The South is filled with festive, holiday attractions this time of year. Beautifully decorated plantations, lighted tours, a variety of winter wonderlands and several events inspired by Dickens this year stretch across the region, welcoming visitors with heaping doses of Southern hospitality and, if you’re lucky, a cup of hot chocolate or cider.

Last year, Arkansas announced it was claiming cheese dip as a native food and held its first World Cheese Dip Championship in Little Rock. This year, the state is celebrating cornbread with an inaugural Cornbread Festival, No. 2 on our list and scheduled for November 5 on Main Street in Little Rock. “What’s more American than baseball and apple pie?” the festival website asks. “Cornbread and Main.”

Haunted sites, storytellers and tour guides come alive during the month of October. We challenge everyone to at least one good scare this Halloween!

Located on the Tennessee/North Carolina border, Unicoi County celebrates its apple crop each year with the Apple Festival in downtown Erwin. Drawing more than 100,000 attendees, the festival has consistently been named one of Southeast Tourism Society’s Top 20 Events for its handmade crafts, antiques, entertainment, children’s area, pottery show, contests and food.

As one of the longest-running beach music festivals in the country, Pleasure Island, North Carolina’s event is held on the first Saturday in June each year. Carolina Beach is the setting for the best in beach music, and the annual shag contest takes place that evening. Held at SeaWitch Cafe this year, the contest awards more than $4,000 in prize …