I used to hate the winter when I was younger.

Snow would always be a hassle because my parents bought an impractically large single-family house with a gigantic driveway, so I would have to shovel the driveway. During a snowstorm, I would often have to shovel multiple times a day in multiple different passes so that the snow wouldn’t freeze onto the steep driveway, otherwise my parents’ sedans wouldn’t be able to make it up and into the garage.

Driving in the snow was a nightmare. My parents didn’t do proper routine maintenance on their vehicles because they wanted to save money, which I’m pretty sure meant that their tires were either perpetually in need of replacement or possibly the wrong type of tires for winter driving. There were a few instances of very near misses of their small cars losing traction and nearly causing a collision.

I was always very cold in the winter. I have a pretty low body fat percentage, so I don’t have much insulation to keep myself warm. My parents kept the thermostat in the low 60s°F to save money on heating. When I told my parents that I was cold, they would tell me to toughen up. Instead of buying me an effectively functional winter coat, they treated me like a fashion accessory and dressed me up in impractical designer coats because they were obsessed with showing off brand names.

… Then I grew up.

I moved out, got my own job, bought my own clothes, and purchased my own pickup truck. Over time, living my own adult life made me realize that winter isn’t actually too bad.

During my road trip across the United States, I actually particularly enjoyed the time I spent in the snowier regions. I think back fondly to the snowy hikes I did in Utah, Idaho, and Wyoming; and I remember how cozy I felt when I got snowed in a few times in Colorado and Utah so I spent the entire day in my warm hotel room with the curtains open, watching the snow fall while a video of a fireplace was playing on the TV.

It doesn’t snow very often in Las Vegas, and in the very rare scenario that it does, it basically never accumulates. I can drive up to Mt. Charleston to see piled-up snow during the winter, which is about 45 minutes away from the Strip, but I can’t really get snowed in down in the Valley. However, it still gets cold, and the community still likes to celebrate the holidays in their own, dry way.

To get into the holiday spirit, I decided to check out Magical Forest at Opportunity Village, an annual winter celebration with Christmas lights, trees, and activities. I knew that this was a yearly recurring thing for a while, but I had never taken the time to head on over before now. I was already looking for some holiday-themed places to visit soon; when I saw that Magical Forest distributing discounted US$17.99 tickets on Groupon (down from the standard US$25.00 full-price admission), I decided to redeem the deal and finally check it out.

I showed up right when they opened at 5:30 PM PST because I thought that would be when they were least busy. I figured that, after getting off work, people would need time to commute back home, gather up their families, and drive over to the venue, which would mean that most people would show up later on in the evening.

My logic might have been sound on a weekday, but I forgot that today is Sunday. It was absolutely packed at 5:30 PM, and there was a long line stretching deep into the parking lot consisting of visitors waiting to get through the security checkpoint.

I heard that one of the prime attractions at Magical Forest is the train. Unfortunately, I had unlucky timing, because the train was apparently suffering from technical difficulties and was not in operation.

After what I think was about a ten to fifteen minute wait, I made it through security and entered the park.

For my first activity, I took a right turn directly into the forest where all the decorated Christmas trees were.

Right at the beginning, there was a “Southern Lights Fire Station” that had a small indoor section with some firefighting equipment on display, as well as a raffle for a fire- and rescue-themed toy car. It seemed like this was the only hybrid indoor-outdoor display throughout the forest.

Right outside was a railroad crossing for the Forest Express. I imagine this is the train that was out of service, as disclosed by the sign near the box office.

I continued deeper into the forest. It seemed like a majority of the displays were sponsored, so there were a lot of logos and advertisements integrated into the decorations. (These are some examples of ones where it was either more subtle, or the branding was posted off to the side instead of front-and-center.)

As I walked even deeper, I started hearing some live music. Because of the curvy nature of the winding path, I was able to see that there was something happening on the other side of some trees, but couldn’t quite reach it yet.

I think this is one of the most comically prominent examples of the embedded advertising.

After doing a few more loops and turns, I made it to the Castle Stage, which is from which I was previously hearing the live music. It seemed like it was mostly just younger teens who were preforming, likely as volunteers or as part of a community program. The frequency with which they sang the notes in tune was questionably lacking, but they all seemed to be having a great time and putting in fantastic effort.

I stuck around to listen to the music for a little bit, then continued on my way on the forest path.

As I was approaching the end of the forest, I came across the Cookie Factory. The line was quite long, so I decided against trying a cookie.

Instead, I continued down the path towards the exit. On my way out, I saw a Disney-themed display, which made me wonder what the likelihood was that this was a properly-licensed display (microscopically low), and whether the very commercial nature of the entire Magical Forest would prompt Disney to actually notice and take some form of action (also still very low).

After exiting the forest, I walked out into the park to check out some more of the attractions. The first one I saw straight ahead was the Avalanche Slide.

Again, the line was ridiculously long so I did not participate, but I’m not really sure if I would’ve even wanted to participate at all to begin with, even if there was no wait. I’m always hesitant to slide down slides because I can’t get the image out of my head that the butt of my pants is basically being used as a cleaning rag to wipe down the surface of the slide as I’m descending…

Nestled under the height of the slide was Frost Bites. At the box office, I received a buy-one-get-one-free coupon for some hot chocolate, but I ended up not using it because I didn’t want to be double-fisting two cups of hot chocolate and occupying both my hands (because I went to this alone), thus preventing myself from taking more photographs.

In the far corner of the park was Santa’s Brewhouse, Reindeer Games, and Beer Garden. This was a 21+ area that had an additional checkpoint by the entrance with a security guard that was distributing special, age-gated credentials. I don’t drink alcohol and I didn’t feel like playing a solo game of cornhole or foosball, so I just snapped a picture from the outside and didn’t go in.

The southern side of the park had a funnel cake truck, a diner, a holiday market, and a row of holiday vendors.

At the end of the lane was a decorated fire truck from the Clark County Fire Department, along with a short row of children who wanted a tour of the inside.

In the activity area, there were some family-friendly games, like mini-golf.

This area also had Cheyenne’s Enchanted Carousel.

For those who wanted to warm up and go indoors, Camelot Hall was set up inside a multipurpose room in a nearby building that housed an arts and crafts station and some concessions.

At this point, it seemed like I had seen everything in the park, so I circled back towards the entrance/exit.

Before leaving, I peeked inside the Holiday Shoppe, which was basically just a regular souvenir store.

Right in front of the exit, there was a donation booth themed as a wishing well.

By the time I was leaving, the park was significantly less busy. I guess that makes sense, because parents probably want to get their kids in bed before it gets too late, so they likely prefer to come earlier on in the evening and leave before it becomes nighttime. If I had known that, I would’ve shown up about two hours later, and I probably would’ve had a much more peaceful experience compared to feeling like I’m trekking inside a gigantic crowd of crying children like I did today.

With that being said, I still enjoyed my visit to Magical Forest at Opportunity Village. I’m not someone who really celebrates holidays, and I usually treat every day like a regular day, so seeing festive things like a seasonal winter event once in a while helps keep things fresh and different.

I think a big part of the allure of Magical Forest is participating in the various different activities, all of which are very family-oriented. If you just want to sightsee the lights and decorations, then going alone is fine and you’ll be able to see a lot of lights in a high-density space, but you wouldn’t be getting maximum value out of your ticket. I would probably only fully recommend this for people with children who want to spend time together as a family and try everything out hands-on.