Winter Break Ideas 

When the holiday festivities are finished, head out with your family for winter explorations. Here's a run-down of some of the family-friendly events happening over the school break:

ECHO’s Wild Lights Festival provides frosty fun, including a reindeer visit on Saturday, Dec. 26, snowflake activities, owl programs and snowball flings daily at noon and 2 p.m.. Don't miss Lake Brite  — a project which uses more than 7,500 LED lights individually programmed to create a visual interpretation of Lake Champlain data — which lights up on Tuesday, Dec. 29, at 4 p.m.

A day trip to Billings’ Farm & Museum's Christmas at the Farm includes either sleigh- or horse-drawn wagon rides (weather-dependent), farmhouse tours and tasty treats.

Bolton Valley Resort's Family Week includes indoor inflatables and video games, camp fires, ice cream socials, kids' movies and balloon sculptures.

For the artistically inclined, Webby’s Art Studio at Shelburne Museum offers themed crafts inspired by the museum's exhibits from 11 a.m.-3 p.m. daily, Dec. 26-30.  South Burlington's Wildflower Studio offers expanded open-studio hours in their indoor creative play space Tues. Dec. 29-Thurs. Dec. 31.

For choo-choo aficionados, Henry Sheldon Museum in Middlebury is showcasing an electric-train exhibit, Tues.-Sun. afternoons through Jan. 8.

Montshire Museum's Machine Madness runs Dec. 27-Jan. 1. Families sign up for a building session then have one hour to  construct a chain-reaction machine using materials and tools provided by the museum.  

Finally, if you're looking to burn off some of those holiday treats, don't forget Burlington's FirstRun on New Year's Day, which includes both a 5K and a youth fun run.