Experience a New Holiday Tradition: ICE! Featuring The Polar Express™

Gaylord National

Celebrate Christmas in Washington, D.C. with a visit to ICE! featuring The Polar Express™ to experience the classic holiday story in real life through larger-than-you-can-believe ice sculptures. Ride down thrilling frozen slides, wander through awe-inspiring tunnels, and capture the coolest pictures with your family throughout this frozen attraction.

Come for the day or make it a Christmas vacation with one of our overnight ICE! packages and enjoy the splendor of the holiday season at Gaylord National Resort. Presented by PEPSI®.

Guests explore dazzling lights, ice sculptures, and festive activities as part of a new holiday tradition at Gaylord National.

Get to Know "ICE!"

Visitors bundled in parkas admire frozen storybook scenes at the ICE! holiday attraction in Gaylord National

Critically Acclaimed

The magic of our signature experience has been featured in Forbes, Conde Nast, CNN, The Points Guy, and more.

10 Scenes

Come to life through ice from the beloved tale, The Polar Express™

20 Ft. High

Slides made of pure ice you can zoom down, from up to two-stories high!

12,000 Hours

Total time the artisans spend carving to create the ICE! experience

1.2M Attendees

Visited ICE! in 2024 across six locations in the U.S.

Sneak Peek Into ICE!

Ice sculpture of waiters serving hot chocolate with cups and kettle at Gaylord National Resort.

We got it! Hot Hot Hot, Hot Chocolate!

Dancing waiters made completely from ice juggle cups of hot chocolate in this whimsical scene. Visitors can take their very own seat inside the frozen passenger car for a photo opp to the soundtrack of the iconic "Hot Chocolate" song.

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Guests enjoying ICE! exhibit with Polar Express train and ice slides at Gaylord National.

Glide & Slide Through Glacier Gulch

Plunge down one of 5 ice slides, including one specially sized for kids, while surrounded by a larger-than-life ice sculpture of The Polar Express gliding across Glacier Gulch. The icy locomotive appears to be getting closer as it descends the mountain, complete with melodramatic lighting from inside the train and fog effects, immersing visitors in the classic movie!

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Ice sculptures of toy soldiers blowing trumpets in front of a decorated Christmas tree at Gaylord National.

You Have Arrived At Your Destination

Reach your final destination, The North Pole, to find Santa's elves monitoring children around the world to see when they are naughty or nice! Plus, an 11-foot Santa Claus towers over visitors presenting the first gift of Christmas: a silver bell from his sleigh. Do you hear the bells?

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Frosty Facts

Know more about what it's like to step inside ICE! before you experience it yourself.

10 Iconic Scenes

Carved into ice from the beloved Christmas story

No Time Limits

Enjoy this self-guided experience at your leisure

9 Degrees Fahrenheit

Cool, controlled temperatures keep the icy designs intact

All Ages

Entertaining for both kids and adults

Making of ICE!

Learn more about the magic and finesse behind the scenes that create these colorful, icy masterpieces.

Kids watch a vibrant science experiment during the Colorful Chemistry show, featuring fizzing reactions and bright colors at Gaylord National

The vibrant colors in the ice sculptures are specially created by a chemist with a proprietary formula to ensure it closely matches each character's specific colors and to maintain its bright color for the entire season.

An expert artisan sculpts a block of ice into a detailed character for the ICE! exhibit at Gaylord National Resort.

Traveling over 6,000 miles from Harbin, China (known as "Ice City"), 40 artisans use their master sculpting skills passed down through generations to carve ICE! over six weeks.

Massive frozen scenes carved from 2 million pounds of ice bring holiday stories to life at Gaylord National Resort.

ICE! features elaborate scenes sculpted from 6,700 massive blocks of ice, weighing in at a total of 2 million pounds.

Table filled with carving tools and creative materials used in holiday crafting or ice sculpting at Gaylord National Resort.

The carvers use chisels, chippers, tongs, handsaws, grinders, and even chainsaws to bring the experience to life. Some artisans have collected custom-made tools to perfect the irregular shapes and achieve the highest level of detail.

Artisan studies a blueprint of the intricate ice sculpture design for Gaylord National holiday attraction.

The artisans follow a 300-page design book filled with hand-drawn, to-scale sketches and blueprints to create every sculpture featured throughout the 19,000-square-foot frozen attraction.

Guests watch a skilled ice carver shape a holiday sculpture from a solid block of ice during the Carver’s Showcase at Gaylord National

Once the completed masterpiece is open for guests, a few artisans stay onsite at the exhibit to preserve the icy designs and perform daily, live sculpting demonstrations to showcase their craft.