Does anyone know if there are any special Christmas events taking place in Vegas during the holidays, such as tree lightings, musicals or light shows. My husband and I would like to spend a few nights sometime in December to see the city dressed up for Christmas. Any suggestions?

You might go the the Ethel M. Chocolate Factory and Cactus Garden. They have the cactus garden decorated with several hundred thousand lights. They have hot chocolate and choirs and such on some nights.

Bellagio will have a "must see" holiday presentation in its arboretum.

The Rio usually has an enormous tree brought in to place in front of the hotel. It's usually bigger than the one in NYC. Unfortunately, when standing next to the hotel's 40-story neon-lit tower, it loses something in the translation.

For musicals, you might check the schedule for the performance hall at UNLV. They may have some holiday presentations lined up.

I wouldn't expect to see too much else in the way of holiday decorations.

Hope this helps.

We were there last year, mid-December. I cannot recall one single holiday decoration.

A tree larger than Rock Center? I would think I'd remember that!

Woops, sorry. I just remembered a tree made out of oversized ornaments in the lobby of the Bellagio.

Leona made me curious about the exact height of the Las Vegas and NYC trees. I did some googling and could only find these facts...

The Rio's tree was 109 feet for the 1998 Christmas season. The NYC tree was 76 feet in the 2002 Christmas season.

I couldn't find any exact year-to-year comparisons.

Thanks for the replies. The Ethel M garden sounds nice. I wasn't sure if Vegas "does" Christmas. Our other option is Palm Springs. We just have 2 nights, so can't go far from Phoenix.

I imagine that the Bellagio does something really pretty with their garden inside too.

sorry, vegaslocal, that is what you said