Spend Christmas in your bathing suit

Indoor water parks offer fun setting for families to enjoy holidays

	The Great Wolf Lodge is lit up for the holidays in Scotrun, Pa. last December.
AP

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updated 4:34 p.m. ET Dec. 4, 2006

SCOTRUN, Pa. - Christmas Day, Pennsylvania's Pocono Mountains. Outside it was 33 degrees, snow on the ground, cold wind blowing.

But never mind that. I was at an indoor water park, in my bathing suit, lying on a lounge chair, sipping a strawberry daiquiri. Nearby, my children splashed around, zooming down water slides and hollering with joy. The place looked like a winter wonderland, complete with twinkling lights and decorated trees, but it was so warm inside that it felt like summer.

That was how my family and I spent last Dec. 25, at Great Wolf Lodge in Scotrun, about 100 miles from New York City. Like a lot of indoor water parks, Great Wolf went all out for the holidays, offering everything from Christmas craft workshops to Hanukkah celebrations with candle-lightings and songs. At Grizzly Jack's Grand Bear Lodge in Utica, Ill., you can have breakfast with Santa every Saturday through Christmas. At Kalahari indoor water parks in Wisconsin Dells, Wis., and Sandusky, Ohio, there are tree-lightings, appearances by Santa and his elves, and holiday movies shown at night. Santa hands out candy canes at the Wilderness Hotel & Golf Resort in Wisconsin Dells, where you can also make mini-gingerbread houses and get an elf to deliver a gift to your child.

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Romy Snyder, executive director of Wisconsin Dells Visitor and Convention Bureau, says water parks are catering to the growing trend for families to vacation over Christmas instead of staying home.

"It's a time for people to get together and really enjoy each other as a family," she said. "You hear and read so much about the holidays, how stressful they can be, how much work they can be. This is a perfect answer to that. It's really a vacation for everyone. Someone else is doing the cooking and the decorating."

Image: Great Clock Tower Show
AP
In this file photo, children and parents watch the holiday Great Clock Tower Show at the Great Wolf Lodge in Scotrun, Pa.
In addition, for those of us who live in cold weather regions, the thought of spending a few days in bathing suits in December without having to buy plane tickets to a tropical island is very appealing.

It's no accident that most of the 80 or so indoor water parks in the country are in the chilly Midwest. Wisconsin Dells calls itself the "Indoor Water Park Capital of the World," with 20 indoor parks open year-round, Michigan and Minnesota have 20 or so between them, and Ohio has seven, including two new facilities opening this month, a Great Wolf in Mason, and Coco Key Water Resort near Columbus.

In contrast, the East has just begun to discover indoor water parks. Great Wolf opened in Scotrun in late 2005, followed by a Six Flags indoor water park in Lake George in upstate New York earlier this year.

Of course, if it's peace, quiet and adult conversation you yearn for, an indoor water park is probably not for you. Sure, there are hot tubs, bars and spas, but most of the time you'll be surrounded by happy shouts, shrieks and the sound of running, splashing water echoing all around in a hollow din.

CONTINUED : A place for kids to act their age

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