We have a couple of timeshares and last year we had a week that we had to use or we would lose it, so we decided to avoid the normal family drama of the holidays and go to Vegas.  We had never really considered going to Las Vegas over the holidays, so we weren’t sure of what to expect.  We had a full seven nights, which is really too many nights for Vegas, but we were staying at the Trump Tower, which doesn’t have a casino, so at least we had a place to go to get away from the noise.  Our youngest daughter was joining us for three nights in the middle of our stay, so we had two nights before she joined us and two nights after she left.  We would definitely need the nights towards the end to try and recover from spending three nights with a twenty-five year old, way to much eating and drinking for the two of us who had both turned fifty that year.

First thing about Christmas in Las Vegas is that the casinos don’t really do much to celebrate Christmas, so the strip is just like the strip at any other time of the year.  New Year’s Eve was definitely their focus and there were bill boards and advertisements for all of the special concerts and parties that were coming to town.  There were a few hotels that did some displays, such as the Bellagio, the Venetian, and Caesar’s Palace.  Other than that, it was business as usual for the casinos.

We’ve been to Vegas several times, so we were pleased that there were far fewer crowds in town for the week, which was nice.  Most of the people that were there seemed to travel from overseas and were likely going to be there for a couple of weeks.  The days of the cheap buffets and steak dinners are definitely a thing of the past and now Las Vegas and the strip is home to restaurants touting celebrity chef names in every corner of the casinos.  Dinner on the strip can cost you more than an evening of gambling, but the food is definitely excellent.

We always take in a show when we’re in Vegas and have done several of the Cirque Du Soleil shows, but we decided to go and see Penn and Teller.  We wanted our daughter to see their show, which is a lot of fun, and the two of them take time after the show to talk and take pictures with everyone from the audience.  Afterwards, by attending their show, you’re able to get into the Voodoo Lounge at the Rio, which is the nightclub that they own and is on the roof of the Rio.  You get some amazing views of the strip as well as some tasty cocktails.

We actually flew home the day after Christmas, exhausted, but Christmas Day was probably the strangest day of the trip.  Apparently there are extremely cheap flights from California to Las Vegas if you’re willing to fly on Christmas Day, and people were apparently very willing.  Lines to check into hotels were a mile long and if you wanted to get a bite to eat at one of the restaurants, you had better be willing to wait.  It was a sudden, and unwelcome, change to what had been a somewhat quiet week, at least in terms of Vegas.  It is unlikely that we’ll ever do Christmas at Las Vegas again, but in the end we had a lot of fun and made some interesting memories.