With Christmas fast approaching, now is the time to get into the holiday spirit and pay a visit to some of the most cheerful Christmas small towns in America. From a town in Indiana named for Santa Claus to Portsmouth, N.H., which calls itself the "Christmas Capitol of North America," here are 10 small towns across the country that go all out come Christmas.  Just 30 minutes south of Nashville and part of the Americana Music Triangle, Franklin is a quaint small town that puts on a "Merriest Main Street" celebration for the Christmas season. The main event is the Dickens of a Christmas Festival held on Dec 12 and 13 that features some 200 characters, dancers and entertainers filling the streets, including several from Charles Dickens's stories. Expect to see the nefarious Fagin from Oliver Twist; Jacob Marley, Ebenezer Scrooge and Tiny Tim Cratchit with his parents from A Christmas Carol; and of course, a Victorian Father and Mother Christmas with treats for children. And what's especially cool about celebrating the season in Franklin is the ability to combine traditional holiday celebrations with some awesome live music at multiple venues across the city.  Hershey is definitely the sweetest place to visit during the holiday season and the Pennsylvania city just kicked off their annual "Christmas In Hershey" celebration, which runs through December with a myriad of family friendly events. Make sure to pay a visit to Christmas Candylane in Hersheypark, which sees the amusement park filled with more than four million twinkling lights and has four roller coasters open throughout the season. You'll also find Santa and his live reindeer here, an outdoor ice ring for skating and of course plenty of Hershey's hot chocolate to warm you up after playing outside.  For a traditional Pueblo Indian Christmas experience, pay a visit to the village of Jemez Springs, N.M., located just 50 minutes north of Albuquerque. Within the village limits, the prehistoric Jemez Historic Site (one of only four such historic sites in the state) displays between 1,000 and 1,500 farolitos (brown paper bags with candles inside) along the perimeter of the ancient site, which is a Northern New Mexico tradition dating back to the 1600's. Pueblo culture comes alive as Jemez Pueblo and other tribal members play traditional flute music, showcase traditional dances, and share their arts, crafts and food with visitors throughout the season.  For another cultural Christmas experience, check out Leavenworth, Wash., which is home to a large population of German descent, and puts on a quintessential old world, Bavarian-style Christmas celebration. The Christmas Lighting Festival is the signature event, having been celebrated since 1966, and runs for the first three weekends of December. With close to half a million twinkling LED lights set up in the village center, as well as visits from Santa and plenty of caroling, this charming village looks particularly magical during the holidays, especially when covered in a dusting of snow. Traditional gluhwein tents, like those found in Germany, are also set up for more merriment. Leavenworth is also an active town, which makes for a great winter wonderland experience holidays aside with miles of cross country ski and snowshoe trails, horse drawn carriage and sleigh rides and sledding.  Portsmouth has been called the "Christmas Capitol of North America" for its month-long celebration each December known as a "Vintage Christmas in Portsmouth." Now in its 11th year, the citywide celebration includes a number of different events, many of them taking place at the historic Music Hall or Strawberry Banke Museum. From performances of the Nutcracker ballet to a community Messiah Sing-a-Long to bonfires and costumed carolers, it's impossible to not get into the spirit in this quaint New England town.  Kids will love paying a visit to Santa Claus, Indiana, which calls itself "America's Christmas Hometown" and is home to the only post office in the world with Santa's name – the post office stamps some 400,000 pieces of mail in December with its unique holiday picture postmark. During the holidays, the town goes all out with a three-weekend Santa Claus Christmas Celebration with tree lightings, caroling sessions and bonfires where chestnuts are roasted over an open flame. Also pay a visit to the Santa Claus Museum & Village, where volunteers answer some 12,000 letters to the mythical saintly gift giver each season.  Head upstate in New York to Skaneateles for an old fashioned Dickens Christmas, which runs every weekend from Nov 27 to Dec 24 and transports visitors back in time to 1842 London and the world of Charles Dickens beloved novel, A Christmas Carol. Attracting more than 20,000 visitors each year, Dickens Christmas doesn't just let you watch the reenactment from a theater seat, but instead brings a 70-person cast into the city center so that travelers find themselves immersed in a live interactive street theater performance. Best of all, the entire celebration is free – from horse-drawn wagon rides to carol sing-alongs, and even the opportunity to borrow period costumes to join the chestnut roasting or World's Smallest Christmas Parade in style.  Just two hours north of Los Angeles, Solvang is another top Christmas town. Known as California's "Little Denmark," the village has a special feel during the holiday season when it puts on a month-long celebration known as Julefest that begins with the Christmas Tree Lighting Ceremony on Dec 1 and closes with the authorized burning of some 500 Christmas trees in the Old Mission field after the holidays are finished. During the month, various events take place each weekend including a wine and beer walk, a parade and an outdoor nativity pageant with live animals that is fun for the little ones. Santa Claus makes appearances as well and the town is lit with thousands of twinkling white lights.  When it comes to American Christmas spirit, it's hard to top Stockbridge, Mass., a town that Norman Rockwell once described as "the best of America" after painting it. On the first weekend of December each year the town celebrates Rockwell's Christmas painting in motion with activities that bring locals and visitors alike home for the holidays. The village is decorated in wreaths, lights and Christmas trees, and each Saturday during December there is a popular self-guided, holiday house tour to join. The houses on the tour are carefully selected for their historic looks and holiday dressings.  To shop at the world's largest Christmas store, Bronner's Christmas Wonderland, which takes up two entire football fields, you'll have to travel to Frankenmuth. Another town with Bavarian roots, Frankenmuth also has a street called Christmas Lane decorated with hundreds of lighted displays, and businesses here go all out when it comes to holiday cheer – you'll find the streets lined with lighted trees and garlands and other illuminated creatures. Make sure to pay a visit to the Bavarian Inn Lodge where the lobby Christmas tree is hung upside down from the ceiling. This is a very old European tradition that is not often recreated.
Embrace the holidays with a trip to any of these festive towns for a bit of cheer and some caroling.