Thinking of visit Gaylord Opryland at Christmas-time? Keep reading for our experience!
Shop the Look from Gaylord Opryland
Matt, Grayson and I just got back from Gaylord Opryland a couple weeks ago, and it might have been one of our very favorite visits here! If you’ve never been before, you just have to go, and Christmas is the best time to go! Gaylord Opryland has so much going on this time of year during A Country Christmas now through January 1, 2024. It includes so many fun, festive holiday activities for kids and adults. And you can’t forget ICE! featuring The Polar Express. This theme is new this year, and it is absolutely incredible! It is our favorite ICE! them yet! Keep reading to learn more about all the fun holiday activities going on through January 1, 2024.
When you visit Gaylord Opryland during the holidays, not only can you still enjoy everything that the hotel has to offer year-round (including SoundWaves indoor upscale water attraction), but you can also take part in all their fun holiday events and walk through ICE! where it is 9 degrees and sculptures from The Polar Express are carved out of ice! And both indoors and out, every inch of this hotel is decorated for Christmas and so magical! From the moment you walk outside to their Christmas activities, you feel like you are in a winter wonderland.
When you book your stay at Gaylord Opryland, make sure you purchase tickets for all their Christmas activities too! When you buy tickets, the snow tubing and ice skating are unlimited. They also have figure skating performances at certain times on certain days that the we were just mesmerized by! You can even sign up and take private ice skating lessons while here. The tickets for the snowball built and blast and bumper cars are for one use only so keep that in mind. Grayson giggled nonstop while driving bumper cars!
Our first day at Gaylord Opryland, we immediately decided to head outdoors since we had nice weather and enjoy their Christmas activities there. It was drizzling rain a little, but it was 60 degrees and felt great outside! We went ice tubing, did ice bumper cars twice and built snowballs. Grayson couldn’t get enough of it! He honestly loved it all! Matt and I loved the ice tubing! Grayson could have driven the bumper cars all day! And we all loved watching the ice skating!
We got so lucky to have such nice weather while we were here outside. But if it is chilly, on top of all those activities outdoors, they also have several activities indoors like the reindeer games scavenger hunt, gingerbread decorating corner, pictures with Santa and Delta Riverboat Co. rides (this boat ride is always a favorite of ours!) And there are several areas set up that sell hot chocolate. That includes holiday drinks for the adults too. From a massive Christmas tree to a poinsettia tree, wreaths, a sleigh, lights, festival of trees and life size gingerbread figures and candy canes, there is Christmas around every corner inside the hotel too!
After we finished up outdoors and went inside for more Christmas fun, we did the gingerbread house and gingerbread cookie decorating. I brought the gingerbread house home for the girls to decorate, and Grayson decorated the Oreo ornament shaped cookies. He loved decorating them with icing and them eating them! Last year I took the girls to decorate the gingerbread house, and they loved it so much too! When Grayson finished, we had a perfect front row seat to the fountain show, and it was timed to lights and music and the Christmas story from the Bible. It was incredible!
On our last afternoon, we bundled up in our blue parka that Gaylord Opryland supplies you with to go through ICE! It was super cold, but when you bundle up with gloves and a beanie, you should be good to go! They give you the parka to wear, and that should keep you perfectly warm! We walked through and looked at ice sculptures from some of my favorite characters and scenes from The Polar Express. It was the best ICE! theme I have ever seen! There were many interactive areas and so many things to keep your little ones engaged and having fun.
Grayson LOVES trains so much, so you can imagine how much he loved the theme this year. I think Matt, me and my dad loved it just as much too! They had a setup that looked like the passenger seats on the Polar Express. It had the conductor there also. Grayson loved sitting on the seat and looking around at all the sights!
Just like in years past, they had the ice slides for adults and kids. Grayson went down it for the first time and loved it so much! It was so much fun! At the end of ICE!, we came to a nativity scene that was just beautiful! It was one of my favorite parts of ICE! After that, we warmed up with some hot chocolate and then Grayson decided he needed ice cream too LOL!
It was such a fun couple days, and I can’t wait to go back again next spring and take the kids again! We always look forward to going to Gaylord for each season, and it is always extra special and magical at Christmas time! I promise no matte which season to go in, there is always something fun and unique to do. It doesn’t matter how many times you go, there will also be more fun to be had here! Have you been to Gaylord Opryland before? What is your favorite season to visit?
Wow! Looks incredible! I wish I could go!