Memories are what makes the holidays worth having. Memories make us happy, help us all connect, and keep us warm. Hot chocolate does this as well, and there’s no better time for hot chocolate and warm memories than walking through Irvine Park’s Christmas Village (125 Bridgewater Ave., Chippewa Falls) and admiring the dazzling display of over 60,000 lights. Local parade lovers will always say that huddling up with the entire town to watch the Bridge to Wonderland Parade (starting at the intersection of North Bridge and Spruce Streets and traveling down Bridge Street in Chippewa Falls) and seeing decorated floats and candy being thrown will always top their list. This year’s theme is “Christmas at the Movies.” If you’ve lived in the area since the early ’80s, legends of a talking Christmas tree, Bruce the Spruce, at the long-gone London Square Mall’s anchor store, Prange’s, will forever make you feel young and wonder, “Was that talking tree real?” Yes. Yes, it was. –Sheng Yang