Winter festivities continue from December as the Campus Activities Board’s Winter Wonderland event has returned after being canceled last year.
Opening to the public at 5 p.m. Wednesday, Winter Wonderland had a plethora of unique events including an ice skating rink, a refreshment stand with various toppings and a reindeer mini-petting zoo.
Winter Wonderland was originally scheduled for Dec. 4 but was canceled due to dangerously high wind speeds leaving many upset.
Just like last year, CAB organized a petting zoo with animals from Sycamore. However, this year was a little more special as they had reindeer.
Harley Miller, trending programing chair of CAB, was happy that they could hold the Winter Wonderland on a later date and bring in something new for visitors to check out.
“We wanted to bring something new to campus and we’ve never had the reindeer,” Miller said. “We know that petting zoos are always usually a big hit so we thought, you know, why not try to bring the reindeer out.”
Two reindeer, Olive and Fritz, were brought in for a meet and greet. Visitors were allowed to approach Olive and take pictures with her next to a festive sleigh decorated in holiday ornaments while Fritz relaxed close by on the grass.
Brenda Huerta, a graduate student finance major, was looking forward to the event last month and was happy to learn that CAB brought it back.
“I was looking forward to it obviously for last semester, but unfortunately it was canceled due to weather conditions and such, but it’s nice that they were able to bring it back this semester,” Huerta said. “I was actually looking forward to them (the reindeer) too, yeah, because that was definitely the main attraction for me to come last semester.”
Visitors were also invited to check out the makeshift ice-skating rink where they could rent ice skating shoes and skate to their heart’s content, regardless of whether they were new or experienced.
To keep warm from the icy, biting cold, guests were welcome to grab warm refreshments from the hot cocoa stand sitting across from the ice-skating rink.
Along with velvety, hot chocolate warm enough to defrost frozen fingers, sweet toppings were offered such as whipped cream, marshmallows, chocolate and rainbow sprinkles, and chocolate sauce. Peppermint candies were also provided to add to the winter vibe.
Max Medernach, a junior marketing major, recommends that other students check out these kinds of events if they have the time.
“People should come to these events,” Medernach said. “You can meet students and it’s just good to have. I mean, they’re putting this stuff up for us to use so we should go ahead and use it.”
