Belgium has nativity scenes all over their cities. In Leuven, there are at least 3. One of them a modern art version, one a live animal version, and the other one pretty normal. This one was in Brussels. Over here, there is not the big silly argument between the "secular" and "christian" groups about the appropriateness of a nativity scene. This is mostly because they have two separate christmas holidays. The one on December 6th with Sinter Klaas is the commercialized version where you give gifts. It is not a religious holiday at all. Then December 25th, there is the religiously affiliated holiday that tells the story of Jesus. No gifts are traditionally given on this day, but commercialism is starting to change that.
In the center of the christmas market was an ice skating rink. Mia LOVED to watch the skaters. We would have liked to try it out, but perhaps another time when Mommy isn't so top heavy.
We then rode the ferris wheel and got a great view of the market and ice skating. All of the little red roofs are the booths set up selling Christmas gifts like candles, shirts, food, wooden toys, lamps, and just about anything else you can think of. This was only one of the squares in town that had booths set up, there are at least two others that we saw, both smaller though.
Family photo in the ferris wheel. Krista isn't thrilled about spinning or heights, so she stayed with the stroller while we rode up high over Brussels.
By the time we headed back to the train all of the holiday lights were on. We walked to the Grote Markt and go this picture of the Brussels city hall. We really enjoyed going up and down the streets looking at all the shops and restaurants. The weather was actually pretty decent for a December day in Belgium.
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