Your Ultimate Guide To Winter Attractions And Activities In Minnesota
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Trent Jonas
Author
In the Land of 10,000 Lakes, we embrace winter – if we didn’t, we’d spend a large part of the year sitting inside and moping. Fortunately, however, our love for cold weather means that there are plenty of fun things to do in Minnesota in winter and plenty of other folks willing to do them with us. These are some of our favorite Minnesota winter activities, starting with the holiday season, that will help to make the colder months fly by quickly.
Holiday Events In Minnesota
When the holidays roll around, you’ll find plenty to do in the Land of 10,000 Lakes, from festive lights to community gatherings. Here are a few of our favorite holiday events in Minnesota.
1. Christmas Lights Displays
Bentleyville USA
Location: Duluth, Minnesota Popularity: Very popular. Price: Free With more than 4 million lights and a fantastic harbor-front setting at Bayfront Festival Park on Lake Superior, Duluth’s Bentleyville USA is probably the premier Christmas lights display in Minnesota. This dazzling walk-thru display is sure to brighten any Minnesota winter, and folks road trip from all over the North Star State to see it. This is definitely one of our favorite things to do in Minnesota in winter! The event is free, but charitable donations are encouraged. There is a charge for on-site parking. For more information about Bentleyville USA's Tour of Lights, visit its website. Other favorite Christmas lights displays include:
Kiwanis Holiday Lights
Location: Mankato, Minnesota Popularity: Very popular, especially on weekends. Price: Free If you’d prefer to avoid the cold weather and stay in your car, a road trip to Mankato is in order for you. Kiwanis Holiday Lights is the largest drive-thru display of Christmas lights in Minnesota. This annual event lights up Mankato's Sibley Park, where you'll find all manner of festive illumination; there are also concessions on hand to help you warm up on those chillier evenings. If you don't want to wait in a long line of cars - and on some weekends the wait can be more than an hour - you are also welcome to walk through the light show. You’ll find all the dates, times, and other details on the Kiwanis Holiday Lights website.
Winter Lights
Location: Chanhassen, Minnesota Popularity: Popular on weekends. Price: $10 members, $25 non-members, free for ages 15 and younger (child admission of $5-10 applies for certain theme nights) If you’re looking for an incredible, whimsical light display closer to the Twin Cities, the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum's Winter Lights is an incredible display of holiday splendor. The arboretum is located in the southwestern Metro suburb of Chanhassen, and this event turns the always-lovely arboretum into an illuminated, magical forest. Visit the Landscape Arboretum’s website to learn more about this dazzling holiday lights display.
Kiwanis Holiday Lights
Winter Lights
2. Tree Lightings
Heartland Lakes Community Tree Lighting & Yuletide Sampler
Location: Park Rapids, Minnesota Popularity: Expect a crowd. Price: Free Park Rapids plays host to the Heartland Lakes Region’s annual Community Tree Lighting and Yuletide Sampler on the day after Thanksgiving. With music, festivities, and fun things to do, this is one of our favorite holiday celebrations in Minnesota. The event culminates with the lighting of a tremendous North Woods Christmas tree - which is placed right in the middle of the street, and it will stand there for the entire holiday season. We're also a fan of:
Lights on Broadway
Location: Alexandria, Minnesota Popularity: Expect a crowd. Price: Free You’ll find another incredible holiday kick-off celebration in Alexandria, Minnesota, where they start the festivities with a parade, and then light up all the Christmas lights along Broadway Street. The event takes place on the Friday after Thanksgiving. Visit the Lights On Broadway Facebook page for details and more information.
Lights on Broadway
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3. Other Holiday Festivals
GLOW Holiday Festival
Location: St. Paul, Minnesota Popularity: Very popular, especially on weekends. Price: $20.75 for adults; $12.75 for children (ages 3-12); children ages 2 & under are free In St. Paul, the GLOW Holiday Festival has become an annual tradition. The festival transforms CHS Field in Lowertown into a walk-thru wonderland of dazzling holiday lights. You'll find plenty of other fun things to do at this winter festival, as well. There are concessions available, all manner of activities, and even a gift shop. This is definitely one of the best displays of Christmas lights in St. Paul, MN. The GLOW Holiday Festival website has more event details. Other holiday festivals we love include:
Dalton Christmas Fest
Location: Dalton, Minnesota Popularity: Hidden gem. Price: Free Every year, the tiny town of Dalton kicks off its annual Christmas Fest with a tree-lighting ceremony on the night of Thanksgiving. Several events follow throughout the weeks between Thanksgiving and New Year's Day. The best known of these is the Pioneer Village Tour of Lights, a dazzling drive-thru display of historic buildings bedecked with thousands of holiday lights - folks flock from near and far to drive through this display. Although the festival is free, it is donation-funded, and your gifts are more than welcome. Learn more about Dalton Christmas Fest on its website.
Parade of Lights and Tree Lighting
Location: New Ulm, Minnesota Popularity: Expect a crowd. Price: Free New Ulm seems to have more fun than a lot of other Minnesota towns - as evidenced by its renowned Oktoberfest celebration. But New Ulm’s festive spirit doesn’t end when the last leaf falls from the trees. To the contrary, it pours into the streets of the small city in preparation for Christmas. The season begins on the Friday after Thanksgiving with the annual Parade of Lights, which draws thousands of revelers each year. Other community events, like special shopping days and a storefront decorating contest, occur throughout the holiday season.
Dalton Christmas Fest
Parade of Lights and Tree Lighting
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Christmas Towns In Minnesota
You’d be hard-pressed to find a town in Minnesota that doesn’t celebrate the holidays – at least a little bit. But there are several communities that go all out when the holiday season rolls around. Among all the Christmas towns in Minnesota, these are three that we think you’d really enjoy visiting during the holidays.
4. Red Wing, Minnesota
When it comes to celebrating Christmas and involving the whole community, few towns of its size (around 20,000) do the holidays as well as historic Red Wing. The annual Holiday Stroll gets folks downtown for food, music, activities, and togetherness as the city kicks off its holiday season. Its Parade of Lights, on the other hand, fosters some friendly and festive competition between neighbors who throw down with their strongest decorating and exterior illumination games. In Red Wing, it seems, holiday cheer is contagious.
5. Stillwater, Minnesota
When it comes to simply looking the part of a classic Christmas town, the St. Croix River city of Stillwater is about as good as it gets here in the Bold North. The historic, beautifully-preserved Main Street is decorated to the nines, and all the businesses get in the spirit of the season. The tree lighting event draws a crowd, and throughout the holidays, you’ll find carolers and even Santa Claus, himself, strolling through the streets, visiting the shops and restaurants, to get everyone into a festive spirit.
6. Excelsior, Minnesota
The Lake Minnetonka community of Excelsior is not to be trifled with when it comes to the holidays. Its public holiday décor game is strong, and it plays host to several seasonal events, with local businesses working to push the town’s spirit meter over the top. Many communities can boast this, but Excelsior has one more advantage that sets it apart from other Christmas towns in Minnesota: its annual Christkindlsmarkt. This lively holiday market kicks off just after Thanksgiving and sets the mood for a merry holiday season in Excelsior.
Outdoor Activities
Winter sticks around for several months in the Bold North, which means there’s plenty of time to enjoy all the awesome outdoor winter activities in Minnesota. Looking for something to do this winter? Here are some of our favorite things to do outside.
7. Grab Some Tube at Buck Hill
Buck Hill, Burnsville, MN 55306, USA
Buck Hill, in the south Metro suburb of Burnsville, is a small but mighty ski area, renowned as the spot where Olympic gold medalist and world champion Lindsey Vonn got her start. It also has another big thing going for it: It boasts the largest snow tubing area in the Twin Cities. Buck Hill’s 12 tubing lanes are twice as many as the much-larger Afton Alps ski area can offer - and it’s closer to the Cities. If you’re looking for winter activities in the Minneapolis-St. Paul Metro Area, we think snow tubing at Buck Hill is one of the most fun things to do in Minnesota in winter.
8. Cheer on Your Favorite Team at the U.S. Pond Hockey Championships
Lake Nokomis Beach, Minneapolis, MN 55417, USA
Watching the U.S. Pond Hockey Championships on Lake Nokomis, in view of the downtown Minneapolis skyline, is easily one of our favorite free things to do in Minnesota in winter. Each year, amateur hockey teams come from all over the country and converge on Minneapolis to play a raucous 10 days of hockey as it was meant to be played - outside, in subzero weather on a frozen lake - and compete for the coveted Golden Shovel. Crowds wax and wane with the weather but turn out in force on the final weekend. Learn more about this excruciatingly Minnesotan event at the U.S. Pond Hockey Championships website.
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9. Explore Up North on a Fat Tire Bike
If you’re looking to get some snow and gravity under your fat tires, head to Giants Ridge near beautiful Biwabik. Giants Ridge Recreation Area offers a range of winter activities, including cross-country and downhill skiing, snowboarding, and snow tubing, as well as lift-served fat tire biking over dozens of miles of groomed winter trails. Don’t want to haul your own bike to Biwabik? No worries - Giants Ridge offers fat bike rentals. Check the Giants Ridge website for more info. If you don’t want to head that far north, Spirit Mountain in Duluth hosts a special one-day event each winter, the Frosted Fatty, where you can get in on some lift-served, downhill fat bike action.
10. Ski or Spectate at the City of Lakes Loppet Winter Festival
Theodore Wirth Regional Park, Theodore Wirth Parkway, Golden Valley, MN, USA
Another of our favorite winter events in Minnesota is the City of Lakes Loppet Winter Festival. The festival is a celebration of all things Nordic with an emphasis, of course, on cross-country skiing. But you can also watch or participate in snowshoeing, fat tire biking, skijoring (dogs only, no horses), and other events. The festival takes place over two days in Minneapolis, with most of the events occurring at Theodore Wirth Park. The festival culminates in the beautiful, nighttime Luminary Loppet on Lake of the Isles. To learn more about the Loppet Winter Festival, visit the Loppet Foundation online.
11. Embrace the Season at the Saint Paul Winter Carnival
Rice Park, 109 W 4th St, St Paul, MN 55102, USA
The venerable Saint Paul Winter Carnival, among the nation’s oldest winter festivals, is one of our favorite winter events in Minnesota. From the parades to the medallion hunt, the ice sculptures in Rice Park, and occasionally, massive ice castles, there’s much to do and see at this annual event. It will definitely help to warm up your spirit during the depths of the winter months in Minnesota. You’ll find a detailed schedule on the St. Paul Winter Carnival website.
12. Go Chasing Frozen Waterfalls
In Minnesota, we are lucky to have many natural waterfalls, some over 100 feet tall. You can even find a few in our largest cities. As amazing as they are when they’re flowing, in many cases they become even more stunning once they freeze. That’s why chasing frozen waterfalls is one of our favorite cheap things to do in Minnesota in winter. In Minneapolis, for example, Minnehaha Falls, on the creek with the same name, drops several stories before it flows into the Mississippi River; and in winter, it often becomes a shimmering veil of blue ice. Along the North Shore of Lake Superior, you’ll find several Minnesota State Parks with waterfalls that freeze spectacularly in the winter months. Of these, Gooseberry Falls State Park is the easiest to reach. But if you’re willing to make the trip, the Baptism River High Falls at Tettegouche State Park and the Pigeon River High Falls at Grand Portage State Park are absolutely spectacular.
Winter Getaways
Getting out and exploring the North Star State is another great way to embrace the winter season. Whether it’s an overnight or you’re taking a long holiday weekend away from home, you’ll definitely want to check out these winter getaways in Minnesota.
13. Snowy Cabin Getaway Up North
Burntside Lake, Ely, MN 55731, USA
Stay in a cozy, four-season rental cabin Up North near the charming winter destination of Ely. A mecca for Minnesotans looking to enjoy outdoor winter activities, Ely hosts an annual winter festival, as well as dogsledding and snowmobile races. After a day of hiking a frozen lake, ice fishing, or snowshoeing the Kawishiwi Trail to a frozen waterfall, you can head back to your cozy cabin and enjoy the custom sauna - and perhaps watch the northern lights dance over the icy surface of Burntside Lake.
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14. Cozy Lodge with a Hot Tub on Lake Superior
Lutsen Resort, 5700 MN-61, Lutsen, MN 55612, USA
15. Spa Weekend in the Brainerd Lakes Area
Grand View Lodge, 23521 Nokomis Ave, Nisswa, MN 56468, USA
16. Adventure Weekend on the Gunflint Trail
Gunflint Lodge & Outfitters, 143 S Gunflint Lake Rd, Grand Marais, MN 55604, USA
Of course, this is just a sampling of the many wonderful things to do in Minnesota in winter. We hope you’ll try some of these activities and getaways and attend an event or two, as well. What do you look forward to doing when the weather turns cold in the Land of 10,000 Lakes? Let us know in the comments!
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