Holiday Lights and Cocoa Drives 2020 map #GloucesterMA #CapeAnn 🚗☕🎄✨⛄

When I was a girl, my family, like many other families, considered every nocturne drive a chance to look for Christmas lights. Of course we carried on this tradition with our own children. The magic of the season is so easy to find in neighborhoods throughout Gloucester and all of Cape Ann. Coasting past classic New England home styles decorated for the holidays– while driving along bends and dips in the roads by charming coves– is sheer visual delight. There is a surprise around every corner.

Plus the season’s early nightfall is most welcome for little ones’ bedtime enchantment. Throw on some comfy holiday attire and toss in a thermos of hot chocolate to make it an extra special treat for the youngest, and the young at heart, and the perfect outing for social distancing in this year of Covid. Repeat visits are encouraged because there’s so much to see and more added every day.

Last year readers asked for a map. Here are some of the homes spreading cheer NOW with their Christmas lights and holiday yard displays, and it’s not yet December 1, 2020! Is your favorite friendly seasonal character out there? Or favorite color lights twinkling bright? I’ll continue to update the map and photographs, including specific requests and location recommendations from GMG readers.

Holiday lights & cocoa drives Gloucester Mass as of November 30, 2020

NEW for 2020: And still more attractions with festive lights coming soon.  First Annual Winter Lights Display on Cape Ann starts December 7th. Check out all the businesses and organizations readying light displays downtown and local shopping!

More photos

Sunday Afternoon Chocolate Party

Our hot cocoa party quickly became a chocolate party when Nicole Duckworth arrived with a platter of chocolate-dipped-and-delicious strawberries, pineapples, and bananas (and I had as usual doubled the amount of chips in the chocolate chip cookies). I so hope the kids fall asleep tonight!

friends ©Kim Smith 2015

See Happy Hot Chocolate Snow Days

Happy Hot Chocolate Days!

Parisian Hot Chocolate ©Kim Smith 2014

Aren’t snow days simply the best? I think I looked forward to them as much as did my kids. As a working mom a snowy day meant magical extra time off with my children, and was a day made even more festive when accompanied by cups of warm cocoa. Most times we made hot chocolate with mini marshmallows and/or with a few drops of essence of peppermint but if I had chocolate squares and heavy cream on hand to whip, we made it our favorite Parisian-style.

For recipe and story continue reading here.

Parisian Hot Chocolate -  ©Kim Smith 2014.Decadent and delightfully rich hot cocoa

*    *    *

photoMary Tucker photo

Mary Tucker submits her heavenly hot cocoa photo that she made today; made heavenly with the addition of a truffle!

I haven’t quite figured out how to add an image to a comment so here’s your photo Mary!