Do you have a holiday vacation planned this year? Are you traveling during the holidays? Are you nervous to partake in holiday events because of COVID? We are a yes to all of the above.
We are planning on traveling to see my family in Colorado for Christmas and because of that and the high numbers of COVID cases, we have canceled virtually all of our “normal” holiday festivities and events. I would be lying if I told you that it wasn’t hard or didn’t bum us out. However, after a less-than traditional Thanksgiving, Travis and I decided we could either go through the holidays bummed that we weren’t able to do anything, or make the best of our situation. We went with the later.
Part of that decision meant we would need to make new traditions for our girls and find new ways to celebrate the Christmas season. Thanks to our new virtual reality, we were able to watch one of our favorite Christmas concerts from our living room. We’ve also had hot cocoa dates at home and made s’mores by the fire. But frankly, we wanted to do something that got us safely out of the house. We needed an “event” that would lift all of our spirits.
Greeted by our favorite concierge, Philip, upon arrival!
So, we decided to plan a holiday vacation or staycation as I should say, to our favorite hotel, the Fairmont Dallas. We have stayed there several times throughout the pandemic and have been beyond impressed with the safety measures and precautions they were taking. We also knew that because of where Fairmont Dallas is located, we could easily walk to Klyde Warren Park and spend most of Saturday outdoors.
Our Holiday Vacation at Fairmont Dallas:
Y’all, I cannot say enough how glad I am we decided to take a brief holiday vacation with our girls downtown. It ended up being exactly what we needed and most definitely further our holiday spirit. On top of all that, we were able to truly relax and enjoy the weekend without feeling like we were compromising our safety. We had great food, played a lot of games, laughed a lot, and the girls probably had one too many Shirley Temples.
Because I know so many of us are in the same boat of “what the heck do I do with my kids this holiday season,” I thought I’d share what we did this weekend to make it special for the girls.
Indoor v. Outdoor Holiday Ideas with Kids:
- INDOORS: Because we knew we would be spending the majority of our “holiday vacation” indoors, we came prepared!
- Boredom Box – this was given to Emma as a gift and it’s been the best thing ever! The Boredom Box has over 250 activities in it including games like trivia, chutes and ladders, chess, checkers, you name it! There something for everyone. We played chutes and ladders multiple times and the girls loved playing trivia to our surprise!
- Gingerbread House Decorating – we came fully prepared to have a gingerbread house decorating competition, but realized at the hotel that the kits we brought required us to make the icing with ingredients from home. So, we didn’t actually do our decorating at the hotel, but it would be such an easy and fun activity that would take 30 minutes to an hour!
- Charades – we recently introduced our girls to charades and it’s been so fun. We make up our own clues, divide into teams (one child and one adult), and start guessing! It’s a fun game that doesn’t require a dang thing!
- Christmas Movie Marathon – this one was the easiest to do and what we spent most of Saturday evening doing. We let the girls pick out the movies so we watched Mickey’s Once Upon Christmas and our family favorite – Klaus. One great thing we discovered was that we could log into our Netflix account at the Fairmont; a life saver!
- OUTDOORS: Although I knew we’d be spending a lot of time in our hotel room, I also knew that if we stayed indoors the whole time we’d go crazy. So, I decided to create a scavenger hunt we could do outdoors. I brought poster board to the hotel with us and hand wrote our hunt with boxes for the girls to check off. We quickly realized that we couldn’t take that with us as we walked around, so I also created a PDF version HERE. I put items on our scavenger hunt list that I figured would be easy for us to find outdoors. Whether you’re in downtown Dallas or your own neighborhood, this list will work great! We spent several hours walking through Klyde Warren Park and along Main Street in Dallas checking items off our list. My girls had the best time and both said this was the best part of their trip!
Safe Dining Options:
One of the things we wanted to be really careful about while on our “holiday vacation” was coming in close contact with other people. We knew we wouldn’t be eating indoors anywhere, but still wanted to experience good food. Lucky for us, the Fairmont Dallas was one step ahead of us and just launched their taqueria serving up tacos in the evening and breakfast burritos in the morning. We hit up a couple family favorites over the weekend too! Everywhere we ate is listed below:
La Taqueria:
This is a new grab-n-go concept at the Fairmont and it’s truly amazing. It’s open on the weekend evenings and mornings and it’s designed to give you quality food that you can take with you whether that’s outdoors or back to your room. We all got tacos and quesadillas from here Friday evening and then enjoyed the most delicious breakfast burritos the next day!
Klyde Warren Park Food Trucks:
The food trucks at Klyde Warren Park are such a great way to try new food and remain outdoors. We grabbed food for lunch on Saturday from some of the food trucks and loved it! There are so many different options that everyone is sure to find something they like!
Campisi’s Pizza:
We are BIG fans of Campisi’s Pizza and so are the girls, so we try and eat there each time we stay downtown. It’s located right by the giant eyeball downtown so it’s super fun to walk to. It’s also right off Main street, so this time we walked down Main to look at all the Christmas lights and decor and it was a blast! You can definitely eat it in the restaurant, but we opted to take it back to our hotel room.
Dallas Farmer”s Market:
Another great daytime food option is the Farmer’s Market. In addition to the actual market, there is a large pavilion full of restaurants. Again, there will be something for everyone. Emma got a grilled cheese, Abby got a cheese quesadilla, and Travis and I ate at our favorite food truck restaurant – Nammi. There is plenty of outdoor seating, too, so it’s easy to stay socially distanced!
Interested In Booking Your Own Holiday Vacation at Fairmont Dallas?
Fairmont Dallas have given us a discount code for you to book with to get you $139/night with complimentary valet parking + late checkout of 2 PM. Use code: PSCL. Enjoy!
This post was created in collaboration with Fairmont Dallas. All opinions are my own. Thank you for supporting those brands that support Fleurdille and allow me to connect authentically with you!
