The 2020 holiday season will be different, but one tradition remains, Christmas at Gaylord Hotels.
We’ve enjoyed holiday festivities at Gaylord Palms Resort in past years and were excited to check just what creative fun we would find at the resort this holiday season. Of course, it’s 2020 so we knew things couldn’t be exactly the same, but we felt confident that we’d be in for holiday fun.
Our first stop was the I Love Christmas Movies pop-up where we had a reservation for 10 am. Be sure to book ahead and secure your spot! We were placed in a socially distanced line with others who had a reservation. We waited in a festive line, which pumped us up for the fun ahead.
I Love Christmas Movies Pop-Up
Once our production assistant tour guide showed up for our family, we were headed for holiday movie bliss. This guy was awesome. (We even saw him featured on our local evening news during their coverage of the holiday event.) Either we lucked out or all of the production assistants are just that good. I truly loved how our group consisted of just our family, giving us an intimate experience as we entered each movie set. Plus, our production assistant was offering up trivia and encouraging laughs and fun the whole way. I may or may not have broken out the Charleston to the Hot Chocolate song on The Polar Express. There was also family flossing.
The movie roster included THE POLAR EXPRESS™, A CHRISTMAS STORY™, ELF™, NATIONAL LAMPOON’S CHRISTMAS VACATION™, and THE YEAR WITHOUT A SANTA CLAUS™. All of the scenes included replicas of film props and interactive (but safe) ways to get into the scene. My daughter Charli got up close with the Narwhal from Elf and seeing Mia light up the Griswald’s house for Christmas was a vision I’ll never forget.
Alpine Village
After leaving I Love Christmas Movies, we enjoyed the holiday shopping in the Alpine Village where families had lots of options to partake in. I know my younger daughter was eyeing up the Build A Bear holiday edition. You can make your own Grinch, too!
We didn’t have a chance to experience the Gingerbread Making Corner, but took a peek at the fun and caught a glimpse of a dancing gingerbread man. He had some great dance moves. Guests who opt for this experience can create holiday-themed gingerbread cookies or build gingerbread house. And of course, if you are lucky you get a dancing gingerbread man.
Snow Factory
We made our way to the Snow Factory because living in Florida, we don’t get a lot of snow tubing opportunities and the family was ready to race. We signed a quick waiver and were placed in line. There’s a spot to leave your handbags and after a short wait we were ready to race down Snow Flow Mountain. I raced my 10-year-old and I had no shame celebrating my victory. There’s a smaller snow slide as well for the younger tubers. The line looked long, due to the social distance measures, but moved quickly.
After Snow Flow, it was time for mom and dad to grab a beverage in the designated bar area in the Snow Factory. We enjoyed some down time before heading to the Snowball Build and Blast. We jumped on the assembly line for real snowball-making. Again, living in Florida, this was a real treat. We tossed the snowballs at the switches to help power up the snow plaza.
Scavenger Hunt
The Grinch Scavenger Hunt is great if you want to catch a glimpse of the holiday decorations around the resort. The family can follow Grinch as he attempts to stop Christmas by stealing all the presents. There are really cool holiday photo opportunities along the hunt and a chance to see the many lights and decorations.
Tickets and Information
Our morning was well-spent family fun and there was something everyone enjoyed. We felt great about the safety precautions in place to protect guests! 2020 has had its ups and downs and it was magical to see everyone laughing and having some genuine fun kicking off the holiday season together.
Related: Year-Round Family Fun at Gaylord Palms Resort
You can find out more about all of the Gaylord Palms Orlando holiday events and buy tickets here.
Each Gaylord property has its own location-specific holiday events that run through January 3, 2021. Some of the festive activities include:
- The Oak Ridge Boys “Christmas in Tennessee” Dinner show, featuring a holiday meal and Christmas classics
- Live shows including the Rockin’ Christmas On Ice Skating Show featuring champion skaters
- Pinetop, an outdoor Appalachian-esque village with live performances, shopping, tubing, ice skating, ice bumper cars, and more
- Private horse-drawn carriage rides and a nightly tree lighting and caroling
- Yuletide Bright, a brand-new outdoor lights attraction featuring over 50,000-square-feet of colorful, glowing holiday-themed lights, characters and scenes
- Additional activities including a Snow Tubing hill made with real snow, Ice-Skating Rink, Build-Your-Own-Snowman activity, and a Christmas Carousel
- Two holiday-themed Escape Rooms
- LIGHT! Experience – Inspired by the high wind gusts across the Mile-High City, LIGHT! is an artistic take on the wind and its effect on the landscapes of Colorado.
- Ice bumper cars, where guests can experience the thrill of zooming around on ice, sliding, spinning and bumping
- Snow Merry Go Round
The writer received complimentary passes for the purposes of this review. All opinions are her own.
