Latest / Vegas Revealed / Holiday Happenings in Las Vegas: Lights, Cocktails, Chocolate | Ep. 96

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Holiday Happenings in Las Vegas: Lights, Cocktails, Chocolate | Ep. 96 · Vegas Revealed

• 0:00
  Dayna Roselli: Welcome to this festive edition of Vegas Revealed.
• 0:04
  Sean McAllister: Thanksgiving has passed, we're totally stuffed, and now the focus is on the holiday season.
• 0:09
  Sean McAllister: We're breaking down the merriest spots all around Las Vegas.
• 0:14
  Dayna Roselli: From skating on ice in the desert to creative cocktails to glittering lights and dazzling displays, we have it all right now.
• 0:22
  Sean McAllister: Let's spin that wheel and jingle some bells.
• 0:33
  Sean McAllister: Let's go to bags, let's say it's all night.
• 0:37
  Sean McAllister: Welcome to this special holiday edition of Vegas Revealed.
• 0:41
  Sean McAllister: Believe it or not, Las Vegas in the middle of the desert is actually one of the best places to get into the holiday spirit.
• 0:49
  Sean McAllister: Thanks for tuning in.
• 0:50
  Sean McAllister: I'm Sean McAllister along with Dana Roselli.
• 0:53
  Dayna Roselli: Yeah, I'm one of those people where if Christmas music starts playing before Thanksgiving, I am not into it.
• 0:58
  Dayna Roselli: I know people love it.
• 1:00
  Dayna Roselli: But now I'm ready.
• 1:02
  Dayna Roselli: So I think I'm ready for all these exciting things that are going on in Las Vegas to start.
• 1:07
  Sean McAllister: Well, you've kind of been getting primed for the season because uh since before Halloween, there has been Christmas just all over the place, everywhere you go, whether it's the drinks at Starbucks or you know the holiday section at the hardware store.
• 1:25
  Sean McAllister: Like everything has been Christmas uh earlier than it ever has been before.
• 1:30
  Dayna Roselli: It's true.
• 1:31
  Dayna Roselli: And I wonder, like, I mean, I know it's always kind of like earlier and earlier and earlier, but I know last year, my building, they put up the lights early, and they said because of the pandemic, and people were, you know, feeling not as happy as normal, that it made people happy.
• 1:45
  Dayna Roselli: So they thought, well, let's turn the lights on and, you know, start the season early.
• 1:50
  Sean McAllister: Well, it's funny.
• 1:51
  Sean McAllister: I saw uh some people on social media posting that they put up their holiday decorations, they put up their tree, they put up the lights, and they did that well before Thanksgiving, and you know, posted pictures and they were like, listen, don't give me any flack about this.
• 2:08
  Sean McAllister: It just makes me happy to wake up and see this stuff.
• 2:11
  Sean McAllister: So there are people who just have, you know, their their mood brightened by the holiday season.
• 2:17
  Sean McAllister: And if that's you, good on you.
• 2:19
  Sean McAllister: Take in those lights.
• 2:21
  Dayna Roselli: Exactly.
• 2:21
  Dayna Roselli: And you know what?
• 2:22
  Dayna Roselli: When I get to the Christmas music station, if I don't like it, I just change the station, right?
• 2:26
  Sean McAllister: I mean, easy enough.
• 2:27
  Dayna Roselli: Easy enough.
• 2:28
  Dayna Roselli: All right, but we um here in America celebrate Thanksgiving, and uh Thanksgiving just passed.
• 2:34
  Dayna Roselli: We wanted to do uh kind of a shorter little podcast.
• 2:37
  Dayna Roselli: We were gonna skip it this week, and then we thought, you know what?
• 2:39
  Dayna Roselli: There's so much holiday stuff going on in Las Vegas.
• 2:42
  Dayna Roselli: We know overseas travel has opened up, so December's a great time to visit.
• 2:46
  Dayna Roselli: We have, you know, usually pretty decent weather and incredible displays for the holidays and attractions.
• 2:53
  Dayna Roselli: So we're gonna give you a rundown of some of our favorites.
• 2:57
  Sean McAllister: And just a quick note about uh the attractions places that we're talking about.
• 3:03
  Sean McAllister: Pretty much all of them are already open, and a lot of them go through the holiday season, up to Christmas, and some even stretch into the first week of January.
• 3:15
  Sean McAllister: So if you want specific dates, you can you know check out the individual events, venues that we're talking about to get those specific dates.
• 3:25
  Sean McAllister: But in general, everything runs all the way through the holiday season.
• 3:28
  Dayna Roselli: Yeah, and go on our social media.
• 3:29
  Dayna Roselli: We're always talking about all these things, so just scroll through and you'll find information.
• 3:33
  Dayna Roselli: We are at Vegas Revealed, and you can find us on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, we even have a website.
• 3:42
  Dayna Roselli: We have everything.
• 3:43
  Sean McAllister: Vegas-revealed.com.
• 3:45
  Dayna Roselli: That's right.
• 3:45
  Dayna Roselli: Oh, and TikTok.
• 3:46
  Dayna Roselli: Our TikTok's always blowing up.
• 3:48
  Dayna Roselli: Okay, let's talk holiday spots.
• 3:56
  Dayna Roselli: The first one we wanted to get to is way up north, but it's an easy drive.
• 4:01
  Dayna Roselli: You literally go straight.
• 4:02
  Dayna Roselli: Leave the strip, go straight on the I-15, and head north to the Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
• 4:08
  Dayna Roselli: And they have an event there called Glittering Lights.
• 4:11
  Sean McAllister: And this is just an incredibly massive display of uh Christmas lights.
• 4:17
  Sean McAllister: And what makes it cool is that it's a drive-through attraction at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
• 4:23
  Sean McAllister: So you drive up, you load the family in the car, you drive through and see all of these amazing lights.
• 4:30
  Sean McAllister: And there's parts that are like you drive through a big lighted canopy and you know big animated light installation.
• 4:38
  Sean McAllister: So it really is a cool thing.
• 4:41
  Sean McAllister: The kids love it, parents love it.
• 4:43
  Sean McAllister: Um, I think they even have food trucks up there and some refreshments.
• 4:49
  Dayna Roselli: I think there's different stuff up there, and I think they have special things every night.
• 4:53
  Dayna Roselli: Or not every single night, but they have a lot of kind of theme nights, and people also liked it because you're in your car, you know, and with everything going on, with some people trying to keep a distance still, especially around the holidays.
• 5:05
  Dayna Roselli: Um, it's a good way to just pack the family in the car and go through and see the lights.
• 5:12
  Dayna Roselli: Really great attraction.
• 5:13
  Dayna Roselli: It can get busy, so they always say be prepared to maybe wait in line for a little bit, okay?
• 5:18
  Dayna Roselli: Keep that in mind.
• 5:20
  Dayna Roselli: Um, moving on to the Ethel M Cactus Garden.
• 5:23
  Dayna Roselli: We talked about this a little bit last year.
• 5:25
  Dayna Roselli: We have an amazing kind of chocolate factory.
• 5:27
  Dayna Roselli: It's Ethel M's chocolate, and they are in the Henderson area on the east side of Las Vegas, but they have every kind of different chocolate treat that you could want.
• 5:38
  Dayna Roselli: They even, I believe, have like brittle and all sorts of stuff, but they have a factory in there that's really cool, but they also have a cactus garden, and it's basically tons of different kinds of cactuses all lit up for the holidays.
• 5:49
  Sean McAllister: And it it's beautiful.
• 5:50
  Sean McAllister: This is a walkthrough attraction, and usually um at the end of the pathway that leads you through this lit, beautiful cactus garden, uh, Santa sits back there.
• 6:04
  Sean McAllister: So it's like a little north pole that's tucked back behind the cacti.
• 6:09
  Dayna Roselli: Yeah, it's really, really cool.
• 6:10
  Dayna Roselli: The one thing to keep in mind, last year they booked up quick.
• 6:14
  Dayna Roselli: So you might want to call and book a reservation now and just hold it while you can.
• 6:19
  Dayna Roselli: You know, in the current world we live in, reservations everywhere are always recommended.
• 6:23
  Dayna Roselli: So if they do take reservations, definitely book your slot now.
• 6:27
  Dayna Roselli: It's beautiful and great for pictures, especially because it's cactus and you're in the desert, so it's appropriate.
• 6:34
  Sean McAllister: I know.
• 6:34
  Sean McAllister: I I would hate to have that job of stringing up lights on the cacti.
• 6:39
  Sean McAllister: That seems like a dangerous job, doesn't it?
• 6:41
  Dayna Roselli: It does.
• 6:42
  Sean McAllister: So those are two attractions that are centered around really cool light displays.
• 6:50
  Sean McAllister: This next one is like a combination of your wildest winterland fantasies all combined into one big attraction.
• 7:00
  Sean McAllister: And it's called Enchant.
• 7:02
  Sean McAllister: And it's happening at the Las Vegas ballpark, which is on the west side of the Las Vegas Valley at downtown Summerlin.
• 7:10
  Dayna Roselli: Yeah, and if you're familiar with Red Rock Resort, it's right next to that.
• 7:13
  Dayna Roselli: So it's a good spot uh to go, and and if you want to hit Red Rock and then head over to Enchant.
• 7:19
  Dayna Roselli: But this is the first time that they are coming to Las Vegas.
• 7:22
  Dayna Roselli: So this is something so many people that live here are excited about.
• 7:26
  Dayna Roselli: You know, we love when new stuff comes our way.
• 7:28
  Dayna Roselli: I was just looking through the list of things that they have.
• 7:30
  Dayna Roselli: They have a light maze adventure, they have ice skating, they have food there, they have a village.
• 7:38
  Dayna Roselli: I mean, this looks cool.
• 7:39
  Dayna Roselli: Of course, Santa's there for pictures as well.
• 7:41
  Sean McAllister: And I know that they have kind of like a retail village set up too, and they're trying to include local vendors who sell winter and holiday-related items, whether it's crafting items or maybe it's a a gift that would be great to give to somebody that you can buy there.
• 8:02
  Sean McAllister: So there there is like a whole retail element to this as well.
• 8:06
  Sean McAllister: And you mentioned the ice skating, Dana, uh, here at Enchant, and it looks really cool.
• 8:12
  Sean McAllister: Instead of having it be an ice rink, it looks like there's this big ice river that flows around the entire attraction, and so you skate on this river rather than just in an oval rink.
• 8:26
  Dayna Roselli: Yeah, that's really cool.
• 8:27
  Dayna Roselli: When you look at some of the videos and pictures of this, I'm excited about it.
• 8:31
  Dayna Roselli: Everyone needs to basically go to the website because you need to buy tickets anyway, and it's enchantchristmas.com, just so you know.
• 8:40
  Dayna Roselli: But go through, there's a little ones play place where they have um things for kids.
• 8:45
  Dayna Roselli: The the number of activities are endless, and I cannot wait to see this in person.
• 8:50
  Dayna Roselli: So uh we're welcoming it to Las Vegas.
• 8:52
  Dayna Roselli: Tons of things, like Sean said.
• 8:54
  Dayna Roselli: Man, it looks fun.
• 8:55
  Sean McAllister: And another place where you can strap on your skates and get into the holiday spirit is at the Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas.
• 9:02
  Sean McAllister: They transform their boulevard pool deck into an ice skating arena with fire pits for marshmallow roasting, lots of uh festive holiday cocktails and treats that you can buy.
• 9:18
  Sean McAllister: Um, and as Dana has mentioned in past podcasts, they make it snow, which might confuse people down walking by on the strip, and they might think that it actually is snowing, but no, no, no, no, it's fake snow.
• 9:33
  Dayna Roselli: That's right.
• 9:33
  Dayna Roselli: It's pretty cool, and I know that every year they add more and more food items.
• 9:37
  Dayna Roselli: And this year I saw uh some of our friends at work there were testing out some of the food items, and it looked really, really good.
• 9:43
  Dayna Roselli: So you can make a whole night of it.
• 9:44
  Dayna Roselli: It's a great time.
• 9:45
  Dayna Roselli: And I mean, ice skating in Vegas on, you know, it's not necessarily all the way at the top of the cosmopolitan, but halfway on the pool deck.
• 9:52
  Dayna Roselli: So you're outside, you're up high, you're strip side, it's really cool.
• 9:57
  Sean McAllister: I still have my hockey skates from back in western New York.
• 10:02
  Sean McAllister: I need to get those blades sharpened and get ready to hit the ice.
• 10:05
  Dayna Roselli: And a favorite from last year, let's go back to Red Rock now, next door to where Enchant will be at the Las Vegas ballpark.
• 10:12
  Dayna Roselli: Red Rock is bringing back Merry Crimson.
• 10:15
  Dayna Roselli: They kicked this off last year and it was a hit.
• 10:18
  Dayna Roselli: People loved it so much.
• 10:19
  Dayna Roselli: We're so happy to see it's returning.
• 10:22
  Dayna Roselli: This is just like it's like Christmas threw up in there in the really indoors and out.
• 10:28
  Sean McAllister: In the best way possible.
• 10:29
  Dayna Roselli: In the best way possible.
• 10:30
  Dayna Roselli: Yeah, I don't mean that as a negative thing.
• 10:32
  Dayna Roselli: It's amazing.
• 10:32
  Dayna Roselli: The Christmas decorations are all over the place.
• 10:35
  Dayna Roselli: There's little elves running around.
• 10:37
  Dayna Roselli: There's Christmas uh themed cocktails, there's a DJ, you know, playing great music, and the outside by this little pool area has like the little cabanas and twinkling lights.
• 10:49
  Dayna Roselli: I mean, it's just it's an amazing experience.
• 10:51
  Dayna Roselli: And if you love the holidays, you will love this.
• 10:54
  Dayna Roselli: It's Merry Crimson at Red Rock.
• 10:57
  Dayna Roselli: You go in and head kind of straight through toward the back, and it's this holiday pop-up bar, which is becoming very popular for people to do these pop-ups.
• 11:06
  Sean McAllister: I think the first local bar that started this holiday pop-up trend is uh the Sandollar Lounge, which is on Spring Mountain Road, and they transform into the Miracle on Spring Mountain.
• 11:20
  Sean McAllister: It's a Christmas and holiday-themed pop-up bar, and they've done everything from the festive cocktails to having special dining nights inside of there.
• 11:33
  Sean McAllister: Um, so the miracle on Spring Mountain kind of kicked off this whole pop-up trend, and now Merry Crimson over at Red Rock has become a popular one as well.
• 11:43
  Sean McAllister: Miracle on Spring Mountain is doing that once again for the holiday season.
• 11:47
  Sean McAllister: And there is also another pop-up bar, this one at the Silverton Hotel and Casino.
• 11:53
  Sean McAllister: It's called Bad Elf, and it takes over the Shady Grove Lounge inside the Silverton, and the same idea.
• 12:01
  Sean McAllister: The cocktails, the the treats, there's elves hanging all from the ceiling.
• 12:06
  Sean McAllister: So, you know, those elves do report back to Santa.
• 12:09
  Sean McAllister: So you have to watch your behavior in there.
• 12:11
  Dayna Roselli: I do notice more and more.
• 12:13
  Dayna Roselli: I mean, things uh there listen, Christmas is always centered around decorations, but we're seeing a lot more, I think, decorations because of things like Instagram.
• 12:22
  Dayna Roselli: People want Instagrammable pictures, they want to put them on social media.
• 12:27
  Dayna Roselli: So we're seeing more of this type of thing, and we love it.
• 12:30
  Dayna Roselli: Bad Elf sounds like a good time to me.
• 12:32
  Sean McAllister: It does.
• 12:34
  Dayna Roselli: And if you want to get a little shopping in, you can head over to the fashion show.
• 12:38
  Dayna Roselli: That's right on the strip.
• 12:39
  Dayna Roselli: It's the mall, right across from the wind Las Vegas.
• 12:42
  Dayna Roselli: They always do great holiday-themed events there.
• 12:46
  Dayna Roselli: And this year they're having the typical photos with Santa, and then they are also having um a bunch of different things that they do over in the fashion show area.
• 12:55
  Dayna Roselli: That's kind of this runway that it pops up every now and then and they have fashion shows.
• 12:59
  Dayna Roselli: But Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays, they're gonna have a winter wonderland experience there.
• 13:05
  Dayna Roselli: They are also doing a holiday glow live, they're calling it, to celebrate the season.
• 13:10
  Dayna Roselli: That's also at the fashion show, Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays.
• 13:13
  Dayna Roselli: And then as I mentioned, Santa Pictures, they're also having a Santa Care's Day, and they're having pet nights with Santa, and that is a Santa set right near Neiman Marcus in the court.
• 13:23
  Dayna Roselli: So you can go there and have a what they're calling a positively good time.
• 13:28
  Dayna Roselli: Am I saying positively?
• 13:30
  Sean McAllister: Positively.
• 13:31
  Sean McAllister: There you go.
• 13:31
  Sean McAllister: You got it.
• 13:32
  Sean McAllister: Oh, how cute is that.
• 13:33
  Sean McAllister: Um, and if you're in the mood for Christmas music, if you just have not gotten enough of it on the radio and in every store that you go to, uh, the Venetian Las Vegas is putting on a production called This Is Christmas.
• 13:46
  Sean McAllister: And there are it's a great lineup of talent that's going to be performing in this show that's packed full of all your holiday favorites, the music and the classics.
• 13:58
  Sean McAllister: Um, a lot of American Idol uh contestants are a part of this as well.
• 14:02
  Sean McAllister: So that's a production show that is happening at the Venetian, and uh tickets for that start at uh$69.
• 14:11
  Dayna Roselli: We're gonna go check that out too, and so we'll obviously do more on the podcast in a later date and let you know how the show is.
• 14:18
  Dayna Roselli: So there's also other Christmas themed shows.
• 14:20
  Dayna Roselli: Terry Fader's doing a Christmas themed show, so check around.
• 14:24
  Dayna Roselli: We have a lot of things that are definitely appropriate for the holidays.
• 14:28
  Dayna Roselli: Uh something else that's just a staple is the Bellagio Conservatory.
• 14:31
  Dayna Roselli: You can always go there during the holidays, they have an incredible display full of flowers and animated characters.
• 14:38
  Dayna Roselli: So the list is endless.
• 14:39
  Dayna Roselli: We wanted to pass it on to you and you know, hope give you an idea that you know you can come to Las Vegas for the holidays.
• 14:47
  Sean McAllister: And one more thing that I wanted to mention, Dana, there's also uh Boulder City's Santa Express.
• 14:54
  Sean McAllister: So this is on uh a vintage train that takes you on a ride.
• 14:58
  Sean McAllister: And if you're lucky, uh Old St.
• 15:00
  Sean McAllister: Nick himself might pay a visit to you as you're chugging down the tracks on the train out there in Boulder City, which is you know outside of Las Vegas, but still in the area, worth the drive, cute shops down there that I'm sure are in the spirit as well.
• 15:18
  Dayna Roselli: Oh yeah, it's uh really cute.
• 15:19
  Dayna Roselli: And I know uh a lot of parents that have taken their kids on that and they loved it too.
• 15:28
  Dayna Roselli: We wanted to get on, get on early and say happy holidays, enjoy the season, enjoy your friends, enjoy your family, and go out and do a bunch of holiday stuff.
• 15:37
  Sean McAllister: And also do some hiking and work off all of those Thanksgiving calories.
• 15:41
  Sean McAllister: I know I need to do that.
• 15:43
  Dayna Roselli: It's funny because Thanksgiving is not my favorite kind of food, so I never have to worry about it.
• 15:48
  Sean McAllister: No, my plate is always overflowed, and once again this year it it was.
• 15:53
  Sean McAllister: So there's lots of work that needs to be done.
• 15:56
  Dayna Roselli: Something that we actually don't have in common, because everything else we always find out, we have so much in common.
• 16:01
  Dayna Roselli: Like Sean and I both swallow our gum.
• 16:04
  Dayna Roselli: We discovered that.
• 16:04
  Dayna Roselli: We're gonna talk about that next week.
• 16:06
  Dayna Roselli: I'm gonna save that story for a whole nother time.
• 16:09
  Dayna Roselli: But I never met anyone else in my life that swallows their gum like I do, but Sean does.
• 16:14
  Dayna Roselli: That's why we were meant to work together.
• 16:15
  Sean McAllister: But please send in your comments on social media so we can include those next week when we go in-depth on swallowing gum.
• 16:23
  Dayna Roselli: We've got to get to a meeting, everyone, so we are gonna head out.
• 16:26
  Dayna Roselli: Happy holidays and visit us.
• 16:28
  Dayna Roselli: And if you don't visit us, plan to visit us in the new year of 2022, because that is right around the corner.
• 16:34
  Dayna Roselli: I can't believe it.
• 16:35
  Sean McAllister: We'll be back next week with an all new episode of Vegas Revealed.
• 16:39
  Sean McAllister: Ho ho ho let's go in vegan, baby.
• 16:50
  Sean McAllister: Let's go in there.
• 16:51
  Sean McAllister: Let's go to the bag.
• 16:53
  Sean McAllister: Let's go in vegan.