Whether you’re packing a passel of lenses or simply snapping shots with your cell phone, San Antonio offers an array of opportunities for holiday memory making. Here’s a list of 10 great suggestions – but more spots will surely arise as you venture from place to photogenic place … The River Walk. Popular with photographers all year long, the fabled waterway comes to even more colorful life during the holiday season. The best opportunities will be after dusk, especially on weekends from Dec. 4-20 when the thousands of luminarias lining the river add their glow to the already dazzling array of lights strung in the cypresses that are sentinels to the river’s course through the city. Barges bearing carolers and strolling musical groups will add to the atmosphere.
Alamo Plaza. The city’s Christmas tree, decorated with super-scale ornaments, is a perennial crowd-pleaser, and it also lends an opportunity for unique photos of the Alamo. Consider shooting this one at both day and night. Main Plaza. The recent renovation of Main Plaza has opened new vistas of San Fernando Cathedral, and during holiday evenings outlined illumination makes the subject even more appealing. This year for the first time, CPS Energy will sponsor the lighting of a new Christmas tree featuring 1,200 energy-conscious LED lights. The event, called Silver Bells in the City, takes place at 6 p.m. Dec. 5 and also features a hand bell choir. Market Square. While in the neighborhood, get on down to Market Square, where it’s Christmas year ‘round at legendary Mexican eatery Mi Tierra; the interior décor is worth both a look and a shot or two. (And you might as well enjoy great their great food and margaritas while you’re at it.) Dec. 5 is also a good day to expand your photo collection in this historic setting with the annual blessing of the animals and procession at 11 a.m. Festivities continue until 6 p.m.
Milam Park. This park named for an Alamo defender is the starting point of La Gran Posada, the annual reenactment of Mary and Joseph’s search for lodging. Beginning at 6 p.m. on Dec. 20, participants carry candles past historic sites, and the procession ends at Main Plaza (see above) where the photo setting is already appealing in its own right. Another posada takes place the same day at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Little Flower located at Culebra and N. Zarzamora west of downtown.
University of the Incarnate Word. The Word’s a wonderland of over a million colored lights during the holidays, and visitors can walk or drive through the historic campus north of town to experience the show. Lights stay up through the first week of the new year. Windcrest. This normally quiet neighborhood northeast of town becomes a hotbed of creativity and competition during the Christmas season when residents vie for coveted awards for best house and yard décor. Photographers are all surefire winners regardless of the outcome. North Star Mall. A pair of 40-foot-tall cowboy boots, the Giant Justins, showed up at North Star Mall back in 1980. The work of Texas artist Bob “Daddy-O” Wade, they have been the occasion of many a Kodak Moment ever since – but never more so than during the holidays when the already outrageous footwear is festooned with Christmas lights. Bring a wide-angle lens for best effect.
Theme Parks. Okay, we know Santa snaps are old hat, but Shamu with a Santa cap? Surely that makes the genre worth reconsidering. SeaWorld San Antonio also transforms itself into an illuminated village for the season as does Six Flags Fiesta Texas, which throws in holiday-themed shows of its own. For the only shots featuring snow and ice, however, you’ll have to make the short drive to New Braunfels and Schlitterbahn Waterpark Resort. Here, technology supplies the real thing, if only temporarily, for sledding, skating and maybe even a snowball fight or two, all under a canopy of millions of Christmas lights.
Tower of the Americas. A striking evening shot of the illuminated River Walk is waiting atop the Tower of the Americas, with lights tracing the course of the river as at no other time of year. Besides, it’s worth making the acquaintance of the Tower – especially if San Antonio figures into your New Year’s Eve plans, as it should – since it’s from the Tower that fireworks are launched at the state’s biggest celebration ringing in the new. You’ll want to be on tierra firma with the Tower in the background for this dazzling show. Festivities start on Alamo Street between Market and Durango at 6 p.m. New Year’s Eve and continue, with music on four stages, until the rocket’s last glare at 12:30 a.m.
