I ♥ A2: Midnight Madness
On Friday night Frank and I walked downtown after dinner for Midnight Madness where everything in Ann Arbor was open late for holiday shopping and winter festivities.
We decided to start our evening at Bill's Beer Garden, which recently opened up in October of this year and is located at the Downtown Home and Garden store. They have a small kiosk that they serve a variety of drinks from with picnic tables and chairs set out for patrons to relax with their beverages. 
This weekend was the last weekend that the beer garden was open for the season and it was jam packed with people. There were a few fire pits set out to keep people warm and in addition to the normal beer and wine they had hot cider and mulled wine on the menu.
Frank had a beer and I of course had mulled wine since I was so chilly. It was a really fun and festive atmosphere and I am looking forward to going there next summer when it is warm out.
After finishing our drinks we ventured out to Main Street. Everything looked so pretty with the trees along the street festooned with white twinkle lights and all of the shops decorated for the holidays.
The streets and shops were bustling and it was so crowded that we decided not to venture into any stores and check things out another day. The atmosphere was great and we did a walk up and back on both sides of Main Street peeking in the glass display windows. All in all it was a fun winter evening and got me into the holiday mood.
Is your town decorated for the holidays yet? Do you have any holiday fairs or events that you have been to or are coming up? Have you started your holiday shopping or are you slow like me?
Sunday, December 2, 2012 at 1:10PM | Posted by Lisa | 2 Comments | Share Article | Email Article | Print Article 
Reader Comments (2)
Yes, our town has a really cool Main Street that is right on the river and is about 200 years old so all of the buildings on the 2 mile stretch on the riverfront are very cool. The celebration starts the day after Thanksgiving at the gazebo in the middle of Main and the town crier declares the Christmas season is open. The entire cast of A Christmas Carol is there every Saturday to act out scenes in character while walking down Main Str. My friend's son got the town crier job this year so I am really excited to go some Saturday afternoon and see it.
Also, on the first Saturday night in December we have Las Posadas where Mary is on a burro and Joseph walks beside her knocking on the doors o fthe businesses looking for a room. They end up on the riverfront at the makeshift inn. The fife and drum corps play Christmas carols so everyone sings between the door knocking times. The entire street is decorated with lights and the whole thing is just gorgeous and everyone walks behind Joseph and Mary with lit candles. We have summer festivals almost every week, too and they close off the street. We are lucky to live in a very cool town.
Kathy- That sounds so wonderful! What a lovely holiday traditions! That sounds so cool to see and so wonderful that your whole town gets involved to be a part of it. I just love old historic Main Streets. There is something Ann Arbor also has summer festivals almost every week with the street closed off. Everyone is so happy for the warm weather that it seems like we need to take advantage of every minute of it.