Silver Dollar City - Branson

Since it is a family vacation, one of the things we had bookmarked in Branson when we first looked at it was Silver Dollar City and a dinner cruise on the Showboat Branson Belle!

All four of us enjoy amusement parks and we loved the options available this fall at Silver Dollar City--the National Crafts & Cowboy Festival from September 13 - October 28, and an An Old Time Christmas from November 4 - December 30.  Based on our time frame, we'll be checking out An Old Time Christmas, but both festivals look awesome!

For fall, Silver Dollar City presents the National Crafts & Cowboy Festival.  The Home of American Craftsmanship presents the nation's largest festival of demonstrating craftsmen, with entertainment and activities saluting the Great American Cowboy:

• Over 125 visiting craftsmen from around the country demonstrate their art, including Best of Missouri Hands juried artists, all joining Silver Dollar City's 100 demonstrating craftsmen. 
• Silver Dollar City's Wild West Show features trick riders, Native American dance with 8-time World Champion Native American Hoop Dancer Nakotah LaRance, comedy canines, and trick roper and bullwhip artist A.J. Silver. 
• Legendary Western actor and watercolor artist, Buck Taylor, hosts "Buck Taylor's Cowboy Emporium," featuring a variety of Western crafts. 
• Chuck Wagon & Food Network Chef Kent Rollins and Extreme Mustangs are featured in the Red Gold courtyard. 
• A Western Barn Dance presents kick-up-your-heels fun, with a live band and western music with groups including The Malpass Brothers, The Home Rangers, Belinda Gail and Kristyn Harris, 2016 Western Music Association Entertainer of the Year. 
• The nation's pioneer culinary heritage comes to life with campfire cooking and cowboy cuisine, including Cowboy Beef Stew and Dutch Oven Desserts.

Silver Dollar City's An Old Time Christmas festival is one of the nation's most acclaimed Christmas festivals, profiled by USA Today, CNN Travel, The Travel Channel and Good Morning America, is even bigger and brighter this year with an all-new area!

• The new Christmas in Midtown is a 70,000 sq. ft. area filled with new light displays 9 stories high, including 30 angels, animated reindeer pulling a sleigh, 3 light tunnels, two 40-foot long moving trains, dozens of stars and snowflakes, and a 50-foot tree, all created at Silver Dollar City. Christmas in Midtown is the largest single lighting expansion to date in the past 2 decades of the festival, and adds 1.5 million new lights, bringing the park's total to 6.5 million lights!
• Rudolph's Holly Jolly Christmas Light Parade, led by the most famous reindeer of all, features musical lighted floats with 200,000 lights accompanied by 33 costumed characters.
• Rudolph's Christmas Town, where kids can meet Rudolph, Clarice and Bumble, also includes activities from Reindeer Games to cookie decorating.
• Two original musical productions present Broadway-style experiences, with elaborate sets and talented casts: It's a Wonderful Life, adapted from the Frank Capra classic, and the acclaimed production A Dickens' Christmas Carol.
• The Christmas on Main Street light & sound show features the 5-Story Special Effects Christmas Tree with over 350,000 colorful LED lights.
• Tinker Junior's Toy Shop is an interactive show for kids featuring a 12-foot talking and singing Christmas tree.
• Kids can meet Santa in Santa Claus Lane, illuminated in colorful lights.
• Plus, the festival presents holiday shows, a musical Living Nativity, shows, rides, shopping and new Silver Dollar City dining specialties.

Disclosure: This post is written in conjunction with my partnership with USFamilyGuide. All opinions are my own.