Freeport and the L.L. Bean Northern Lights Celebration December 2019

Freeport is one of our favorite spots in Maine  to visit, especially during December. Both Freeport and L.L. Bean are beautifully decorated for the holidays and L.L. Bean hosts an annual “Northern Lights Celebration”. There are several free activities, perfect for kids. We’ve made it a tradition to attend the past couple of years.

We arrived in Freeport a little after noon, right when things were beginning for the day.  We started inside the store, checking out the things we typically visit during an L.L. Bean trip. These include the fish tank, the trout pond and the various giant taxidermy animals.

After checking out our usual favorites we stopped by the giant snow globe and took a family photo. Then we headed up to the kids department to see the miniature trains set up amongst a decorated beautiful tiny New England village. There were so many details to discover and the kids loved it.

After that Anika and Jake stopped to write and mail a letter to Santa. Anika drew Santa a picture to go along with it.

Next we headed outside, Anika took a quick giant boot picture, and then we all got in line to meet Santa.

It was a bit of a wait so we took pictures along the way to entertain ourselves.

After meeting Santa and getting a candy cane we stopped by the Cocoa Bar for some free hot cocoa and drank it inside the cozy warming hut.

We followed up our hot cocoa with the Winter Kids Story Walk. Each page of the book was placed throughout the Discovery Forest. We’ve done story walks in the past but never nestled in lovely lit pine trees. This one was pretty special.

After the story walk we stopped to see Santa’s reindeer and we checked out the line for the wagon ride through downtown Freeport. We decided to skip it since neither kid was that interested and it was a bit of a wait.

At this point we were all hungry so we got an early dinner at Linda Bean’s Maine Kitchen that was delicious and kid friendly. We had views of the lights at L.L. Bean through the window.

After dinner we checked out the L.L. Bean outlet where I purchased some new flannel pajamas. The outlet is such a great place to find L.L. Bean products for cheap. I found a pair of pajamas that were 40 percent off. Jamie somehow managed to negotiate the price down another 10 percent. They are fantastic and I’ve worn them pretty much every night they have been clean since.

At this point the sun has set and we decided to do one last walk through the L.L. Bean Discovery Forest to see the lights at night. It was gorgeous.

We headed to our hotel to check in for the night. This trip we stayed at The Hilton Garden Inn. It is within walking distance of everything.

We were all pretty exhausted after a long day and quickly settled in to snuggle and watch a Charlie Brown Christmas special before going to sleep. The next morning we had a quick breakfast in the hotel’s restaurant, then went back to our room to change into our bathing suits and swim in the pool. It was small, but heated and the kids loved it. We stayed for awhile without anyone shivering or turning blue. Anika and Jake were both pretty pruned up when we finally got them out. We headed back to the room to shower, get ready for the day and check out of our hotel.

This was a quick but wonderful trip to Freeport.