Church Street Marketplace – Burlington, Vermont, USA

Burlington’s Christmas season kicks off the day after Thanksgiving. Santa parades through downtown at noon. That evening, carols start at the top of the street, and at 6 pm sharp a 30-foot tree and 100,000 lights switch on. This year it’s Friday, November 27, and a tree has gone up here every year since the Marketplace opened in 1981.

The idea came from Copenhagen. In 1962, an architecture student named Bill Truex saw the city’s main shopping street go from a traffic nightmare to a thriving pedestrian mall, and he brought the idea home. It took Burlington almost 20 years, but the Marketplace opened in September 1981. During 16 months of construction, not a single shop on the street moved or closed. The white-steepled church at the top of the street dates from 1816, and it’s the one in the Marketplace logo.

Did You Know? Ben & Jerry’s started a block away in 1978, in an old gas station at the corner of St. Paul and College Streets. The two founders had learned to make ice cream from a $5 correspondence course.

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