Branson is known for its shows, and many transform for the holiday season. One classic show is at the Andy Williams Performing Arts Center and Theatre. His name is synonymous with Christmas specials in the 1960s and 1970s, and he's responsible for many of the Christmas classics sung today. He died a few years ago, but Jimmy Osmond (youngest brother of Donnie and Marie) now owns the theater and carries on the Christmas traditions.
Silver Dollar City, the town's theme park, decks out for the holidays. It also has two major Christmas shows — spins on A Christmas Carol and It's a Wonderful Life — plus a cooking school that does holiday classes, several restaurants with special holiday offerings (turkey dinners, pot roast), and 100 local craftsmen producing special holiday items in everything from pottery shops to a glassblowing studio.
This town is home to the World's Largest Toy Museum. It's not specific to Christmas, but it's a fun (indoor, in case the weather turns cold) place for folks to wander around for a little while and get nostalgic. Imagine any toy you wanted to find under the tree when you were little, and it's a pretty sure bet that it'll be on display.
At the College of the Ozarks, nicknamed "Hard Work U," the kids pay for their education by working at jobs around the college. Twenty-five of the 1,500 students run the bakery and jelly kitchen, where they produce thousands of fruitcakes and ship them all over the country at this time of year. Those searching for the best stocking stuffers will end up at Dick's 5 and 10, which bills itself as "Stocking Stuffer Headquarters." There's not much you can't find at this place, which is sort of the Amazon of Main Street. It's one of the last surviving, truly legit five-and-dimes anywhere in the US. (There are maybe 10 others around the country.)
