I lived in Orlando for 18 years and can assure you that several stores will be open on Christmas Day in the tourist areas. I would also like to recommend the place we've eaten on Christmas for the past 20 years ( we live 100 miles away but go there just for this) - the buffet at the Renaissance Hotel across the street from Sea World. This massive buffet is delicious, friendly, and a real bargain at about $45 per adult, half that for children. It includes unlimited champagne and fresh squeezed orange juice, and the resulting mimosas are a wonderful addition to the delicious food. But if you want to go - make reservations now! It's already almost booked up!

Going to Florida for Christmas, special family holiday. Son, now 14yrs, recovering from cancer for the second time in his life, leg bone tumour this time! Would appreciated any advice on where to go especially Christmas day and New Years. Son can walk now but may get tired. Looking especially for eating Christmas day, would like something traditional if poss and do we need to book.

topping for Jules1.

Jules1,
Could you give us an idea of your sons's interests? I'm sure those of us who live in Central Florida can then come up with some activities/places he would enjoy.

As for a Christmas day restaurant, many of the area resorts do very good traditional Christmas dinners. Also, check

http://allearsnet.com/menu/men_christmas.htm

They have a list of Disney restaurants that will be open on Christmas day, their prices, and what type of food they will be serving.

Hope you have a great trip!

thanks dsquared. Son used to love football (played for local team- not able to play any more). Likes swimming, history, science, Star Wars, movies and of course x-box, psp2. Taking him to Kennedy space centre, says he's going to work for NASA when he gets older!

Jules1,
The space center is a great idea for a budding astronaut! Here's their website: http://www.kennedyspacecenter.com/visitKSC/index.asp

The IMAX movie is new; I hear it's good. The bus tour will take you to the International Space Station area and the Saturn 5 Center.

They have a "lunch with an astronaut" program at extra cost which is exactly what they say; you get to have lunch with an astronaut-might be something you son would enjoy.

As for swimming, the hotel pool is always good! There are a number of water parks too - Wet & Wild, Typhoon Lagoon, Blizzard Beach.

Orlando has a pretty good Science Center: http://www.osc.org/

and there's Wonderworks on International Drive in Orlando - more commercial, but very enjoyable. http://www.wonderworksonline.com/

Orlando is such a great place to visit during the holidays!! Last year, I took the kids to Disney for Christmas. We also stopped by the ICE Exhibit at the Gaylord Palms, which was amazing. They have everything from ice slides to complimentary parakas (it is kept at 9 degrees). The kids loved it and we didn't have to wait in any lines or crowds.

There is also a great website i found with everything going on in orlando during the christmas season: its called (christmasinorlando). i reccomend checking it out before you make plans, it was a ton of affordable alternatives to the theme parks.

Happy Holidays!

Looks like someone might be trying to promote their own website....

I did find this thread very useful, though, since I'm probably going to be heading to Epcot in early December with family.

christmasinorlando.com is a good site, i went to ICE also and found it refreshing to do somehting other then the parks during the holiday season.....

Yes, beachlover23, I notice that the only three posts you've made to fodors all involve promoting a certain web site.

How do you alert the moderators so they can delete the spam?