How a 140-foot ice box helped me find my Christmas spirit

Donald Sayers and Gabrielle put on the blades and skate at Ice On The Landing Thursday at the Chattanooga Choo Choo.

Outdoor ice skating is an experience I’ve never quite forgiven the Southern winter for robbing me of. Growing up in Nashville, an indoor ice rink afforded me the opportunity to learn to skate – until my weak ankles protested the jumps I kept attempting and landed me on crutches. Still, nothing quite gets you into the holiday spirit like gliding around in the outdoors as the winter wind nips at your face.

Luckily, Chattanooga has found a way to capture that magical winter experience and offer it in the midst of 60- and 70-degree December days: Chattanooga Presents’ Ice on the Landing.

For the past two years, this event built a rink and created a sheet of ice at the riverfront’s Ross’s Landing for an outdoor skating experience far too many Northerners take for granted. This year, the event has moved to the Chattanooga Choo Choo’s gardens, where, in the days leading up to its opening, “ice men” used a fire-hose to create the ice, spraying thin layer after thin layer while a chiller (think AC unit but on steroids) instantly froze each layer. Throughout the season, the chiller runs 24/7, so even on those 70-degree days, the ice stays solid.

Though the rink is only 40-by-140 feet, it offered plenty of opportunity for fun and fresh air, even with the unseasonably hot evening we were experiencing on the Thursday I strapped my sorry ankles into a pair of figure skates and took to the ice for the first time in several years.