The iconic Bellagio fountains play Christmas music in December

 
  Circo’s Champagne raspberry zabaione is a holiday favorite
 
  Langoustines with osetra caviar and apple-vodka geleé at Le Cirque

With the Bellagio fountains dancing to hits like “We Need a Little Christmas” and “Santa Baby” like an only-in-Las Vegas winter wonderland greeting, it’s not surprising that the famous resort is considered one of the most inviting during the month of December. Under the famed glass ceiling, families meet for a stroll through the holiday-themed conservatory before having a memorable meal together at what have become the most traditional spots in town: the Maccioni family’s Le Cirque and Circo.

The homey feel that seems tailored to family time around the holidays was planned to perfection since the very beginning. When Sirio Maccioni and his sons, Mario, Marco, and Mauro, took Steve Wynn up on his offer to open at Bellagio in 1998, they chose the opposite route of other celebrity chefs.

Instead of exaggerated, overblown versions of the restaurants that made them famous, they went small. In the case of Le Cirque, they asked hospitality designer Adam Tihany to create a tranquil jewel box amidst the casino cacophony. With Circo, they wanted it to be festive and fun, but on a personal scale, and nothing like the boisterous behemoths that then and now characterize many a Strip dining room. What Tihany dialed up were two of his greatest designs ever: two restaurants that remain, 13 years later, the most convivial places in Las Vegas to celebrate the holidays... or any occasion.

You might say Circo and Le Cirque are two shows under the same big top. A large kitchen connects them, with the Italian half sitting side by side with the slightly smaller French batterie de cuisine. Peeking in during the dinner rush can be a feast for the senses, with the sights and smells of world-class food blurring with the studied freneticism of cooks and waitstaff performing at full bore—all of it spiced with verbal blizzards of Italian, Spanish, and French. Each side has its own rhythms and commanders, and each brings forth act after act of food as delectable spectacle, all punctuated by two of the best service staffs in the business, and all leading up to a crescendo of desserts.

As tremendous as the food is in both restaurants, they sparkle during the holidays (and the other 11 months of the year), for a very special but subtle reason: The staffs at both have remained almost constant since these places opened—an unheard-of level of loyalty and consistency in the restaurant world. At Le Cirque and Circo, you always feel like a party is going on, or about to start, and that everyone from the maître d’ to the busboys are there to make your meal a celebration of fine food and holidays, no matter the day.

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“It’s our most exciting time of the year,” says Maccioni, scion and oldest son Mario, of Osteria del Circo’s holiday traditions. “We always close for the first week in December because Vegas, unlike New York, is dead right after Thanksgiving. Then the big casino players start getting invited for the holidays, and by December 20, we’re working harder than ever.” Circo, the lighter and brighter of the Maccioni family’s two Bellagio restaurants, makes holiday decorations almost superfluous, but present they are as ornaments and garlands punctuate the festive atmosphere that also offers prime viewing of the Bellagio’s famed fountains.