KISSIMMEE, Fla. — Gaylord Palms Resort is getting ready for the start of its Christmas at Gaylord Palms event, which will feature more than a dozen festive activities.

The ongoing coronavirus pandemic prevented the Chinese artisans responsible for creating ice sculptures for the resort’s annual ICE! exhibit from returning this year. So, instead, the resort came up with a new walk-through exhibit called “I Love Christmas Movies.”

We had a chance to check out the new experience ahead of Friday’s public debut. Here’s what we saw.

The walk-through experience features recreated scenes from five different Christmas movies — “Elf,” “A Christmas Story,” “National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation,” “The Year Without Santa,” and “The Polar Express.”  Three scenes have been recreated from each film, with each scene featuring props as well as special effects.

Visitors are guided through the scenes by “production assistants,” who share trivia about the scenes and the movies, as well as point out cool things to see. The theme is to create the feeling of walking through a movie set. The entire experience takes about 25 minutes.

The “I Love Christmas Movies” exhibit was designed with safety in mind. It will operate with limited capacity and tickets must be purchased in advance. Visitors will also be required to wear face masks.

In addition to the “I Love Christmas Movies” exhibit, Christmas at Gaylord Palms also includes snow tubing and a snowball toss inside the Snow Factory. There’s also an area inside the Snow Factory called the Snow Bar, which serves holiday-themed cocktails.

Other holiday activities include the Cirque Dreams Unwrapped stage show, a holiday light show in the resort’s atrium and a Gingerbread Decorating Corner.

Christmas at Gaylord Palms runs November 13 through January 3.

For more information on tickets, visit christmastatgaylorpalms.com.