Gaylord Palms Welcomes ICE! Artisans; First Look at ICE! Featuring ‘A Charlie Brown Christmas’

Hi everyone!

Yesterday, Gaylord Palms Resort welcomed the team of approximately 40 artisans from Harbin, China who will carve 2 million pounds of ice into ICE! featuring “A Charlie Brown Christmas”. We were there for the welcome and also to preview several days of ice carving. ICE! is the centerpiece of the Christmas at Gaylord Palms seasonal event that runs from November 17th – January 3rd, 2024.

Here are our photos and video from yesterday!

Our video includes the ICE! artisan welcome, a traditional dragon dance and then a look at our ICE! featuring “A Charlie Brown Christmas” early preview.

The artisans were given an enthusiastic welcome by Gaylord Palms STARS (employees), who lined the hallway.

A traditional dragon dance was performed to welcome the artisans.

The artisans posed for a photo with a gingerbread character that is part of Christmas at Gaylord Palms each year.

Gaylord Palms STARS signed a giant card welcoming the artisans back for the holiday season.

We went inside the ICE! tent, where familiar figures are starting to take shape – including the ICE! logo. This is the second time ICE! Featuring “A Charlie Brown Christmas” will have been here (the first was 2016), and we were told there will be some differences in the display.

Here is a preview video that Gaylord Palms shared, and then we have more current photos below it.

Snoopy has been formed in ice.

A chainsaw was ready to cut into ice.

Colorful ice was delivered from tractor trailers. We were told that the ice needs to be placed quickly so it doesn’t change shape (which can affect the way the carvers can do their work).

The familiar zigzag of Charlie Brown’s shirt can be seen in ice.

Two artisans work with the ice.

It is just one more month until ICE! featuring “A Charlie Brown Christmas” opens!

And while we were at Gaylord Palms, we noticed several new additions since last year. I may post a separate article on them as well. First, is the Emerald Bay Market. This replaces the Cocoa Bean and the Marketplace. It features coffee, sandwiches, salads, some hot items, snacks and such.

Also new since last year, Jamba is now here. This is a nice addition, I am a fan of the smoothies.

And Old Hickory Steakhouse is being revamped, and is expected to reopen in November.

We have been posting about Christmas at Gaylord Palms and ICE! since 2010, and look forward to sharing more next month! Christmas at Gaylord Palms is so much more than ICE as well, with Snow Flow Mountain ice tubing; Snowball Build & Blast and a Cirque-styled Christmas show called Cirque: The Spirit of Christmas – along with many other activities!

Check out everything that Christmas at Gaylord Palms has to offer at the official website.