A Christmas Festival

When planning Advent activities, I highly recommend checking out some of the local festivities.  You are likely to find ample opportunity for family friendly fun.  One of our favorite museums is the Mississippi Agriculture & Forestry Museum.  This weekend they are hosting a fun and free Christmas Festival (Thursday, Friday, and Saturday from 5-8 pm).  You can even get a complimentary breakfast for dinner at their Christmas Diner...real grits included (the "real" part of that is very important for this southern gal).  Levi's favorites? Well, of course, he loved the grits.  But, he was really crazy about the train ride through the museum's lit up town and the carousel...

Okay, I know he doesn't look thrilled, but I promise this is his thrilled look.  He gets the most intense expressions on his face when he's enjoying something...especially something new.  See...here he is hugging one of the horsies...

While we're on the topic of local festivities, I thought I'd share a couple of my favorite ways to find out about them.

~ Subscribe to a local parenting magazine's online newsletter.  I subscribe to this one.
~ Local newspapers are an excellent source as well.  Don't turn your nose up at the smaller ones.  Sometimes you can find some jewels in those.
~ Get on all your local museum's email lists.  Museums often do something special for holidays, and by subscribing to their newsletters you'll never miss out.
~ Pretend you're a visitor.  Check out your Chamber of Commerce's website or call them to see what's going on in your area.
~And, if you live in Mississippi you should check out these sites...Visit Jackson and Visit Mississippi.

So, I'm curious, how do you find out about local, family friendly events?