Northern Arizona is the destination of choice for Arizona’s visitors and residents alike when winter arrives. Those living further south and dreaming of a white Christmas flock to Flagstaff, Sedona, and Prescott. Prescott is known as “Arizona’s Christmas City,” after all. Just because Northern Arizona is a great place to be for Christmas doesn’t mean that the holiday celebrations stop there. Across Arizona you’ll find a wide array of events to start the New Year off with fun and festivities.
Prescott Valley
Prescott Valley’s New Year’s Eve Celebration is a free, family-friendly, community celebration hosted in the Prescott Valley Event Center parking lot. Come join your neighbors for games, hot chocolate, s’mores and a bonfire. Prescott Valley will be welcoming the New Year with a bang and hosting firework shows at 8:30 and Midnight. This early firework show makes Prescott Valley’s New Year’s Eve Celebration a great choice for families with kids or grandkids. With the Event Center conveniently located in the Prescott Valley Entertainment District, you’ll have ample choices for dinner or drinks before, during, or after the New Year’s festivities.
Prescott
There’s no place quite like Prescott’s Whiskey Row to say goodbye to 2018. Located on Courthouse Square in Downtown Prescott, Whiskey Row boasts a bevy of restaurants and bars that are all within walking distance of one another. Start your evening with Prime Rib and King Crab at Murphy’s before grabbing a glass of wine or cocktail at The Palace, the oldest frontier saloon in Arizona. After that you’re free to eat and drink your way down Whiskey Row before the famed Boot Drop.
Now in its 8th year, the Whiskey Row Boot Drop has become a celebrated holiday tradition in Prescott. The 6-foot illuminated boot will be dropped twice, once at 10 P.M. and again at midnight, from a 40-foot flagpole at The Palace. This event is free to all ages and will feature prizes throughout the night, music, Ferris wheel rides, and food and drink from vendors. Each of the two drops will be accompanied by fireworks lighting up the night sky.
The Verde Valley
If you’re hoping to start 2019 a little early, Camp Verde is hosting an Almost New Year’s Eve Concert at the Phillip England Center for the Performing Arts on December 30th. This matinee show features the Santan Swing Band playing the exciting sounds of Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Frank Sinatra and more.
In Sedona the Sound Bites Grill will be hosting a New Year’s Eve Celebration featuring live music, a 4-course dinner, party favors and a midnight toast. The dynamic band “Diversity” performs a blend of Motown, rock, dance, and hip-hop like no others. This is a 21-and-over event and tickets can be purchased in advance at http://www.soundbitesgrill.com.
On January 1st you can start working off those holiday calories at Dead Horse Ranch State Park with their annual First Day Hikes. Visitors will meet at 10 A.M. near the West Lagoon for a guided 3-mile birding and nature hike along the Verde River. The park also offers a 1 P.M. guided upland hike overlooking the Verde Valley. This hike offers great views of the Verde River and Tuzigoot National Monument.
Wherever you spend the end of 2018, you’re sure to find delicious food, carefully crafteddrinks,and a good time. There’s no better way to start the New Year than that. For more information about the communities we build in or the homes we build, reach out to an Online Home Advisor today.
