I hope you all had a wonderful and safe Thanksgiving. I am thankful to have all of you in my blog world. If you have not gotten into the Holiday mood yet, I am sure you will be shopping and decorating soon or thinking about a Visit to Gaylord Ice Show. 2019 at the National Harbor you can see Gaylor ICE Grinch that Stole Christmas
Every year between Thanksgiving and Christmas, on Staying Close to Home share inexpensive ways to add touches to your home with items you probably have in your backyards or neighborhoods. As well as DIY Christmas Ornaments and Crafts for the kids. Here we will show you places to go to get into the Holiday Spirit.
What Can You Expect at Gaylord Ice Grinch
The must-see holiday attraction is back! ICE! featuring the 1957 Dr. Seuss classic, How The Grinch Stole Christmas! Watch how the Grinch tries to steal Christmas from the Whos of Who-ville through interactive ice sculptures and displays.
Experience favorite scenes from this Christmas special such as the Grinch lurking through the chimneys of the Who-ville homes, the Grinch’s heart growing three sizes after realizing Christmas means a little bit more and sitting down at the Whos’ feast where the Grinch carves the roast beast. Everything is hand-carved from 2 million pounds of ice! Learn more about the making of ICE! or catch a sneak peek of the event by visiting
We had the night to stroll around the Harbor which had some restaurants and shops, definitely on its way to expanding its choices.
But first to start off this holiday season I wanted to share some photos and thoughts on our tradition of visiting The Gaylord National Hotel. Well, what is ICE you may be asking, oh just 2 million pounds of Ice, sculpted and colored in 10 different scenes in a 9 degree space? This year they will be bringing back the Grinch Who Stole Christmas our very first Ice show.
I had never heard of this event until she won the drawing at a Radio Disney event over Halloween weekend. So we packed up the kids and went to DC for the weekend.
The kids’ excitement began just pulling up when my 4-year-old screamed: “they are Christmas”. Interpreted they are decorated for Christmas and yes they are. You pull into a festival of trees and lights. The lobby is wonderfully decorated and the atrium filled with trees, lights, a colored water show, and snow twice nightly.
There is a skating rink when you walk in where you can skate all day for $10. A better deal than at our local skate rink. A gift shop area and of course the ice show. Each person is given a large “meat locker” jacket to wear over your own jacket. (Hats and gloves a must) I will not try to describe the ice I will just show you pictures to see for yourselves.
In the middle there was an ice slide which the adults enjoyed as well. We had to pull the kids out of this area as it was getting really cold by now.
How Long does it take to go through Ice Show?
It took about 30 minutes to get through the ice part. Maybe longer for those of you coming from the Far North where 9 degrees is an early spring day!!
What else can you do when visiting Gaylord National Harbor?
We spent the rest of our time in DC at the mall exploring museums as it was only a 15-minute drive. Check out what else we did at the 6 Reasons to Take Your Family to National Harbor
This will definitely get you in the Holiday spirit if you live within driving distance. The Gaylord has many packages if you chose to stay there, only one night is needed.
Also, get an early am show if possible as we had no wait and those going at 5 pm had an hour and 15-minute wait just to get into the ICE area. (remember this was before Thanksgiving so the waits will only get longer)
“Per your suggestion Maria, we got tix for the 10:30 a.m. show (was going to do earlier, but figured leaving before 9 would not work!). We actually got there before 10:00 and there was hardly a wait so they let us in…waited maybe 5-10 minutes…we hit a small line right at the coat distribution, but could see the signs for 30-90 minute waits! We had great fun…girls really enjoyed it. Not so sure I would have liked it so much if we had to wait 90 minutes though! Wasn’t too crowded inside either which was nice. We were back in the hotel watching the Irish dance competition before 11:00.
“Per your suggestion Maria, we got tix for the 10:30 a.m. show (was going to do earlier, but figured leaving before 9 would not work!). We actually got there before 10:00 and there was hardly a wait so they let us in…waited maybe 5-10 minutes…we hit a small line right at the coat distribution, but could see the signs for 30-90 minute waits! We had great fun…girls really enjoyed it. Not so sure I would have liked it so much if we had to wait 90 minutes though! Wasn’t too crowded inside either which was nice. We were back in the hotel watching the Irish dance competition before 11:00.
We are trying to plan a 8 yr old girl birthday party (Dec 24th baby so having a party a week before) – do you think taking several girls to the ICE exhibit and a meal at the Gaylord with cake and a meal at a restaurant inside — since everything is decorated Christmas? Or do you think painting clay is more exciting?
We are trying to plan a 8 yr old girl birthday party (Dec 24th baby so having a party a week before) – do you think taking several girls to the ICE exhibit and a meal at the Gaylord with cake and a meal at a restaurant inside — since everything is decorated Christmas? Or do you think painting clay is more exciting?