Gaylord Texan's Lone Star Christmas

Right down the road from us sits a wonderful Christmas adventure for the whole family.  The Gaylord Texan hosts Lone Star Christmas each holiday featuring holiday events, productions, and meals like no other you will find in the DFW area.   This year, the Gaylord Resorts have teamed up with DreamWorks Pictures to present, " Merry Madagascar" for their ICE! production this year.

 40 artisans from China are brought in starting in September to design the colorful ice sculptures and 20-feet tall ice slides.  It is carved out of two million pounds of ice y'all!! You can see all your favorite characters from Madagascar - Alex the Lion and his friends tell the story of how they saved Christmas after Santa crashed on the island of Madagascar (pulled from the DreamWorks animated Christmas special).  Everything is so bright and cheerful, you almost forget they are carved out of ice....that is, until you are reminded by the chilly 9 degrees the display is kept at.

But don't think you have to dress for the North Pole!  All guests are provided with hooded winter coats to keep them warm through out the display (including infant & child sizes). Long pants and closed-toe shoes are required and we brought hats and gloves as well.

Another fun event at Lone Star Christmas was the Kung Fu Panda Awesome Snow Tubing. This eight-laned tubing hill is covered in REAL snow and is not for the faint-hearted. I went with the 3 year old in a double tube but both of my big kids enjoyed tubing by themselves, trying to spin as they flew down the hills. You can get a combo ticket for ICE! and ten runs down the hill for a pretty decent price.

Make sure to sign up for Gingy's Gingerbread Decorating too!  Gingy - the famous gingerbread man from Shrek! gets the whole family  involved.  You can choose to decorate a Gingerbread Cookie Family (complete with family pet), a Train, a Christmas Tree, or a traditional House.  The price includes all the materials and time you need to create your masterpieces.  And you even get to meet Gingy and pose for a photo.

The Gaylord Texan itself is beautifully dressed up for the holidays, with a gorgeous 52-foot rotating Christmas Tree in it's atrium - the perfect place to take that family Christmas card photo.  Santa Claus visits the resort for photos, see the miniature trains, and look for singing cowboys and stilt-walkers to entertain you.  It is a fun place to spend an evening with the family.

Pricing for ICE! featuring DreamWorks' Merry Madagascar, Kung Fu Panda Awesome Snow Tubing, and Gingy's Gingerbread Decorating can be found here.