Things to do around Christkindlmarket

The City of Chicago’s official Christmas tree was relocated in 2015 from Christkindlmarket to Millennium Park, where it now towers over the park’s ice-skating rink and caroling at the Bean. This year’s tree, a 62-foot Norway Spruce from Grayslake, Illinois, will be ceremonially lit on November 17, the same day skating opens at both the rink in front of the Park Grill and the skating ribbon in Maggie Daley Park. Caroling takes place at the Bean every Friday at 6pm from November 24 to December 15.

The holiday windows were revealed for the season on November 4 at Macy’s State Street (still Marshall Field’s in the hearts of generations of Chicagoans). The windows’ theme for 2017 is “Reasons to Believe,” marking 10 years of Macy’s Believe campaign. While you’re at the iconic store, check out the 45-foot-tall Great Tree in the Walnut Room and take the little ones to make their Christmas wishes known at Santaland in the kids’ department on the fifth floor.

The newest Chicago location of the AMC multiplex chain, located on the fourth floor of the Block 37 shopping center, offers 11 screens and AMC's full dine-in menu. Whether you’re taking the family to The Last Jedi or your girlfriends to A Bad Moms Christmas, kicking back in these lush theaters could be just the right cap to a day downtown.

All right, you’re not likely to get a sing-along White Christmas at this proudly highbrow cinema, named for the late Chicago Tribune movie critic and affiliated with the School of the Art Institute. But assuming you’re kidless for the day, a heady indie flick could be just the thing to sober you up from all that Glühwein.