Christmas has arrived at Gaylord Palms in Kissimmee near Disney World! The Gaylord resorts are well-known for their world class dining, entertainment, and luxurious rooms, Gaylord Palms presents its annual ICE event featuring the endearing Christmas classic A Christmas Story. In addition to the life-size exquisitely designed ice sculptures, Christmas at Gaylord Palms also offers guests fantastic shows, games, food, Christmas-themed drinks at the bar, a Cirque show, and gorgeous dancing lights display in the main atrium. There is no shortage of events and offerings to uplift your holiday spirits! Fortunately, I had the privilege of attending the media event for this highly anticipated celebration, and I am looking forward to sharing my experience with you in hopes that you make time for this most festive event to brighten all your holidays this season.

When attending an event at the Gaylord Palms, the best way to begin your evening is with a dining reservation at one of the award-winning restaurants. My friend Paula and I made reservations at Old Hickory Steakhouse to start Christmas at Gaylord Palms. I cannot recommend this restaurant enough. From the exemplary service to the steak grilled to medium rare perfection, this dining experience will enhance your Christmas at Gaylord Palms exponentially. Our server recommended bold pinot noir to pair with our center cut fillets along with creamy mashed potatoes and grilled mushrooms. With three atrium designs at the resort, you will get the sensation of dining outdoors in the cool air without the bugs and humidity. Some tips for planning you dining experience at Old Hickory: the meat and seafood sections are sold without accompanying side dishes, but you have the option to select family-style sides including many options from potatoes to mushrooms to vegetables and more. Whether you select a boldly seasoned steak or mouthwatering seafood, you will greatly enjoy and vividly remember your time at Old Hickory.

After dinner, we headed for the St. Augustine atrium to take in the Cirque show and dancing lights! Unfortunately, I misread the schedule and thought that checkin was from 7-8pm, so we missed Cirque. But on the plus side, that gives me incentive to return this season to enjoy the show. Ever since Disney pulled the plug on the Osborne Family Spectacle of Dancing Lights in exchange for shallow map projection shows at Hollywood Studios, I make sure to visit all the dancing light shows in the area because that feeling of being looking at or being surrounded by choreographed displays of thousands or millions of lights cannot be replaced. There is a high degree of immersion, dimension that cannot be replicated by the projection of light onto a building. There are several different musical numbers for the lights, and each one takes full advantage of the space and creates Christmas splendor with each and every twinkle of each and every light dancing during the show.

In the lower level of the convention center, the Alpine Village awaits you! While the Cirque and dancing light shows are complimentary with your evening, the majority of the offerings for Christmas at Gaylord Palms are located in the Alpine Village, which requires additional admission. In this wintery village, you’ll find snow tubing, Santa’s snow throw, Mrs. Claus, the Sweet Shoppe, Christmas market, and the flagship attraction ICE featuring A Christmas Story. Because this was the media event, Gaylord Palms provided us with quite the spread of handcrafted sweets from the artisan chefs at the resort. After sampling the delicious treats that the resort so magnanimously provided for our enjoyment, we decided to try our hand at the snowball throwing midway game! Until I held a snowball in my hand, I would not have believed that was possible given the village is not kept below freezing. But sure enough, I received a bucket of snowballs to throw at the targets. I didn’t hit a’one. Perhaps you will have better luck!

Next to Santa’s Snow Throw is the snow tubing attraction. Up until now, no one had ventured down the slope. So, I decided to break the ice, snow to speak ;). Here’s a tip, in case the ride greeter neglects to tell you to pick up a tube on your way through the queue, pick up one! I literally walked past the greeter twice and they never told me to pickup a tube and neither did they hand one to me. So, thank you ride attendants at the top of the slope for accommodating me by giving me one. Once I slid down the snowy slope, then many more guests flocked over to the snow tubes! For those of us who live in Florida, this is a rare opportunity to have some snowy fun indoors! It is so much fun! So don’t miss out on the slopes in Alpine Village.

Next to the slopes is the Italian ice stand, but my friend Paula and I were still stuffed from dinner and the holiday treats that we had to turn down that offering. I will make it a point to get one when I return. Near the entrance to ICE and close to the Marketplace are Mrs. Claus house and the Sweet Shoppe. Both of these houses offer shows! With Mrs. Claus show being an hour long, we did not have time to enjoy that one, so it’s another offering I want to experience when I return. The show in the Sweet Shoppe wasn’t starting again for over a half hour, so we took this time to experience that movie that plays for 24-48hrs every year on a TV channel. A Christmas Story!.

Bring gloves! I always encourage guests to bring gloves because it is incredibly cold. However, as much as I preached to my friend to bring gloves, guess what I didn’t do? Bring gloves. Haha. Pretty much, my hands were completely numb by the time we passed THE END. When I say A Christmas Story, you likely have several individual scenes that instantly come to mind. Fortunately for you, each of those scenes are captured by the artisan ice sculptors. Only Hemingway could find the words to describe the beauty of the experience. Prior to entering the frigid exhibit, you get to learn about how the history of ice sculpting and how the team of sculptors create the amazing sculptures that successfully translate the iconic movie to live experience. Just before walking down the ramp into the arctic temperatures, you will be given a parka; however, I also encourage long pants and warm socks. From the moment you walk into the first room, you will be awestruck by the sheer size and beauty of the ice-tastic creations.  These are not just your average ice sculptures that you may find at weddings, galas, or even theme parks; these are quite literally life size representations of entire scenes (characters, setting props, and all) from A Christmas Story. And not just white or clear ice, these sculptures are in living color! As I walked through the flagship attraction at ICE, I was amazed at how effectively the movie was captured. I really did feel that I was watching the movie from start to finish. Since it’s a movie that also has some memorable lines of dialogue, there are signs with those quotable moments. Returning as the final display on the tour during the experience is the absolutely stunning ice nativity. I’ve seen a lot of still nativities in my day, but this one is always the most beautiful! You may even find yourself singing O Holy Night along with the background music.

Closing out our evening, Paula and I took our seats in the Sweets Shoppe for the live comedy show featuring a hilarious crossover between Babes in Toyland and The Nutcracker as told by two incredibly funny performers as the Sugarplum Fairy and Nutcracker. Highly interactive, I was reminded of the line from a Rocky Horror Picture Show live shadow cast when the live cast yells “this movie sucks without audience partici–” and Dr. Frank responds with “–pation.” Because the show itself is funny, but the entertainment factor is increased ten fold by engaging the performers and playing along. Although you can sometimes tell that an actor is or isn’t having fun in a movie, picking up on how much an actor in a live production is far more noticeable. And these two were having a blast! The Sugarplum Fairy and Nutcracker were genuinely interested in my enjoyment and truly displayed enthusiasm for their show. Do not miss this show. It’s only 20mins, and I imagine it will have multiple showings each evening. I love the addition of a comedy show to Christmas at Gaylord Palms! So much is stunning, inspirational, heartwarming, and more; but you know what, sometimes you just want to laugh too! And you will laugh a lot during this performance! The actors even asked me if I wanted to take a pic with them on stage. How incredibly nice of them! Do yourself a favor, and make time for the show. Oh yeah, don’t forget to say hi to the gingerbread man out front too.

Opening Friday, November 16th, Christmas at Gaylord Palms featuring ICE should definitely be on your list of events to attend this year. If you dine at one of the restaurants, your parking will be validated (and parking is not cheap). You may be familiar with A Christmas Story but you’ve never seen it like this.

Merry Christmas!

Ryan is a screenwriting professor at the University of Tampa and works in creative services in live themed entertainment. He’s also published prolifically on theme parks and produced a peer-reviewed study. If you like this article, check out the others and FOLLOW this blog!

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