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A veritable winter wonderland debuts today on Boston’s City Hall Plaza with ice skating, food, shopping, and entertainment. Boston Winter builds upon European-style holiday markets, bringing in so much festivity for folks to explore from now until February 2017.
The city of Boston partnered with the Boston Garden Development Corp. to develop plans for the winter plaza, which includes a custom ice skating path. The 42 wooden cottages that are part of the Boston Winter complex will house everything from retailers to food vendors, and there will be stalls for wine and chocolate tastings. Tickets are required for some of the attractions, and there will be a decorated Christmas tree and a Chanukah menorah.
Visitors have a number of options to choose from if they’re feeling peckish between activities. The Urban Lodge is modeled after a beer garden and will serve beer, wine, non-alcoholic beverages, and snacks, while in the Bavarian Village (which will stick around just until the end of December), there will be bratwursts, pretzels with mustard, sauerkraut, fondue, and mulled wine.
Boston Winter will operate Sunday through Thursday from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m., with the shopping stalls closing at 7 p.m. On Friday and Saturday, the plaza will remain open until 10 p.m., with the stalls closing at 8 p.m. The grand opening kicks off Friday, December 2 at 3 p.m.
UPDATE, 5:20 p.m.: Due to unseasonably warm weather that melted the skating path, the grand opening has been rescheduled to Wednesday, December 7 at 4:30 p.m.
• Boston Winter at City Hall Plaza [Official Site]