windows that are decorated with Christmas themes. This year the theme was Christmas Around the World, so each window represented a different country. When you first enter the hotel, pick up a card for each of your kids. The card has a map showing where all the windows are located in the hotel, but it’s easy to just make one giant loop around the bottom level. On the other side of the card is a scavenger type activity to help your kids enjoy the Holiday Windows.
Our boys were excited to visit the Grand America. We have never stayed at such a nice hotel.
Right near the front desk, you can pick up your pencil and scavenger hunt card.
You had to write down which country was represented in each window. There were clues to help the littler kids!
Our boys loved looking at the windows. It was fun to talk about the different countries and languages represented. They also noticed a penguin that appeared in every window. Then they had fun finding him, which was easy since he was always moving.
The windows are bright and colorful!
This was our boys’s favorite!
Mom really liked the Italy window!
We loved finding the penguin in all the windows.
Once you are about halfway around the loop, you will come to the gingerbread house. It is amazing. It’s hard to believe that they really were able to construct such an amazing house from edible food. Make sure to check out the sign that talks about how much flour, sugar, and other items they used. There was a nice young man standing here handing out free shortbread cookies for everyone. This is your treat for visiting the Holiday Windows.
Amazing, right?!
We thought the rice krispie sidewalk was very cute.
A lot of baking went into this gingerbread house.
You can also spend a few minutes walking through the Grand America Courtyard. There is a large Christmas tree, Christmas lights on all the trees, and a beautiful fountain. We were there during the late afternoon, but it looked like their fountain had green and red lights inside!
The lights were just coming on in the courtyard when we were there.
We had fun wandering around for a few minutes, but were glad to be able to walk inside!
Grand America’s Holiday Windows is a nice simple Christmas adventure. We enjoyed it because it’s inside, so you don’t have to bundle up. It’s perfect for all ages. All of our boys thought it was a fun stop. We also love that it’s FREE. You can park in their parking lot. They will validate your parking. In fact, as we started the Holiday Stroll, a nice lady asked us if we needed validation.
This is a great adventure to pair with other fun places in downtown. We stopped here on our way to the Temple Square Lights. You could also visit City Creek’s dancing fountain, Clark Planetarium, or any other venue on Temple Square.
Our youngest was ready to move right into the gingerbread house!
