People look for Michigan Christmas towns when the lights go up. This page stays with towns we already write about and can cite. It is not a ranking, and it does not name a festival week we have not sourced. Frankenmuth is the Christmas town we keep a full place page for. The others below are winter towns on this site, not extra Christmas claims.
For ski, ice and snowshoe, use the winter hub. For a gift to send home, start at Michigan gifts.
Frankenmuth
Frankenmuth sits on the Cass River in Saginaw County. The city's visitors bureau traces the name to Franconia in Bavaria and the German word for courage, and it dates the first colony to 1845. 1 The bureau still calls the place Michigan's Little Bavaria and points visitors to Main Street, River Place Shops and the river. 2
Bronner's CHRISTmas Wonderland is the year-round Christmas store the bureau and the store both describe. The bureau says the store has been drawing visitors since 1945. 23 Bronner's describes a half-mile drive on Christmas Lane lit from dusk until midnight with about 100,000 lights, and a Silent Night Memorial Chapel on the same grounds. 4 Hours and whether a display is up that week belong on Bronner's.
St. Lorenz Lutheran Church still stands on West Tuscola Street among the landmarks the bureau lists. 1 Family-style chicken dinners at the Bavarian Inn Restaurant and Zehnder's are the meals the town writes about. Current menus belong on those restaurants. 12
The full sourced page is Frankenmuth Christmas and Little Bavaria.
Other towns we write about in winter
These are not extra Christmas-town claims. They are places we already keep, and they stay useful in December.
Traverse City sits at the base of the bays. On Old Mission Peninsula, Peninsula Township lists ungroomed cross-country ski trails at Mission Point Lighthouse Park and Old Mission Point State Park. 5
Grand Haven is the Lake Michigan pier we print iced after a storm. The DNR park page is the source for the beach, the south pier lights and the flag system. 6
Holland is the state-park beach across the channel from Big Red. The DNR writes the park for the beach and the view of the light. 7
Marquette stays open on Lake Superior. The city keeps Presque Isle Park; when snow closes the seasonal loop to cars, the rest of the park is still a walk. 8
The DNR's winter recreation page is the statewide starting point for skiing, snowshoeing and winter camping. 9
Gifts from this shop
We do not have a Frankenmuth listing. The closest pieces we print are the Michigan Map ornament, the Grand Haven lighthouse ornament and the Tahquamenon Falls ornament. More gift pages are on Michigan gifts.
Before you go
This page does not report today's lights, chapel hours or sidewalk ice. Read the Frankenmuth visitors bureau and Bronner's events page before you drive. 24
