Our family experienced the Saint Paul Winter Carnival Drive-Thru on opening day, January 28, 2021, and here’s what we loved and what you can expect!

I posted about this unique event a few weeks ago. The Saint Paul Winter Carnival of course isn’t new (far from it!), but the drive-thru experience is new this year, thanks of course to COVID.

But it’s a fun experience nonetheless!

This new drive-thru experience combines TWO of the Winter Carnival’s signature events – the Ice Carving Competition and the Snow Sculpture Contest. It will be each day of the Carnival – January 28th – February 7th, 2021, at the Minnesota State Fairgrounds.

We went on opening night and enjoyed a slow drive through the Minnesota State Fairgrounds, admiring snow and ice sculptures on both sides of the road, and members of the Royal Family and Vulcan Krewe!

These guys welcomed all the cars as they arrived and posed for pictures!

Each car got a goodie bag with items, like a light-up snow wand, granola bars, and information about the event. There’s also a Bingo activity sheet you can turn in at the end if you want to do it for a chance to win prizes.

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This week our family visited the new Ice Palace Maze in Stillwater, Minnesota, and it was a perfect winter family outing!

It’s a winter playground and it’s outside the Zephyr Theatre in downtown Stillwater.

The Ice Palace Maze is a half-mile long, has 8-foot-tall walls, and there are fun things to discover throughout like sculptures and even ice thrones. It’s made of 1500 real ice blocks, and even has 36-foot ice slides at the end that you can go down if you want!

This attraction will be here January 22nd through March 7th, 2021, weather permitting.

“Visiting our Ice Palace MAZE will be a fun, safe, family-focused way to celebrate winter,” said Calyssa Hall, The Zephyr Theatre’s executive director. “We hope it will bring a lot of joy to Stillwater residents and visitors.” 

It’s open during the day and evening. We went at 6pm and it was lit up so pretty! There were also fires burning for roasting s’mores – or just keeping warm.

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