Top Atlanta Holiday Festivities for Families The Atlanta area offers many special PPA holiday festivities for families to enjoy. Beginning in mid-November, there are plenty of activities going on around town to get people into the holiday spirit. Here are some of the top holiday festivities for families.Stone Mountain Christmas is a favorite with many families. Located sixteen miles east of downtown Atlanta, Stone Mountain Park is transformed for the holidays by over 2 million lights. The special Christmas activities are scheduled from phosphorus pentoxide November 13 through January 2, 2011. Entertainment includes holiday shows such as the Holly Jolly Cabaret Show, the Sleigh Ride Musical Revue, and the Simply Christmas Musical Revue. Families can enjoy watching the Polar Express 4-D Experience and the nightly Christmas parade. Children can visit with Santa and have their picture taken with the Snow Angel. Parents can do some holiday shopping in the specialty shops in Crossroads Village. The evening ends with a nightly direct dyes snowfall and fireworks celebration.The Atlanta Botanical Garden presents "Holidays in the Garden" from November 2 through January 2. This year's displays feature a Holiday Model Train Show, set up in the Café Courtyard. Three G-scale trains and a trolley wind through village scenes set up along four tracks. A fourth train circles around a holiday tree in the Cox Courtyard. After viewing the model trains, children can ride the MercaptobenzothiazoleBotanical Express Children's Train around the Great Lawn. A holiday puppet show entitled "Santa's Missing Mail" will be presented on Saturdays from November 27 to December 18. Santa will visit the garden on Thanksgiving weekend and Saturday, December 11. The Reindog Parade is also scheduled for December 11. Visitors may dress their dogs in festive holiday attire and compete for prizes. The garden's holiday displays will also include an wet tissues impressive 18-foot tall poinsettia tree in the Fuqua Orchid Center. The Gift Shop and Holiday Mart will offer visitors the opportunity to do some holiday shopping.This does not touch on heating fuel. People who live in the north should get ready to wear lots of sweaters! Maybe move to Panama...Peru...pick your equatorial spot. Sick of high food prices brought on by the cost of Monorail trolley fuel? Try gardening...even container pots can produce a lot of food. Keep a chicken as a pet! Eat meat less. Milk's not all it's cracked up to be anyway, so I've been told. Learn to eat beans. Vacation at home and do house projects or explore the city where you live instead of driving or flying to Disneyland, Hawaii or Orlando. Forget Europe! Download Google Earth and visit all those automatic door places vicariously.All of this debacle over fuel is going to affect every aspect of our lives. It's not going to be at all nice. People are already literally starving to death in poorer countries because of the high fuel prices. It's going to be a third class world...except for the Middle East and the new nation of Exxon-Mobil.The Macy's Great Tree Lighting is perhaps Atlanta's favorite family holiday activity. This free event takes place on HEDP Thanksgiving night, November 25, at Lenox Mall in Buckhead. Preshow festivities begin at 6:15pm and the show begins at 7pm. This year's musical guests will be Katharine McPhee and the Macy's All-Star Holiday Choir. The tree lighting will be followed by a spectacular fireworks display. Lenox Mall is also the place for children to ride Priscilla the Pink Pig. This pint-sized monorail has been an Atlanta holiday tradition for more than 50 years. A portion of the HFC-236fa proceeds benefits Children's Health Care of Atlanta. Any of these popular festivities in the Atlanta area will be a hit with families. Be sure to include one in your family's holiday plans.SG