Are you staying in Houston for these Holidays?
Whether you’re celebrating Christmas, Hanukkah, or simply indulging in festive treats starting with Thanksgiving, staying committed to your fitness goals doesn’t mean skipping workouts. The winter holidays also bring plenty of fun activities to enjoy in and around Houston, including near our studio in Bellaire, TX. For easy tips on staying active and healthy during the season, check out our blog, “Healthy Holidays: Strategies to Stay Fit.”
We compiled some of the team’s favorite places to take visiting friends and family to have a great WALKING workout. We know that not every family member enjoys burpees or planks but will enjoy a walk in the variety of family-friendly events or stroll and view H-Town’s best light displays.
Why walking? Walking together helps make memories with conversations, especially with our less fit family members and friends. You may be the example that inspires them to better fitness. With fantastic health benefits, walking more than 4,000 steps a day positively affected memory in older adults. A brisk nature walk is low-impact, simple, and free.
Our Pledge To Fitness Team® put together this list of places to take your family members of all ages to walk during the holidays or visit any time of the year in Bellaire and Houston.
Bellaire recently celebrated its centennial anniversary. Download the city’s Centennial Historical Walk (PDF) and tour our 100-year history. Also, near our Pledge To Fitness® studio, there are 14 parks to enjoy a holiday leftover picnic with all your family and friends including a dog park!
Visit Houston Downtown Light & Holiday Spectacles:
Our Team recommends strolling through Houston’s best Holiday spectacles:
- Visit the City Hall Plaza Christmas Tree to take memorable family pictures
- Check out the Deck the Trees Winter Celebration at the George R. Brown Convention Center with 30 unique and beautiful Christmas trees on display and free to attend
- Experience Lightscape at Houston Botanic Garden – from November 18 until January 1, the one-mile trail will illuminate the Houston Botanic Garden with breathtaking light installations including a tunnel of 100,000 bulbs.
- Winter Wanderland on Bagby Street is decked out with thousands of twinkling lights and displays and free to attend!
- Walk past the River Oaks magnificent mansions that are all decked out with stunning Christmas lights and holiday decor.
- Visit The Heights to see Santa Claus, Mrs. Claus, reindeers, penguins, and other festive displays.
- Check out the eclectic set of Christmas lights in Montrose
- Take a selfie with the gingerbread displays at the Houstonian or in the mall and hotel lobbies where your family and friends might be staying.
- Don’t eat but be sure to see the chocolate sculptures in the lobby of Hilton Americas-Houston during the holidays
- Shop til you drop at the Galleria or ice skate indoors while family members purchase last-minute gifts from Louis Vuitton, Chanel, Ralph Lauren, and Jimmy Choo or department stores such as Saks Fifth Avenue, Nordstrom, and Macy’s. During the holiday season, the Galleria plays cool holiday songs and is one of the best places to spend quality time with the family.
Your family and friends will also enjoy this short list of Christmas attractions in Houston that are free and open to the public:
- Main Street Square – Santa’s Village
- Marriott Marquis – Texas Winter Lights
- Market Square Park – Mistletoe Square
- Wortham Theater – Sugar Plum Plaza
- Hilton Americas – Land of Sweets
Did we miss your favorite place or H-town event on our family-friendly holiday list? Let us know and don’t forget to schedule your workout with your favorite trainer when you can step in our Bellaire Fitness studio over the holidays.
Next, we put our list of parks to visit in Bellaire and Houston:
Eleanor Tinsley Park
Are you looking for a Bellaire park with fantastic views of the Houston skyline, plenty of walking and biking trails, a skatepark, and a play area for children? Nestled on five acres, Evelyn’s Park is a place to relax, reset, and rekindle connections with the outdoors and each other. This park is a favorite with Houston locals and take your guests to an event nearly every night at Evelyn’s Park – https://evelynspark.org/events
Discovery Green Park
This is a staff member favorite located at 1500 McKinney St., and visit the park’s website discoverygreen.com. This is a fun place to kayak, paddle board in the summer, or find a free yoga class. It’s worth checking out their online calendar for all the daily fun things to do at Houston’s Discovery Green! It’s also a great place for “ICE SKATING,” and we recommend visiting the outdoor skating rink during the holidays, outdoor movies, and live concerts throughout the year.
Hermann Park
This park spans 55 acres is a top attraction in Houston and is home to the Houston Zoo. Here is a quick list of attractions open year round to visit with your family.
- Miller Outdoor Theater – check out the calendar for music concerts, orchestra, theater, and film screenings
- Visit the tranquil McGovern Lake for paddling, boat rentals, bird watching, and catch-release fishing for kids.
- Get a 20-minute jog while grandparents take kids on a 20-minute journey around the park when they are tired of walking, so they build memories together.
- Japanese Garden is amazing with a reflecting pool, tea house, rock garden, pretty elements like waterfalls and bridges, and sculptures while looking at the koi fish in the streams and ponds, bonsai trees, and winding paths.
- Visit McGovern Centennial Gardens and walk past the busts of influential historical figures and the beautifully landscaped gardens including a rose garden, woodland garden, and herb garden.
Houston Zoo
Our Houston zoo is a must-see within Hermann Park in Houston. We have lions, tigers, leopards, elephants, giraffes, zebras, gorillas, monkeys, bears, sea lions, otters, birds, a reptile house, and an aquarium.
The Pledge To Fitness Team® highly recommends the Zoo lights for an after-dark experience and is one of Houston’s top Christmas Holiday Lights displays. The whimsical experience is open for a stroll from Nov. 18 to Jan. 8. Buy your tickets in advance.
Gerald D. Hines Houston Waterwall Park
Do you have a family member who always takes selfies? Visit the Gerald D. Hines Waterwall Park to see water cascade over the 64 ft tall semicircular horseshoe-shaped walls and a popular photography spot with Houston locals. Over 40000 liters of water flow per minute over the structure of the inner and outer walls.
Buffalo Bayou
We recommend the amazing Buffalo Bayou Urban Park for miles and miles of running, walking, and biking trails as well as the beautiful twilight kayaking tour.
Market Square Park
Our staff enjoys the people watching during the holiday season in Houston’s historic Market Square Park. We enjoy the public art, live music, games, a dog park, and big shady trees all year round.
Memorial Park
Are you interested in a run? Memorial Park is one of the most popular to run with a lap of 2.8 miles and has a municipal 18-hole golf course, tennis facilities, a swimming pool, biking trails, and a skate park.
Our personal trainers meet you at your fitness level – and build you up from there! They will challenge you and push you further than you would go yourself or even with the help of your family or friends. Making this commitment can help you to stay accountable, maintain motivation and reach your fitness goals. Let us build a program designed to challenge you and have fun while on the way to your goals. We are here to talk to you, push you through your workouts, and keep you moving!
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