Christmas at Metropolis Resort is about more than decorations. It is about giving families a place to slow down, spend time together, laugh, play, build traditions, and experience some of the wonder that makes the holiday season feel different from the rest of the year.

In this episode of Fun Intended, we go behind the scenes with the resort's general manager to talk about how Christmas grew from putting up a lobby tree into an experience the team looks forward to building each year. From the Christmas village and holiday characters to cookies, stories, family gatherings, and plenty of playful surprises, the goal is simple: create an environment where families can make memories together.

What Makes Christmas at Metropolis Resort Special?

Christmas at Metropolis Resort is designed around shared experiences. The decorations, characters, activities, gathering spaces, and resort atmosphere all give families opportunities to spend meaningful time together without making one person responsible for hosting the entire celebration.

The team approaches Christmas as a full season rather than a single decoration or event. What began with a Christmas tree in the lobby gradually expanded into a much bigger tradition centered on family, imagination, and the kind of moments children and adults may remember years later.

Key Takeaways

• Christmas has grown into one of the most meaningful seasons for the Metropolis Resort team.

• The holiday experience is intentionally designed around family connection and shared memories.

• Christmas traditions at the resort grew gradually from a simple lobby tree into decorations, a Christmas village, characters, activities, and family experiences.

• Santa, Mrs. Claus, the Grinch, Chippie and Charli, Christmas trees, the holiday village, and other traditions help create a sense of wonder for families.

• Activities provide families with both high-energy fun and quieter opportunities to slow down together.

• A resort gathering can make Christmas easier for larger families by giving everyone space to stay, play, eat, and reconnect.

Why Metropolis Resort Believes in Christmas Magic

There is something different about the way children experience Christmas. The decorations feel bigger. The traditions feel more important. Seeing Santa can feel completely real, and a Christmas village can become an entire world waiting to be explored.

That sense of wonder is something the Metropolis team wants families to experience when they visit during the holiday season.

For adults, Christmas can become complicated. There are schedules to coordinate, food to prepare, presents to wrap, houses to clean, and countless details to manage. But when those responsibilities quiet down for a moment, adults can experience some of that holiday excitement again too.

That might happen while watching a child run toward Santa, decorating a cookie with Mrs. Claus, discovering where the resort elves have moved, watching the Christmas train circle its display, or laughing as the Grinch creates a little mischief.

The fun may look spontaneous to guests, but much of it is intentional.

How Christmas at Metropolis Resort Grew Over the Years

The resort's Christmas tradition did not begin as the large experience guests know today.

Years ago, Christmas decorating largely meant putting up a tree in the hotel lobby. Over time, the team started noticing how much guests appreciated it. Families stopped to take pictures. The decorations became part of their visit. As more areas of the resort grew, there were more spaces to decorate and more opportunities to create something special.

Then came another idea: the Christmas village.

The inspiration came from a smaller village that had become a family tradition at home. Children would arrange the people, move the pieces, decide where everything belonged, and create their own stories around it.

That sparked a question: What if the resort had a Christmas village too?

The early version was simple. Pieces were collected, the display was built, and the team learned as they went. One of the most important ideas was that the village should not simply be something children looked at from a distance. The sense of discovery and imagination was part of what made it special.

Year after year, the display evolved. What started as an experiment became part of the Christmas experience guests recognize and look forward to.

The Team Behind the Christmas Transformation

Creating that experience takes work.

After Halloween, attention begins shifting toward Christmas. Decorations come out, trees go up, spaces change, supplies need to be found, and the team works together to transform the resort.

Even a simple decorating job can turn into a team story. One year, a team member volunteered to handle a shopping run because it sounded like the easy assignment. Instead, it became hours of searching for the right lights, tracking down supplies, answering texts, and discovering that shopping might have been harder than decorating the trees.

Those behind-the-scenes moments are part of what makes the season meaningful for the staff too. Decorating becomes a team-building experience before the busiest part of the season begins.

Then comes the payoff.

When families start arriving, the Christmas music is playing, the train is moving, children are pointing at the decorations, and guests are exploring the lobby, the work suddenly makes sense.

For more stories about the people and thinking behind the resort experience, explore the Fun Intended blog and podcast series.

Christmas Activities Create Time to Be Together

A day at Metropolis Resort can include plenty of activity, but the holiday experience is not meant to be nonstop motion.

Families need different kinds of moments.

Kids may want to run, splash, jump, play games, and explore. Then they may need time to slow down. That is where quieter holiday traditions become valuable.

The episode highlights experiences such as spending time with Santa, listening to Mrs. Claus read a story, decorating cookies, looking for Chippie and Charli around the resort, enjoying the Christmas village, and watching for the Grinch.

These moments create a different rhythm during a stay. Families can move between active attractions and simple opportunities to sit together and enjoy the season.

Why the Grinch Has Become Part of the Fun

Not every Christmas memory needs to be quiet.

The Grinch has become one of the more playful parts of the Metropolis holiday experience. In the episode, the team describes the excitement that can happen when the Grinch appears and children suddenly decide they need to chase him down.

Adults join the fun too. Parents, grandparents, children, and team members can all become part of the moment.

That interaction captures an important part of the Metropolis approach to Christmas. Guests are not simply there to look at decorations. They are invited to participate, be a little ridiculous, laugh together, and let the holiday feel fun.

You can see more of that holiday personality in the Holiday Season at Metropolis Resort Short and another look at the season in the Christmas at Metropolis Resort Short.

Why Families Choose a Christmas Getaway

Holiday traditions often center around someone's home, but gathering at a resort can solve a problem that becomes more difficult as families grow.

Grandparents may have children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren trying to coordinate one celebration. One house may no longer comfortably fit everyone. Hosting can mean preparing food, organizing sleeping arrangements, cleaning constantly, and spending more time managing the gathering than enjoying it.

A resort stay gives family members the opportunity to have their own space while still spending the holiday together.

The episode describes families gathering in rooms, bringing food, sharing meals, ordering pizza, letting the kids play, and giving the adults time to sit together and catch up.

Instead of one person constantly cleaning and hosting, families can focus more of their energy on each other.

For families considering a getaway built around spending more time together, the Stay & Play at Metropolis Resort guide offers another look at the resort experience.

A New Location Can Become Part of the Tradition

Celebrating somewhere other than home can initially feel like breaking tradition. But traditions do not always come from doing exactly the same thing every year.

Sometimes a tradition begins with one memorable weekend.

Families may visit once, discover how much easier it was to gather everyone together, and decide to return. Children may remember something that happened once or twice as something the family has "always" done.

That is how memories become traditions.

The important part is not necessarily the building where Christmas happens. It is the people who were together when it happened.

Christmas Gives Adults Permission to Play Too

One of the themes running throughout the conversation is that holiday fun is not only for children.

Adults can spend much of the year being responsible. Christmas creates an opportunity to set some of that aside.

Take the pictures. Wear the ridiculous sweater. Visit Santa. Decorate a cookie. Chase the Grinch. Ride the water slides. Jump on the trampolines. Eat ice cream before bed.

The point is not to create the perfect holiday schedule. It is to create enough room for everyone to enjoy being together.

The Best Christmas Memories Are Often the Simple Ones

Families change every year. New people join the family. Children grow. Schedules change. Sometimes the people around the table change too.

That makes the time everyone does have together worth protecting.

Years later, children may not remember every gift. They may remember seeing the Christmas train. They may remember the village. They may remember decorating a cookie. They may remember chasing the Grinch down the hallway.

Most of all, they may remember that everyone was there.

That idea is at the center of Christmas at Metropolis Resort: make it easier for families to be together, and give them plenty of opportunities to create the moments they will talk about later.

Groups planning a larger seasonal gathering can also explore Holiday Parties Have Never Been Better for another look at gathering together at Metropolis Resort.

Plan Your Visit to Metropolis Resort

If a Christmas getaway sounds like the right fit for your family, start with the part that can sometimes be the hardest: pick a date. Once everyone knows when they are getting together, the rest of the experience can begin to take shape.

Come ready to spend time together, participate in the fun, and create your own version of a Metropolis Christmas tradition.

Frequently Asked Questions About Christmas at Metropolis Resort

What makes Christmas at Metropolis Resort different?

Christmas at Metropolis Resort is built around shared family experiences. The resort combines holiday decorations, traditions, characters, activities, attractions, and gathering time so families can enjoy the season together.

Why do families celebrate Christmas at a resort instead of at home?

A resort gathering can give larger families their own spaces while keeping everyone together. It can also reduce some of the cooking, cleaning, hosting, and space pressures that come with gathering a growing family in one home.

Are the Christmas experiences only for children?

No. The episode emphasizes that adults, parents, grandparents, children, and team members all become part of the holiday experience. The goal is to give every generation permission to have fun together.

How did the Christmas village at Metropolis Resort begin?

The idea grew from a smaller Christmas village that had become a family tradition at home. That inspiration eventually became a resort display that has continued to evolve over the years.

What is the best way to start planning a family Christmas getaway?

The episode's simplest advice is to start by choosing a date that works for the family. Once everyone knows when they are getting together, the rest of the holiday gathering becomes easier to organize.

Christmas at Metropolis Resort Is Really About Being Together

The trees, decorations, train, village, Santa visits, cookies, characters, and activities all help create the atmosphere, but they are not the real point of the season.

The real point is giving families an opportunity to be together.

Christmas at Metropolis Resort has grown because the team has seen what those moments mean to guests. A simple decoration becomes a family photo. A Christmas village becomes a child's favorite discovery. A weekend getaway becomes something the family decides to do again next year.

That is how holiday magic becomes a family memory, and how a family memory can become a tradition.

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