An Ozark Mountain Christmas in Branson is a blast from the past

The shopping malls are crowded with stressed-out, irritable customers and staff, and you can barely wedge your shopping cart through the aisles filled with the latest electronic gadgets. Back at home, your kids are fighting over a Nintendo Wii game, and your spouse is hunched over the computer deleting Spam emails.

And, oh yes, it’s Christmas time.

Is this any way to celebrate the holiday season? You hark back to Christmases long ago, when life was simpler, and being with family and friends during the Yuletide season was everything.

So you take a deep breath, bundle everyone in the car, and head to Branson, where Christmas is celebrated the good, old-fashioned way.

“Take Time to Celebrate” has been the theme of Silver Dollar City’s 50th birthday this year, and the season of Christmas is the time for their biggest and brightest celebration of all. Over four million dazzling holiday lights keep the park ablaze with festive good cheer, and Silver Dollar City—as well as just about all of Branson—is unabashedly religious (“Jesus is the Reason for the Season”), patriotic, and sentimental. Many of the people who come to Branson find this attitude refreshing in today’s stringently PC world.

You will feel like you’ve truly “come home for the holidays” when you visit Branson during the Christmas season. Stroll down to the Farmhouse Restaurant on Main Street in Branson’s historic downtown for some homemade mashed potatoes “like Grandma used to make” and a slice of blackberry cobbler. Then pay a visit to Dick’s Oldtime 5 & 10, which looks just like the “dime store” you frequented as a kid.

Go see Tony Orlando & the Lennon Sisters Christmas Celebration at the Welk Resort Theatre, and listen to the songs that made your parents swoon. Before the show, chow down on “comfort food” (like chicken pot pie and meatloaf) made with Andy Williams's mom’s recipes at Andy Williams Moon River Grill.

Save an entire day for experiencing An Old Time Christmas in Silver Dollar City. Watch A Dickens’ Christmas Carol (which is both heartwarming and hilarious, and as professionally-executed as anything you’ll see on Broadway) and The Living Nativity show (complete with a beautiful live donkey). The Gifts of Christmas Holiday Light Parade rivals the spectacle of the Main Street Electrical Parade at Disney theme parks. Unlike most Christmas parades, Santa Claus is not part of the Grand Finale (although he does ride past), but the Baby Jesus shines, front row and center, in a Nativity scene.

The musical five-story Special Effects Christmas Tree twinkles and dances (in unison with over one million lights adorning Silver Dollar City’s square) to Christmas music, including Carol of the Bells and Sleigh Ride.

When it’s time to take a break from Silver Dollar City’s many holiday attractions, sit down and tuck into a hickory-smoked Prime Rib Buffet at Mom’s Mill or a traditional Christmas Buffet, featuring turkey and all the traditional fixings, at Reunion Hall, and finish off the meal with gingerbread cookies.

You can also learn new recipes for your own Christmas celebrations at Silver Dollar City’s Culinary & Craft School. The school makes its home in a charming 1880s-style timber-frame farmhouse with a big front porch. You can’t get much more homespun than this!

Shopping is a delight in Branson, not a hassle, when you head for Kringles Christmas Store at the Grand Village Shops. With nary an electronic gadget in sight, you’ll feel the magic and wonder of Christmas as soon as you walk through the door. An awe-inspiring collection of 125 designer-decorated themed trees and handmade Santas complete the magical atmosphere.

Where to stay? I recommend Still Waters Resort, if you want a relaxing stay with a rustic "feel" at a family-oriented place on scenic Table Rock Lake close to Silver Dollar City, and the Hilton Branson Convention Center, if you want an upscale, full-service hotel close to the shops and restaurants on Branson Landing and historic downtown Branson.

Branson is truly a unique destination, one where you can step back in time to a more peaceful way of life. There’s no place in the whole world exactly like it.

Watch your kids—even if they’re teenagers—lose their jaded expressions as they take in all that Branson and Silver Dollar City have to offer. And then don’t be surprised if next year the whole family clamors to go back…home.

An Old Time Christmas at Silver Dollar City runs through December 30, 2010. For information, go to www.silverdollarcity.com. For information on Branson’s Ozark Mountain Christmas festivities, which run through December 31, go to www.exploreBranson.com.

For another story on Silver Dollar City at Christmas, go to “It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas in Silver Dollar City.”