Photo: obvio171 (cc-by-sa)
A trip to the airport doesn’t have to be purely functional.
If going to a shopping mall to get your Santa or Christmas carols fix doesn’t sound too appealing to you, how about an airport? After all, as travelers, they should seem like our second home.
Harriet Baskas at USA Today has compiled a pretty cool list in her article At the Airport: Contests, carolers, coupons, and karaoke for the holidays. I’ll even give her two bonus points for her use of alliteration.
Here are some of the interesting sounding events happening at an airport near you:
Indianapolis International Airport
When: December 12
What: Petting zoos! Well, sort of. One is hosted by the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra where you can get up close and personal with their instruments. The second is being held by the Humane Society of Indianapolis where you can also adopt a pet.
Photo: TheGiantVermin
Musical entertainment will be on site all month, culminating on Christmas Eve with a Santa tuba ensemble.
Philadelphia International Airport
When: December 15 – 24
What: Santa will be milling around greeting travelers and posing for pics.
I would have thought he’d be extra busy in the toy factory, but I suppose for a man who gets around the world in a single night, time isn’t an issue.
Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport
When: All of December
What: Coupons. 80 of them to be exact.
Pick your booklet up at one of the information booths or online at ShopsAtMSP.com. Peruse this schedule of musical entertainment and pick your dates.
George Bush International Airport and Detroit Metro Airport
When: December 19 at GBI and December 20 – 23 at DMA (McNamara/Delta Terminal)
What: Karaoke. Everyone loves karaoke.
Here in Australia, I just heard that ABBA’s Waterloo is the top pick for wannabe crooners. Word of caution: I would definitely be wary about choosing Tom Jones’s Sex Bomb. Not a good word to use there.
For more airport events, make sure to visit the article at USA Today. Maybe there’s something happening near you.
COMMUNITY CONNECTION
For more airport reading, check out Food on the Fly — the Best Airport Restaurants, The World’s 10 Most Technologically Advanced Airport Terminals, and — at the other end of the spectrum — The World’s Worst Airports.
Maybe you’re using an airport to get to Europe this December. If so, don’t miss Where to Find the Best Christmas Markets in Europe.
So tell me, besides catching a flight or just people-watching, do you go to airports for other reasons?
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9 Comments... join the discussion!
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Hmmm…maybe LA is too multicultural, for fear of offending anyone they do nothing?
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Ooooh, Karaoke at an airport. People drunk in the middle of the day singing horribly to people who aren’t drunk. Sounds like the real Christmas spirit to me!
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Haha. Yeah, that about sums up the holidays.
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I don’t know about the petting zoo, but the Indianapolis Airport is the nicest I’ve been in. Seriously.
No traffic getting there.
No lines.
Free wifi.
And a TSA Agent smiles at me.
Compared to O’hare, I was in heaven.
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I would definitely be wary about choosing Tom Jones’s Sex Bomb. Not a good word to use there.
Ha ha! I just woke up the baby I laughed so hard.
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Thanks so much for mentioning my USA Today story about all the fun stuff happening at airports this holiday season. I’ve got more tidbits for travelers on my blog: http://www.StuckatTheAirport.com.
See you at the airport!
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Hey, our pleasure Harriet. Thanks for stopping by and leaving a comment. And thanks for the link, great resource! I’ll be at JFK in March, so will make sure to check it out at your site.
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Well I can relate with this blog because I had also celebrated my 2006 Christmas at the Bangkok airport. I clearly remember I had an important meeting to attend in Auckland and I booked a ticket at http://zapbooking.com/ one day before Christmas. I reach the air airport around 11:30 and there was this nice, young lady at the airport with two kids who cut the cake at the Airport at 12. We were around 40 strange people there and we celebrated Christmas together. That was the most surprising Christmas party i ever had so far.
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