Review of the OC Winter Fest! Lots of snow fun in Orange County during Christmas time with ice skating & lots of lights to get you into the holiday spirit.
This is the first year for the OC Winter Fest at the Orange County Fair & Event Center and we got to go! We were able to attend last week and had a really great time ice skating, seeing REAL reindeer, riding carnival rides and more. (originally published 12/15) Sponsored visit.
Look at how fun these snow activities are!
I mean if you live in Orange County you’re never going to see this for real in your city. Bringing in a bit of winter time is a close second. Now you can ice skate, go tubing, and ride rides there at Christmas time.
The first thing we headed to was the tubing! It was a larger, longer ice slide than we had experienced at other holiday events in town and moved!!
Both adults and kids were having lots of fun on this! Made of a slick fabric it wasn’t snow really but worked just as well and they just loved it.
Next up at the OC Winter Fest was ice skating. My girls love to ice skate but hadn’t been in a while. They had these handy penguins you could rent for little ones though.
After a round or two they remembered and were off on their own. Elf the movie was playing on the big screen beside the rink which was cool, and a vendor with hot chocolate was near.
Mine didn’t really need the “helpers” because they had been skating before. They still wanted them because they were “cute” and they could go a bit faster with the little bit of support they offered.
We had wristbands which came with unlimited rides which was nice. They could go on each one over and over again that way! There were quite a few rides to choose from, and when we walked in they got a ticket to play 1 game for free which was great.
You can buy these wristbands separately so if you just want to ice skate that day you can opt for that.
If you want just the rides you can choose to do that too. Totally up to you but there is a lot to do and my kids had a blast doing it all!
OC Winter Fest
- Unlimited ice tubing down Snowflake Summit’s 150-foot, 8 lane mountain of ice
- Snow Play area with real snow blown in daily – expanded this year!
- Festival of Lights two-million-light stroll-through holiday displays – 7 new lands!
- Nightly tree lighting celebration with parade of Winter Fest characters, snow flurries, fireworks and flying Santa and his Reindeer until he returns to the North Pole
- Winter Fest themed bounce houses and slides for kids
- The world’s largest walk-through ornament and rocking horse
Craft making and games in Santa’s workshop.
- Daily entertainment including live bands, magic from Jimmy H, and strolling carolers
- Character live shows and meet and greets from popular cartoons such as Thomas the Train, Sid the Science Kid, PJ Masks, and Buddy from Dinosaur Train
- Little Elves (Toddler) play area
- Santa’s petting zoo
- Arcade games
- Snowboard Simulator
As the sun went down the OC Fairgrounds were filled with white lights and the tree was about to be lit by Santa himself.
I made a quick video to show you just how much fun we had so you could look around at the activities. See for yourself.
Additional fee activities
- Ice Skating on a full outdoor rink
- Candy Cane carnival with more than 30 rides, attractions and games
- Pictures with Santa and Mrs. Claus in their cabin
If you’re looking for more fun, check out Queen Mary Chill and/or Winter Wonderfest in OC. There are always things to do in Southern California.
