Universal is opening on Christmas Day this year, for the first time ever, and has sprinkled holiday decor throughout the park. Here, the park's Brooklyn street scene lies under a dusting of "snow."
For Grinchmas, Universal's taken its The Adventures Of Curious George play area and overlaid a "Grinch Who Stole Christmas" theme.
The rocket ship is now a Christmas tree and the water "sprayground" is blocked off by a large shallow pit of real snow, trucked in for the occasion.
This isn't the soap-bubble fake stuff that you'll find in some places around Southern California. Nor is it just flakes in the sky, which melt upon hitting the ground. This is a foot deep of good stuff, the kind you can roll around in, dump on your brother's head and pack into a snowman, as Universal did for the show.
Universal brought in Los Angeles mayor Antonio Villaraigosa for an opening ceremony with the Grinch, the mayor of Whoville and a much-older-than-toddler-aged Cindy Lou Who.
After the mayor's spiel, the bussed-in local schoolkids, on cue, all pelted the snowman with snowballs, as local TV crews filmed the action. I, however, decided to shoot the sign behind the snowman...
The one that started with "No Throwing Snow." So, I guess that regular theme park customers won't get to join in the media-friendly snowball fight. Alas. ;-)
A snow play ground might not seem like much to folks from up north. But having spent two hours in a traffic jam trying (and failing) to get up to Big Bear a couple Decembers ago, it's nice to have that option closer to home. (I believe that the last measurable snow in Pasadena fell in 1949.)
Touch is one of the underutilized senses in theme parks. And this attraction is, ultimately, all about touch -- the feel of snow on your hands, on your face and all around your body.
The Grinchmas snow play area will be open weekends, starting this Saturday, and daily from Dec. 21 - 31.
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Still, it's a great idea. I was very bitter when the fireworks at Disneyland were canceled due to wind when I went during the Christmas season. Instead, they created a faux snowstorm, and it wasn't anything but soap suds. What a rip.