What to see now

There’s a wide variety of things to experience during this season in D.C. Here are some that we’d recommend:

Wreaths at Arlington

Wreaths Across America provides wreaths to honor the dead at Arlington National Cemetery. The wreaths will remain until January 11th.

Zoo Lights

The popular display at the National Zoo – $6 per person, requires a ticket, through January 6th.

Floriana’s tree

Each year, Floriana’s restaurant puts out a new themed tree on 17th Street. This year’s theme is pure Italian.

Mistletoe Ball

A new destination this year is a giant mistletoe ball, in the tech corridor by 8th Street near the Carnegie Library. There are also fire pits to sit around and some musical performances.

Festival of Lights

The Festival of Lights at the Mormon Temple in Kensington is a popular free event, featuring 500,000 lights – nightly to January 1st.

Jack Daniel’s tree

The Jack Daniel’s tree, at The Wharf, is a charity to pay for military personnel getting transportation home for the holidays.

Botanic Garden

A large outdoor display with trains running through fantastic nature scenes, right near the Capitol. Free.

Things to see indoors

If you want to get in out of the cold, here are a few great things to see indoors:

Gingerbread at the Capitol

A few hundred pounds of sugary goodness – find it in the basement rotunda in the tunnel connecting the Cannon and Longworth house office buildings (open to the public).

New exhibit at the National Building Museum

The National Building Museum has 500,000 artifacts, and has built a great new space to showcase about 2,500 of them at a time (the items displayed will periodically change). There are architectural models, architectural toys (original Legos and Lincoln Logs!), tools, building materials, and much more than can be described.

Italian Mosaics at Dupont Underground

Free on Fridays, $10 tickets at other times.

Holidays at the Botanic Garden

In addition to the outdoor displays, indoors there are Washington landmarks made out of natural materials. Free.

Tree at the Library of Congress

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Santas

Krampus Fest and Santarchy took place last weekend, but there are likely to still be other Santas appearing around the city.