Step inside the Hands On Children’s Museum to find a winter wonderland this weekend

If you want to make a winter wonderland in South Sound, you’d better rely on faux snow and synthetic ice.

That’s what the Hands On Children’s Museum is doing at this long weekend’s Ice Adventures event, which will feature sock ice-skating, faux snow, pom-pom snowballs and much more Saturday through Monday.

For the past three winters, the Hands On Children’s Museum has done its best to let it snow by having it trucked down from Crystal Mountain. But the climate here just isn’t right for snow — not even the imported kind. There was too little snow in the mountains, or there was too much snow and an avalanche closed the roads, or the event fell on a 55-degree day.

So this year, they decided to nix the real snow and opt for an ice-free skating rink instead.

“We were looking for something else that would be a really fun winter event,” the museum’s Amanda Wilkening told The Olympian. “We wanted to bring in one of those traditional winter experiences. We’ll have music, and it will be decorated to have an ice theme.”

Of course, Oly on Ice provided a similar experience. But the museum’s rink, which allows kids to slip and slide in socks, is a warmer experience — and it lets parents sit on the sidelines and watch, even with little ones.

The imitation ice rink — made with the same synthetic ice that ice skaters use for practice — has become a popular activity at other children’s museums, Wilkening said.

A Boston Globe video of kids enjoying the rink at Boston Children’s Museum shows lots of twirling, falling, wiggling and especially giggling.

Wilkening said because the museum has purchased the floor tiles needed to build the 15-foot-by-30-foot rink, sock skating can be offered again and again.

“We were looking for something that could be a repeatable winter event,” she said. “We’re excited about the rink.”

Kids also can play with faux snow, made from a powdered mix, and snow dough, an unlikely combination of baking soda and solid vegetable shortening that kids can use to build miniature snowpeople.

“It has a texture that feels like snow,” Wilkening said. “We have tubs of that.”

Pom-poms will stand in for snowballs for a snowball catapult and a game of pitching snowballs at a big plywood snowman.

There won’t be snow, but there will be some real ice at the event, subtitled “Three days of frozen fun.” Dr. Science (also known as Ben Michaelis) will light ice on fire, and ice carver James Stugart of Portland will demonstrate his skills Sunday and Monday.

Back in the land of pretend, costumed ice princesses — a hit at the museum’s 2017 Noon Year’s Eve celebration — will meet and greet kids Saturday. And the museum has set up a black-light “ice cave” decorated with stalactites and stalagmites.

“That’s another really cool new activity,” Wilkening said.

No pun intended, of course: This wintry experience won’t require much bundling up.

Ice Adventures

• What: The Hands On Children’s Museum celebrates winter with sock ice skating, faux snow, a visit from an ice carver and more.
  
  
• When: 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 19; 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 20; and 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday, Jan. 21
  
  
• Where: Hands On Children’s Museum, 414 Jefferson St. NE, Olympia
  
  
• Tickets: Free with museum admission ($13.95, $11.95 for seniors and military with ID, free for babies 0-23 months)
  
  
• More information: 360-956-0818, hocm.org
  
  
• Also: Adults are admitted only with children or on guided tours.
  
  
• Schedule: Dressed-up ice princesses will visit from 1 to 3 p.m. Saturday, and ice carver James Stugart of Portland will be demonstrating his art from 1 to 3 p.m. Sunday and Monday.
  
  

This story was originally published January 15, 2019 at 5:58 PM.