2 Best Sights in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee

If you spent a quarter century traveling the world to collect Christmas ornaments and decorations, you'd have what you'll find in this four-store village. This is the go-to shopping destination for anything and everything that concerns the happy holiday, including personalized ornaments, novelty and designer lights, and a sleigh-load of ideas from looking at the dozens of designer-decorated trees. If you shop until you drop, you can cross the street to spend the night at the Inn at Christmas Place, where—you guessed it—the hotel maintains its Christmas sights and sounds all year long.

One of the most photographed structures in the country, this 185-year-old workhorse mill still grinds the flour and meal used for cooking at the nearby Old Mill Restaurant and the Old Mill Pottery House Cafe & Grille. Join millions of visitors who have purchased sacks of stone-ground products to take home as a special memory from the Smokies—not only a wide variety of flours and mixes (pancake, fish batter, etc.), but also jams, jellies, honeys, specialty foods, retro candies, and nostalgic crafts. Most of all, take time to listen to the sound of the 1830s mill grinding the grain. You might even want to try recording the sound with your smartphone as a unique no-cost souvenir.