The Fairmont Scottsdale Princess in Scottsdale, Arizona, is transforming into a winter wonderland despite its desert location.
The annual Christmas at the Princess festival, which runs through January 6, features the Desert Ice, a 5,400-sq-foot (502-sq-m) ice-skating rink built within a cactus garden and made with real ice. A portion of the proceeds from skating benefit Phoenix Children’s Hospital.
More than a million lights illuminating the resort’s lagoons, and visitors can see decorations including swans floating on the water, a buccaneer pirate ship, poinsettias, a rocking horse, toy soldiers, Santa fishing and a candy cane forest.
Throughout the resort, 75 trees are wrapped in lights, many draped with icicles and snowflakes, along with a 10-ft (3-m) lighted menorah and dreidels, the Three Wise Men and a skating polar bear. The WMPO Princess Express offers complimentary rides on Friday and Saturday nights around the lagoons.