Preview of Gaylord Palms ICE! “Twas the Night Before Christmas” as Carving Begins; Christmas at Gaylord Palms Begins November 24th, 2015

Hi everyone!

We were invited to take a peek into ICE! at Gaylord Palms one month before it opens to the public. 40 artisans from Harbin, China arrived last week, beginning the 10,000 man hours it will take to create the story of ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas in 2 million pounds of ice. Even though the artisans had only been there a couple of days, there were rooms of ice already starting to be recognizable in form. New to Christmas at Gaylord Palms this year are the Cirque Dreams Unwrapped Stage Show (replacing “Luminescence”), Breakfast with Mrs. Claus, and the Elf on the Shelf Scavenger Hunt. The holiday season isn’t complete for us until we’ve experienced Christmas at Gaylord Palms, and that includes 2 million lights (in addition to 2 million pounds of carved ice!) Last year, Alpine Rush Snow Tubing was added, and that was a huge hit as well.

The artisans were officially welcomed by the Gaylord Palms on the day we were there.

The artisans got together for a photo in the lush atrium of the resort.

This year, there will still be a Gingerbread Decorating Corner – but instead of Gingy, the new gingerbread man is named Nutmeg. The location will be sponsored by Peeps. Nutmeg joined the artisans and other hotel staff that are working on ICE!

Oranges were given as a welcome gift to the artisans, who had all traveled 7000 miles to work for over a month on the exhibit (some stay through the duration of ICE!).

Nutmeg stopped for a photo.

After a question and answer session with some of the artisans, we had a chance to spend a half hour or so inside the 9 degree exhibit as it started to take shape. We learned quite a bit from the artisans, including that they carve ice through much of the year at both outside and inside exhibits.

This is the first time we’ve been able to tour ICE! this early, and we enjoyed seeing the Frostbite Factory take shape. The Frostbite Factory shows the various colors of ice, and is where an artisan will be stationed to demonstrate ice carving.

These artisans are working with chainsaws on carving shapes into the ice.

Here is a chainsaw in action.

Ice is stored all over, waiting to become part of the exhibit.

ICE! will also include the On the Blocks ICE! Bar again this year, though that area hadn’t been worked on yet – and we really look forward to the ice slides every year as well.

The one constant every year is the nativity in crystal clear ice. This is how it looks now.

And in a month, it will look mostly like this. Crystal clear ice is the most difficult ice to create, takes several days to make one large block.

An artisan carves into ice in what will become the Frostbite Factory.

Here is a closer look, with the blade seen through the green ice.

And next month, the Frostbite Factory will look something like this (at least part of it will).

We enjoyed meeting Nutmeg outside the 9 degrees of ICE!

The atrium has fewer trees now, giving it a much more open space. That will be helpful for the crowds that will be watching Cirque Dreams Unwrapped. We are looking forward to the 54-foot tall Christmas tree that once again will adorn this area.

In a few weeks, the atrium will look like this.

We watched a segment of Cirque Dreams Unwrapped at a media preview a couple of months ago. It looks like it will be a very festive show! (Cirque Dreams Unwrapped is performed by Cirque Dreams, not Cirque du Soleil).

And here is a video from that announcement, including the performance! The full Cirque Dreams Unwrapped will be nearly a half hour long. Read our article from the prior announcement for more information.