Gaylord Opryland Resort in Nashville, TN has to be one of our all-time favorite destinations for a wonderful family Christmas experience. From their exquisite holiday decor and theming, to the great food and plethora of holiday-themed activities the Gaylord Opryland is more than a hotel…its truly a one-stop destination for everything you love about Christmas.
Our traveling family just spent a weekend here and had one of our best family vacations ever! Seriously…we arrived Friday mid-day and didn’t leave the resort grounds until we checked out on Sunday morning. That’s what the Gaylord Opryland excels in….providing an all-inclusive type of experience where all your needs (and wants) are available at your finger tips on-site. We spent our weekend resting in their luxurious room accommodations, dining on delicious foods and snacks, and making memories by enjoying all their family-friendly activities and attractions.
If you are looking for a family-friendly holiday getaway or if you just need an infusion of Christmas spirit then this is the place you’ve been looking for. It would be almost impossible to cover everything they have to offer in one article, but here are a few of the holiday attractions that we experienced and loved during our Christmas weekend at the Gaylord Opryland.
Table of Contents
ICE! Featuring Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer
If you haven’t heard of ICE! before, it’s a family friendly exhibit found at Gaylord Opryland resort that features hand carved ice exhibits that will blow your mind!
Seriously, these aren’t just some simple ice sculptures that you may have seen at a fancy wedding. No, this is a larger than life, hand carved, colored ice Wonderland filled with all the familiar scenes from the famous Rudolph Christmas cartoon.
The figures and designs are just like the characters you’ve seen so many times before on TV… Except now they’re right in front of your eyes! We were amazed at the intricate design features that made the characters seem so realistic.
At the end of the exhibit, the artisans have also produced an amazing nativity scene that is so crystal clear you’ll think it’s made of glass! Honestly we thought it was a wonderful touch to help us all remember the reason for the season.
Here are some tips to make your experience at ice even more enjoyable:
- Dress warmly! The resort provides (and requires you to wear) blue parkas while inside because the temperature is kept at a frosty 9°!
- You can purchase tickets online before arriving. All tickets are timed for a specific entry time that you choose when purchasing.
- They have an extensive gift shop area as you leave that offers hot chocolate and adult beverages to help warm you up after the chilly tour.
- Plan on the experience taking roughly 30 to 45 minutes, depending on how many times you stop for pictures and how many times you ride the ice slides found inside.
Reindeer Games Scavenger Hunt featuring Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and The Misfit Toys
The reindeer games scavenger hunt is how we started off our weekend at Gaylord. After checking in we decided to give this a try and it really was a nice way to get a feel for different parts of the resort. After checking into the activity, you get a scavenger hunt book filled with clues that take you throughout the Delta atrium and the Magnolia lobby in search of hidden letters that you de-scramble at the end to form a phrase. As an added bonus, once your done de-scrambling the letters, you can turn your clue workbook in for a free prize, which was an activity booklet that looked like it would be a lot of fun for kids.
Snowball Build & Blast
Want to test your snowball making abilities? You can do that at Gaylord Opryland too! The snowball build and blast booth is located in the Pinetop activity area and offers you the chance to craft your own snowballs and then try to launch them through holiday themed targets right in front of you.
We were curious it just how they would pull this one off, since there was no snow on the ground at all. But, we were pleasantly surprised to find the snow for this activity is manufactured right there on the spot and actually felt like real snow (and it packed beautifully!). Weston by far was a champ in our family.
Gingerbread Decorating Center
One of our favorite Christmas time traditions in our family is building and decorating gingerbread houses. We’ve done this every year since Weston was little and he looks forward to it very much. The gingerbread house station at Gaylord Opryland is located in the lower level of the center island in the Delta atrium. The nice thing about this activity is that the gingerbread houses were pre-built and the kit comes with all of the icing and decorations you need making it a super simple and convenient process. There were tons of families enjoying the station while we were there and everyone was having a blast! As an added bonus… You may even get a visit from the gingerbread man himself.
Ice Skating
Want to try your hand at ice-skating at a beautiful outdoor rink? Then Gaylord has you covered! Personally speaking, I’m not much of an ice skater…but it was definitely fun to try! As with many of the other outdoor activities the ice-skating rink is located at the Pinetop activity area and there were tons of people enjoying this activity while we were there.
Ice Tubing
The ice tubing hills were a total blast! They’re located in the Pinetop activity area and once you have scanned in with your ticket you can slide as many times as you want. There were several different slides to choose from and all use inflatable inner tubes to provide padding and help you soar down the hill! This was probably my favorite of the outdoor activities.
Sound Waves Water Attraction
Sound Waves is in an indoor water park that is exclusively for hotel guests only. This place is more than just a heated pool… Sound Waves is an amazing aquatic experience that helps set Gaylord Opryland apart from other resort hotels.
Since we visited during the Christmas season, the outdoor portion of the waterpark was closed for the year, but there was still plenty to do inside. The indoor portion features five different waterslides that offer multiple riding configurations… Everything from tunnels that you slide down by yourself, t0 single, double, and even family sized inter-tube/raft type slides. The indoor water park also features a large swimming pool area with basketball goals and a kid size lilly pad adventure course, two lazy rivers, an adult only pool with bar, and even a bodyboard/surfboard high flow training environment.
We spent half a day here playing with all the different areas, and honestly could’ve spent even longer. I can’t imagine how much more fun it would be in the summer when the entire park is available for use.
