Why? Holiday Festivities.

Why Cleveland?  Because we know how to celebrate the holidays.  From downtown to the 'burbs, from the shopping malls to Public Square, Cleveland is bursting with holiday cheer.  Here's just some of the fun festivations you can take part in:

Historic Warehouse District's 11th Annual Holiday Tour - Wednesday, December 8 from 5:30pm-11pm - tour the Warehouse District's historic buildings, nosh on great food from local restaurants, and end the evening with desserts and music at Constantino's Market

The Rink at Wade Oval - open daily until January 2 - admission is free and skate rental is $3

A Christmas Carol  - through December 23 at the Ohio Theater - see the classic Dickens story performed by the Great Lakes Theater Festival

Deck the Hall: A Dickens of a Christmas - weekends through December 30 at Stan Hywet Hall and Gardens - if you haven't gotten your fill of Dickens, check out the lights, decorations, holiday shopping, and hot chocolate

Winter Show 2010 - Tuesdays through Saturdays at the Cleveland Botanical Gardens - wander through greenhouses of seasonal plants, do some holiday shopping, and maybe get your skating on at The Rink at Wade Oval

The Black Nativity - through December 30 at Karamu House - see this moving performance of the play written by native Clevelander Langston Hughes

The Singing Angels - this youth chorus has a series of holiday concerts throughout the Cleveland area

Tobogganing - check out the toboggan runs in the beautiful Strongsville MetroParks

No matter how you choose to celebrate, CLE offers plenty of ways to get in the holiday spirit!  What a great answer to "Why Cleveland?"

Why? Weekends!

I've decided to make "Why? Weekends!" a recurring feature on the blog, in that it gives me a guaranteed post once a week, there's always something going on, and it gives me a chance to incorporate another recurring feature...the reader question!

OK, so why Cleveland?  Because there's always something great to do on the weekends!  This weekend, CLEguy, CLEfriends (including the fabulous HungryinCLE), and I checked out the Ohio City Christmas Festival.

This was the first year for this event, which featured local vendors, selling ornaments, handmade jewelry, various craft items, and tasty treats from CLEfriend Tinypop Treats.

There were also carriage rides, cookie decorating, and photos with this guy:

All in all, a fun afternoon, topped off by some rosemary garlic french fries and a St. Bernadus Christmas Ale at McNulty's Bier Markt.  If you had a chance to check out the Christmas Festival, let me know in the comments what you thought.  From chatting with one of the organizers, the goal is to expand the Festival to every weekend next year from Thanksgiving until Christmas!

Sunday was spent baking approximately 752 varieties of Christmas cookies with CLEguy and his family.  One of my main reasons for Why Cleveland? is family.  And I suspect it's the same for a lot of you.  It's wonderful to have family so close by, especially at the holidays.  Check out our handiwork:

I have sampled all the varieties and can attest to their yumminess, as can this creature:

Meet CLEpup, in happy Christmas mode.

Hope your weekends were happy, festive, and full of CLE goodness!  So, it's reader question time...what new answers to "Why Cleveland?" did you find this weekend?  Or what places that are already on your "Why Cleveland?" answer list did you revisit?