Yes, Nashville, there is a Santa Claus!
Despite a year of lifestyle changes and cancelled plans, Gaylord Opryland Resort will open a safe and celebratory immersive pop-up Christmas experience on Nov. 13. In the grand tradition of Opryland holiday-themed theatrics, “I Love Christmas Movies,” a multi-sensory exhibition in collaboration with Warner Bros.
Consumer Products, will anchor Opryland’s 37th annual A Country Christmas lineup of holiday programming. The never-before-seen 17,000 square foot “I Love Christmas Movies” experience will feature beloved holiday flicks including The Polar Express, A Christmas Story, Elf, National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, and The Year Without Santa Claus. Guests will be able to walk through 13 iconic scenes from the films, interacting and capturing moments with the characters, sets and moments they know and love. Participants will feel as if they have stepped into the actual stories, complete with replicas of film props, audio clips, and more.
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The entire A Country Christmas experience will feature indoor and outdoor components. Indoors, guests can pose at Christmas-themed selfie stations throughout the property, write letters to Santa, take in holiday movies at the Opryland Theater, and interact with beloved characters from the Peanuts gang at Breakfast with Charlie Brown & Friends and in the Merry Snoopy Christmas Scavenger Hunt. New this year is The Oak Ridge Boys “Christmas In Tennessee” Dinner Show. Returning this year are fan favorites such as the Gingerbread Decorating Corner, Build-A-Bear Workshop®, the synchronized Delta Fountain shows, Delta Riverboat rides, and singalongs with Dickens carolers.
Head outdoors for private horse-drawn carriage rides, a nightly tree lighting and caroling on the Magnolia lawn, and a nativity display featuring special lighting effects and an audio rendition of the beloved Biblical story. At Pinetop, an outdoor Appalachian-esque village, enjoy live performances, tubing, ice skating and lessons, ice bumper cars, Reindeer Encounters, and festive beverages—plus an all-new, live “Rockin’ Christmas on Ice Skating Show” featuring champion skaters.
As always, guest experience is paramount at Gaylord Opryland, and this year that includes making sure guests feel safe and protected.
“A Country Christmas has been redesigned in 2020 to deliver the same, magical holiday experiences our guests have come to love, all while integrating new, enhanced health and safety measures,” says Amanda Taylor, Director of Special Events & Entertainment.
“Specific protocols vary per attraction and include, but are not limited to: contactless services and online ticket sales only; the requirement of advance ticket reservations as a preventative measure for crowd management; mobile tickets and contactless ticket scanners; social distancing reminders throughout the resort and at event queue lines; crowd management with guest capacity limits aligned with local regulations; the requirement of face coverings by STARS (our employees) and guests in public spaces.” (You can see more of Gaylord Opryland’s “Commitment to Clean” protocols at gaylordhotelsclean.com.)
And if you’re looking for the fully immersive holiday experience, why not make a staycation out of it? Guests can take advantage of the three-night Ultimate A Country Christmas Package, which includes room accommodations, a selection of event tickets and more.
“With acres of airy indoor atriums decorated with millions of twinkling holiday lights, towering Christmas trees, and thousands of shimmering ornaments, coupled with abundant outdoor fun, visitors can look forward to a myriad of festive experiences this year at our expansive Nashville resort,” says Taylor. “For over three decades, Gaylord Opryland Resort has become legendary for providing magical holiday events and activities for Nashville’s winter visitors to experience, and this year is no exception.”