So, Santa has (hopefully) made all his visits for 2024, and the year is marching to to close. However, for those seeking to retain the joy and excitement of Christmas can do little better than take a trip to the Calas Galadhon Christmas regions and embrace the warmth and fun offered by the three Calas Midwinter regions.
Following the general design seen in 2023, Tymus Tenk and Truck Meredith, together with the rest of the Calas Galadhon estate team, have once again bring forth a setting that offers opportunities for entertainment, ice skating, sleigh rides, balloon tours, horse riding and plenty of opportunities for photography.
As is common for the Calas seasonal regions, a visit commences high in the air at a crowd-clearing landing point, complete with a walk across an (Ant)Arctic setting to the teleport portal. However, in difference to previous years, rather then carrying you down to the regions proper, this will first deliver you to Santa’s workshop (follow the arrows!). Teleporting will require acceptance of the local Experience, but this only needs to be done once (and then only if you’ve not previously accepted it).
The workshop allows you to see Santa’s pixies and fairies and elves all hard at work (presumably getting up a good stock of toys, gifts and stocking fillers for Xmas 2025 now!). Santa himself is present, and will let you take a photo with him if you’re nice.
Beyond the workshop is the loading area, where presents and toys are stack ready for transfer to the outdoor loading bay for Santa’s sleigh – and it is out beyond the sleigh loading area is the second teleport portal that will transfer visitors down to the ground level.
To the south, the expanse of Midwinter 3 forms open countryside, here and there broken by woodlands, hills and water, ripe for exploration on foot or horseback (there is a horse rezzer for the latter just down the slope from the sleigh ride tours or you can add your own, if you have one). Also to be found within this region is a local Christmas Market, once again given a sense of life by static NPCs, while the land and woods have a mix of wildlife. Tucked away within the hills and gorges of the southern extent of this region sits a teleport back up to Santa’s workshop.
The ground-level arrival point overlooks all three regions, being located up the uplands of MidWinter 2. As is usual with the Calas Christmas settings, this includes the traditional sleigh rides through all of the regions. Alongside of these is a landmark giver, which will present visitors with a notecard containing landmarks to the major locations within the regions, helpful for those who want to get somewhere quickly.
On the other side of the hill from the sleighs sit a couple of rezzers for skis and sleds, allowing visitor to scoot down the slope towards the southernmost region, thus giving a quick means to go exploring. Another new (I believe, as I don’t remember it from 2023 but could easily be wrong) is the cross-country ski tour. This requires membership of the Calas Group to obtain the skis alongside it (or you could try the skis from the rezzer close to the ground-level arrival point). Just sit on one of the two skiing pose balls and select the tour.
Of course, in the run-up to Christmas the Pavilion was the focal point for events, with the lake below it available for ice skating. The latter remains popular whilst the former now makes for a quiet visit with the Christmas events drawn to a close – and the portals remain for quick TP flips to various locations. There is once again seating all around the lakeside, and a nice little touch for this year is the Disney Island sitting out on the ice. Other attractions here include the balloon ride, the Calas Polar Express train, couples photo points, and indoor cuddles / conversations before the great fires in the Pavilion’s lounges.
As always, the Calas Galadhon Christmas regions offer a lot to see and enjoy – so make the most of them now to both continue your Christmas and holiday celebrations and before they once again vanish into the night for another year!
SLurl Details
Note that the Midwinter estate is rated Moderate.
- A Calas Christmas main landing point
- A Calas Christmas sleigh tour (ground level landing point)
- A Calas Christmas cross-country skiing
- A Calas Christmas balloon ride
- A Calas Christmas horse rezzer
- A Calas Christmas ice skating
- A Calas Christmas pavilion
- A Calas Christmas small pavilion
- Calas Galadhon website
Inara Pey: Living in a Modemworld 