As the holidays rapidly approach, destinations around the world ring in the season with traditional ceremonies, tree lightings and other winter wonderland celebrations.

PeterGreenberg.com contributors share their favorite holiday experiences, from quaint New England towns to sparkling European cities. 

In the 1850s, Regina Hirsch’s great-grandparents made their way to Groveland, California, and homesteaded. Originally from Italy, their goal was to create a community filled with family and friends, the kind of place that was good for raising children.

One hundred and fifty years later, Regina followed in her great-grandparents footsteps, circling back from a lifetime spent elsewhere to settle in the same little town.

At the time, it was a gutsy move.

In 1985, Dale Soria went to Yosemite National Park on a trans-Sierra ski trip.

Twenty-two years later, he’s still there.

Dale Soria is a dentist and when he learned that the only dentist working in Yosemite was retiring, he took his place.

At the time, he, his wife Catherine and their three children were living in the California Central Valley town of Merced.

The first time I ever saw Utah’s Zion National Park I was in the company of a German friend.

I was already in my late 20s and I’m sorry to say that, although I only lived a car-ride away, I had barely heard of it.

The same could not be said for my friend. “Europeans are in awe of the American West,” she told me. “There’s nowhere else on Earth like it. Europe, we have beautiful cities and towns. But all our wild land is gone. Every German hopes to come here.”

While waiting for my daughter to finish her skateboard lesson, I strike up a conversation with the woman sitting next to me on the bench.

She’s a tall, willowy blonde with movie-star sunglasses, a chic natural style, and—perfect for Los Angeles—a husband who’s a film director.

The judge-a-book-by-its-cover side of me would normally go into hyper-drive except that we have an instant bond: her daughter, like mine, was adopted from China. And so we sit and talk.

In January of 2000, Michael and Jill Ives went to Bermuda to run a half-marathon as a fundraiser for Prevent Blindness America.

They’d never been there before, yet by winter of 2001, Michael was Bermuda’s official artist-in-residence; he and Jill were living in a lovely old stone house that the British had built centuries before; and they were friendly with everyone on the island from their gardener to the governor.

How did this happen?

“Thousands of tired, nerve-shaken, over-civilized people are beginning to find out that going to the mountain is going home; that wildness is necessity; that mountain parks and reservations are useful not only as fountains of timber and irrigating rivers, but as fountains of life.”
- John Muir

Confession: I am your typical suburban parent.

My husband and I scramble to pay for the school we think best suits our daughter’s needs. We spend much of our time running her around to after-school activities that range from art lessons to skateboard classes.

When Amin Khan was 9 years old, his parents packed four suitcases—one for each member of the family—and left for the airport in Dar-Es-Salaam, Tanzania with all the casualness of people going on a short vacation.

They never saw their home in Africa again.

Their reasons for leaving Africa were the same as the family’s reasons for leaving India four generations earlier: political instability, social unrest and a desire for a better life for the children.