I always love to document our travels. As a couple of Mayank and I share a common love for exploring new places. Whenever we have an opportunity to visit a new place, see something different or explore a different city, we take it. So when an opportunity to visit a close-by city ‘Toronto' for Christmas this year presented itself, we decided to go for it. Toronto, although is located in a different country ‘Canada', is only two hours away from us as our city Buffalo is located on the border of Canada.

Quick Shop

Parka // Sweater // Jeans // Gloves // Beanie

Mishika: Outerwear // Jeans // Sweater // Hat & Mitten Set

The idea to explore Toronto during this crazy winter came up when one of my colleague mentioned to me about the Toronto Christmas Market that she had recently visited and she could not stop talking about how beautiful it was. I knew it then and there that I wanted to visit the Christmas market happening in Toronto this year.

Our biggest challenge for this trip was the harsh winter. We live in Buffalo which is already below freezing temperature during winter and we wanted to move more towards the north ‘Canada' with a toddler. Before the trip, I was getting a little anxious about the whole winter and how Mishika was going to react to it but seeing Mayank's enthusiasm, it boosted my confidence and I was up for the challenge. We were open to the idea that if our one year old does not feel up to it we would quit the whole Christmas market and just go to our hotel and relax. One thing that I have learnt travelling with a baby is your plans always change and you need to be as flexible as possible!

Our plan was to directly drive to the Christmas market from our place, spend a few hours there and stay the night in Toronto downtown and explore the biggest indoor aquarium ‘Ripley's Aquarium' the next day. We started our drive from Toronto on Saturday at noon. Although the Christmas market was approx 2 hours away from our destination, it took us close to 2.5 hours to reach our destination (thanks to the traffic due to holiday season!). We parked our car in a public parking close to the Christmas market which was a 2 min walk to our destination.

As I stepped into the Toronto chrismas market, I felt like I had stepped into the land of ‘The Hobbit'. There were small stalls of local art and craft everywhere showing off their beautiful artwork and handwork, twinkling fairy lights, the aroma of freshly baked ginger cookies and carollers singing so sweetly to lift our spirits. As we walked around exploring the Christmas market we sipped on multiple cups of hot chocolate in an attempt to stay warm, snacked on many different flavors of candy cane because one clearly wasn't enough and looked for the best stocking stuffers at every stall for Mishika.

I tried to introduce Mishika to Santa but she clearly was not very happy (lol, i guess she was scared). All this while Mishika was a great sport and loved her time out. She even danced at the Christmas carolls.

Every time we felt that the cold was getting unbearable we stepped into shops located on the side of the Christmas market.For dinner we took a break at a warm fireside and got ourselves some nice plate of poutines, mac n' cheese and some hot coffee.Finally after spending good three hours at the Christmas market, we decided to head back to the hotel as the weather was getting too chilly for us to be outside.

Well, our adventures for the day was clearly not done yet. For our night in Toronto we were trying out a new hotel this time ‘The York Boutique Suites‘. To our surprise we had no idea that it was located on the 65th floor. Our hotel room was actually a suite (small apartment) with two bedrooms and a living room, dining room and a kitchen. We were located in downtown Toronto and from our 65th floor had the best view of the city with a partial lake view. It was all so amazing and the thing that I loved the most was that it was directly facing the CN Tower. The CN Tower was all colorfully lighted up and we could see people going up and down in the glass lift from our glass windows.

The below pic is the view from our window!!

We took a small walk around the downtown for a few minutes and bought ourselves some groceries for the next day breakfast and for dinner, as we were completely exhausted with the long drive and the Christmas market we decided to order in and enjoy our fabulous view. After our dinner, we played for a while with Mishika and she was happy to be at a new place and was completely glued to the window. I guess she was too amazed to watch all the city lights (something that we don't get to quiet see in Buffalo). Finally when it was bedtime for Mishika, usually she likes me to rock her to sleep but to our surprise, she just quietly lay on the bed watching the changing color lights of the CN Tower and dozed off. I think she was very exhausted from all the exciting experiences of the day.

I hope you all had a great Christmas this year with your family. In this post, I have shared with you all our links to the Christmas market and our hotel in case you plan to visit next year!

 

Related travel articles from the blog:

9 super useful travel gears for flying with a toddler

How I kept my toddler entertained on a 28-hour long international flight

How I organized my diaper bag for an international flight with a toddler

Traveling tips with an infant on an international flight

 

Merry Christmas!