From Sand to Snow: Aventura Mall’s Snow Carnival Transforms Miami into a Snowy Spectacle for All Ages!

The cornerstone of the holidays is family and making lasting memories. December, especially, is a month when you look past the ordinary and make plans to do the extraordinary. Nothing is more extraordinary to a South Floridian child than playing in the snow.

Thanks to the Snow Carnival located at the world-famous Aventura Mall, children no longer have to make their snowmen out of sand. This incredible event takes all the best of a winter wonderland and brings it to our Sunshine State for all to enjoy.

You walk through a dazzling array of glimmering holiday lights toward the huge air-controlled tent and get safely checked in. When you enter the Snow Carnival, you become amazed at how big and well-positioned everything is inside. Watching my kids’ eyes light up and their mouths fall agape was like seeing children enter Willy Wonka’s Candyland.

Because each wintry attraction is well spread out, you don’t feel like you’re bogged down or stuck in an endless line. Everything inside Snow Carnival actually flows quite well. At the front is a fun little Holiday Express Train for the kiddos. As they ride along, they are sure to be singing along to the holiday music.

Also towards the front is a fun, creative inner-tube Merry-Go-Round. This ride is quite tame and fine for all ages to enjoy and relax. However, there is another ride that is anything, but tame. It is the classic bumper cars, but heightened to a whole another level. They’re more like big inflatable bumper boats, but on land or ice. These cars are fast, not the easiest to control, and love to whirl you around at breakneck speeds. I almost gave my son whiplash after my bumper car hit his so hard, then my car decided to spin rapidly on its own for a time. It was a little scary, but still quite fun.

On the adjacent side is a big blanket of ice and snow to play around and have fun. An overhead snow machine is constantly belting out snow flurries, which adds to its winter prominence. The Snow Carnival actually uses 350 tons of real snow and adds another 50 tons each day.

There’s endless joy in snow as you can make snow angels or use some buried materials to make your snowman. If you want to toss the snow, you have to walk down to the far end of the tent. Here, you can wade up some snowballs and toss them at some targets and polar bears. I might have accidentally (or purposely) hit my son in the head with one.

The highlight of the Snow Carnival, though, has to be what they call the ‘Mini Matterhorn.’ It’s a steep, but fun hill with multi-lanes for snow tubing. At first glance, you wouldn’t think it, but man, do you fly down this short hill. It gives you the perfect little shot of adrenaline that makes you want to do it again and again. There is a height limit to go on the ‘Mini Matterhorn,’ but they have a kid-friendly (littler) hill as well that my kids loved going down and it still was still fast too.

Snow Carnival is filled with great family photo-ops, fun food and drinks for kids and adults, and also has the Abominable Snowman to meet and take pictures with. This is a one-of-a-kind holiday event not to be missed for any family living in or visiting South Florida.

The Snow Carnival is now open until January 8th at the Aventura Mall. Tickets are $34.99 for children over 12 and $39.99 for adults. Find out more information at www.snowcarnival.com.