New Orleans approaches the holidays as a city of saints and cuisine, where the Catholic calendar runs the season alongside Creole and Cajun cooking traditions that produce some of the most distinctive holiday food in the country. The French Quarter's gas lamps, balconies, and 18th-century architecture give the season a setting unlike anywhere else in the United States.

• Réveillon Dinners: A long-standing Creole tradition revived as a city-wide restaurant program, with dozens of historic French Quarter and Garden District restaurants offering multi-course Christmas Eve and Christmas Day prix-fixe menus.
• Celebration in the Oaks: City Park's holiday lighting installation runs across 25 acres and includes a model-train display, antique carousels, and the live oaks for which the park is named.
• Christmas Eve Levee Bonfires: Along the Mississippi River in St. James Parish upriver from the city, the Cajun tradition of building tall pyramidal bonfires on the levees to light the way for Papa Noël draws crowds each Christmas Eve.
• St. Charles Avenue and the Roosevelt: The historic streetcar route is lined with decorated antebellum mansions, and the Roosevelt Hotel's lobby is dressed with thousands of feet of garland in one of America's most photographed hotel holiday installations.