A lighted parade fills the streets of downtown Lake Geneva with holiday cheer. Be sure to visit the shops and restaurants afterward for specials and holiday happenings. visitlakegeneva.com

Downtown Beloit businesses glow with holiday lights and music, so you can purchase fine arts and crafts for holiday gift giving. Refreshments are offered by many businesses, clubs and restaurants. Enjoy the free trolley as you travel around this free event with forty-plus locations. Also hear live music, visit with Santa, do kids’ activities and

For two days only, take a one-hour tour around the exterior of the Taliesin estate. After your tour, Frank Lloyd Wright’s personal drafting studio will be open for warm, wintry beverages and a holiday story reading by the fireside. The Riverview Terrace Café and Taliesin Gift Shop will be open for lunch and holiday shopping

Celebrate the sacred bird in this weekend event on the Wisconsin River, where dozens of the majestic birds perch in the bare branches along shore. Watch for free public lectures, and stop at the viewing area in Prairie du Sac, overlooking Eagle Island, for telescope viewing in a protected area ideal for photographing eagles. ferrybluffeaglecouncil.org

Get to know some of the state’s most prestigious cheese and beer makers as you sample hundreds of their delicious creations. Choose between general or premium admission, both of which offer a plethora of enjoyable festival extras. isthmusbeercheese.com

Lake Geneva hosts the U.S. National Snow Sculpting Competition during this weeklong festival that celebrates all things winter. Fifteen teams travel from all over the country to Flatiron Park, and with great skill and detail, fashion snow into amazing sculptures over nine feet tall. Also make snowmen at a bonfire; go skiing, snowboarding and tobogganing;

Check out candlelight skiing, a chili cook-off, ice carving, ice bowling, costumed Fruit Loop Fun Run, an entertaining Stumpf Fiddle Contest and an awesome fireworks show. Fun and games include minnow racing, chocolate sampling, and free trolley rides to the cherry pit spitting competition at Orchard Country Winery & Market. visitfishcreek.com/calendar/winter-festival

Celebrate hot air balloons with a Friday night balloon and fire show as well as a parade and fireworks. On Saturday and Sunday, more than 30 balloons launch at sunrise and in the evening they inflate once more, lighting up the dark with glowing colors. Also partake in bingo, a pancake breakfast, kite-flying and ice-carving