Where the Season Gathers: The Distillery District in Late December
You will smell it before you see it — mulled wine, woodsmoke, frying dough — drifting over cobblestones that have been polished by a century of feet. This is the Distillery District, thirteen acres of Victorian industrial buildings in eastern downtown Toronto, and through late December it becomes the Distillery Winter Village. A fifty-foot silver fir stands at its centre, strung with 80,000 lights and 750 gold ornaments. Around it, more than forty food cabins and fifty vendor stalls fill the lanes, and live music runs daily on the central stage.
Come on a weekday evening after 5 p.m. and you will have room to move. The weekends, and the days immediately before Christmas Eve, are the busiest. Admission is free Monday through Thursday and ticketed Friday through Sunday, with online prices lower than the gate and family rates for groups of four to six. The site is fully outdoors, so dress for windchill that can reach -10°C, and note that the cobblestones are uneven. Some vendors prefer cash, and ATMs are on site.
One thing to plan around: the Winter Village closes on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. If the Distillery is your plan, make it an earlier night in December. Its restaurants — Pure Spirits Oyster House, Cluny Bistro, El Catrin, Mill Street Brew Pub, Madrina — stay open through the festival season.
Concerts, Parades and the City's Own Tree
Toronto's holiday calendar builds through November and early December, and the events below recur annually. Where the city sets a date each year, check the current schedule before you travel.
- Cavalcade of Lights — late November at Nathan Phillips Square. A free outdoor concert featuring the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, the lighting of the city's official Christmas tree, and the opening of the outdoor skating rink.
- Santa Claus Parade — mid-November, running from Bloor and Christie Streets through downtown. Free to watch from the route, and more than a century old.
- Royal Winter Fair — mid-November at Exhibition Place, an agricultural fair with livestock and equestrian events.
- Black Creek Pioneer Village — a nineteenth-century heritage village with traditional Christmas programming.
- Holt Renfrew and Hudson's Bay Christmas windows — free to view along Bloor Street, redone each year.
- Toronto Light Festival — January through March back at the Distillery District, free, with international light art installations.
If you would rather be indoors on the twenty-fourth, the city's hotels carry the evening: the Four Seasons, Park Hyatt, Hazelton and Ritz-Carlton are among those that run holiday programming, including afternoon teas and dinners.
What to Eat While You Walk
The market cabins are the meal. Expect bratwurst, schnitzel, raclette, perogies, mulled wine, hot chocolate, glogg and gingerbread, with most plates falling between $15 and $25. Eat standing, eat slowly, and let the cold make the hot drinks taste better than they have any right to. When you want a table and a proper dinner, the Distillery's restaurants — Pure Spirits, Cluny, El Catrin, Mill Street and Madrina — are open throughout the festival.
Getting There, and Where to Wander After
The Distillery sits a fifteen-minute walk from Union Station and twelve minutes from St. Lawrence Market. The 503 Kingston Rd and 504 King streetcars stop at Trinity Street, five minutes away on foot; the 514 Cherry streetcar stops at the Distillery itself. By subway, take Line 1 to King Station and walk twelve minutes. Paid parking runs $15 to $25.
Pair the market with the neighbourhood around it. St. Lawrence Market is close enough to combine into one outing, and if you want lights without the crowds, the residential displays in Kleinburg, around Riverdale Park East, and along the streets of Etobicoke are a local tradition. Bloor Street's department store windows are free and worth the detour.
Start With a Weekday Evening
Book a December weekday, arrive at the Distillery after 5 p.m. while the cabins are still steaming and the tree is lit, and give yourself the walk back to Union afterward. Check the current year's dates for the Cavalcade of Lights and the Santa Claus Parade before you fix your travel days, and hold Christmas Eve itself for a hotel dinner or a quiet street of lights. The city does this every year, and it does it well. Your job is simply to show up on the right evening.