The holiday season will ride in on a model train Saturday as the New Canaan Nature Center welcomes visitors for its third annual Winter Wonderland. But residents should bundle up for the partly outdoor event chilly temperatures are in the forecast.
Nature Center spokeswoman Hilary Wittmann said the four-hour Winter Wonderland Festival is meant to be a traditional kickoff to the holiday season. The festival begins at 11 a.m. Saturday at the Nature Center property off Oenoke Ridge.
Wittmann says the three year old festival has been well received so far. Its really a kind of a simple family holiday event. This is something very outdoor-oriented, Wittmann said as the Nature Center staff prepared for the weekends festivities.
Festival goers will be treated to arts and crafts for kids, holiday music and stories, and a chance to ride on a horse-drawn carriage around the Nature Center property. The carriage rides take the place of the hayrides that were given in the festivals first two years. Visitors will also see a model train display featuring small handmade scenes of New Canaan landmarks. And, of course, they will get to meet Santa Claus himself.
The Nature Center staff doesnt think the temperatures will be a drawback. Last years festival saw nearly 300 families, and Wittmann expects between 300 and 400 families will come out on Saturday.
Theres so much happening inside, so I dont think [the cold] will impact it, she said. But people want to be outdoors and in nature. Were asking for people to make it fun and be outdoors.
Admission to the Winter Wonderland Festival is $5 per child for Nature Center members, and $10 per child for non-members.
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