Two Million Pounds of Ice, a Cirque Show and a Resort Dressed for Christmas: Gaylord Opryland Sets Its 2026 Season
The first week of October is early to be thinking about snow, but the people who run Gaylord Opryland have been thinking about it since spring, and their plan for the 2026 holiday season is now fully on the table. It rests on two big ideas: a walk-through maze made of ice, and a circus-style stage show that is coming back for a second Nashville winter.
The 43rd A Country Christmas
The resort's holiday season, A Country Christmas, is entering its 43rd year, which makes it one of the longest-running seasonal traditions in Middle Tennessee. This year it runs Nov. 6 through Jan. 2, 2027, a stretch of nearly two months that takes in Thanksgiving week, the December rush and the quieter days after New Year's.
The new centerpiece is ice! featuring Home Alone, a chilled attraction built around the McCallister house from the 1990 film. The resort says it uses more than 2 million pounds of sculpted ice, arranged into 11 interactive walk-through scenes, with five ice slides, crawl-through passages and tunnels along the way. The whole thing is held at 9 degrees Fahrenheit, which is a very different Nashville from the one outside in November. Live carving demonstrations are part of the visit, and the sculptures themselves were made by artisans from Harbin, China, in roughly 12,000 hours of labor over six weeks. Nine degrees is nine degrees: anyone planning a visit with kids will want to think about layers.
A cirque show in the ballroom
The second headline act is POMP, SNOW & CIRQUEumstance, which plays the Tennessee Ballroom Theater from Nov. 24 through Dec. 31. The production, created by Broadway director and producer Neil Goldberg, puts 27 performers on stage in more than 100 costumes and wigs, mixing gravity-defying acrobatics, illusions and musical storytelling. It debuted in Nashville last winter, and this season's run brings new acts and new magic.
The experience starts before the curtain: an interactive pre-show area features oversized displays, including an 18-foot gingerbread man and giant nutcrackers, and the evening ends with a visit from Santa Claus. The resort says the show carries a 2026 Telly Award for best immersive holiday show.
Packages and planning
Early-bird packages are already on sale. The ice! Signature Package bundles a room with attraction tickets, and overnight guests who buy ice! tickets receive a complimentary Chill Pass that gets them to the front of the line, a useful perk on the busiest December weekends. Booking details are at ChristmasAtGaylordOpryland.com.
For the dates, the calendar entry for the season lives on our own A Country Christmas at Gaylord Opryland page, and if you are building a whole weekend around it, our Book Your Stay page is the place to compare rooms across the city.
The season is still more than a month away, but the shape of it is clear: a resort the size of a small town, two headline attractions and a long runway for locals who want to pick a night before the calendar fills up.
