Walking in a New Winter Wonderland

This holiday season, Oklahoma City welcomes Winter Wonderland: a new fully immersive indoor holiday experience located in the heart of Midtown. Ashley Liddell had the spark of inspiration to create a real life Christmas-themed “wonderland” where families can come make ornaments, write letters to Santa, decorate cookies, take photos with Santa and Mrs. Claus and enjoy hot chocolate—all in a “magical destination designed to transform joyful moments into cherished traditions.” 

Organizers hope to bring meaningful Christmas experiences to as many Oklahoma families and children as possible, and by partnering with Boys & Girls Clubs of Oklahoma County, they’ve been able to make quite an effect already. 

The BGCOKC’s mission is to inspire and enable young people to reach their full potential. With the help of Winter Wonderland, proceeds from designated ticket purchases benefited its Jolly Holiday Drive that provided a holiday gift to every Club member, while also providing access for ticket buyers to shop the Amazon wishlist that shipped gifts directly to our local Club. 

“Partnering with Boys and Girls Clubs has been such a big thing for us, and we’re very thankful that they came on board in such a short time, because it’s a big ask—but just having their mission involved just brings great meaning to the whole project,” says Liddell. “I think it just makes it special for all the kids, like all of the Boys and Girls Club kids get to come in for a couple of days throughout the season.

“I think even the unique element of the way that we’ve been able to curate partnerships outside of monetary ways, even of the experiences we’re going to be able to provide privately to the Boys and Girls Clubs, are going to be things that the community doesn’t see, but that partner sees.” says Gibbins, founder of Strategy Studio. 

Liddell and Gibbins were two friends who began planning the launch of Winter Wonderland from a conversation over brunch that took place mere months ago. That conversation snowballed into creating this immersive experience that opened its doors on Nov. 15. This timeline would have been nearly impossible to pull off, if it weren’t for the creative minds behind it and their ability to harness the power of community partners who quickly joined forces to support the shared goal of bringing joy to Oklahoma families this season. 

“Ashley and I share the mutual value and mission of truly wanting to bring magical experiences to families in Oklahoma City,” says Gibbins. “I’m back and forth from Dallas, Ashley’s been living in L.A., and the experiences that we see in those other markets and the way they are curated is something that we really want Oklahoma to experience. Then for us to also bring other cool products and businesses like bringing the technology of Partytrick to this market is something that’s really cool.” 

As the pair like to say, “Every detail is crafted to spark wonder in children and rekindle childlike joy in all of us.” 

In terms of the overall vision for the space, Liddell’s intention was to leave no stone unturned when it came to the elements that make a space memorable, especially for children. 

“Every detail matters,” she says, “so even the doorknob on the gingerbread house needs to look cute. We are building a lot of this by hand, all the little details. My mom and I have literally done all the small decorations with each other by ourselves. My mom’s such a big crafter, so I was like, ‘I can’t wait to bring her on to help me do all this,’ because that's just what she loves. And for us to be able to do it together is the best.” 

This notion makes the short timeline all the more impressive, given that the corner at NW 10th Street and Hudson Avenue is now almost unrecognizable—but it makes the event a perfect neighbor to the Holiday Pop-Up Shops, also temporarily located across the street through Dec. 21. 

“She’s definitely bringing an upscale experience to Oklahoma City in an obtainable way,” says Gibbins. “I think just the way that Ashley’s curated it behind the scenes has been truly kind of insane, and the best way to see and experience. But the mission behind just every detail that she’s doing is for as many families as possible to experience Christmas, and she’s building everything from scratch.” 

“Besides big installations, like the walk-through ornament, I’ve literally done every single thing myself,” Liddell remarks as she points to each detail around the room, “like the snow on top of the ceiling, the ornaments hanging from the ceiling, the things on the walls, like all the snow that’s coming off the gingerbread houses, all the candy … we’ve literally done it all by hand.” 

But Ashley is no stranger to a party—“If you’re my friend and I throw a birthday party for you, I’m going all out. That’s just how I am. It’s like, all or nothing, yeah? So obviously I was gonna go all out for this.” 

Which is also another great partnership happening this year with Partytrick, the event-planning website designed to help you bring your wildest event dreams to life. By working directly with founder Virginia Frischkorn, that company has have been able to assist in the planning of Winter Wonderland while currently working toward adding new software updates that will eventually equip business owners to throw large activations like this with ease, without having to sort through thousands of emails again next year. 

For those interested in finding out what’s inside Santa’s workshop, you’ll be excited to find stations to write and mail letters to Santa, decorate your own ornament, warm up with hot cocoa from the hot cocoa bar and visit the Elves Toy-Making station and watch them hard at work preparing for Christmas Eve, as well as enjoying story time from Mrs. Claus during select hours. 

Mom and Dad also can enjoy holiday-inspired cocktails. There’s a cocktail and mocktail menu created by another one of Liddell’s good friends, Claire Hampton from OKC staple Good Times. 

“Obviously this is for kids and there are things for kids to do, but the space is elevated, and it’s obviously beautiful and decorated for Christmas—and I think it’s done in a way that adults will appreciate it, too. There’s lots for parents to do, and if they want to come on a date night and be underneath lights and ornaments, like, I would do that myself.” 

After becoming a new mother almost exactly one year ago, right before Christmas, it was a given that this year is even more sentimental, and inspired the way she designed the space for all ages and families to enjoy. 

Winter Wonderland will be open until Dec. 30, with plans to return each year, continuing the tradition of spreading Christmas joy to kids and their families in Oklahoma City. 

For more information or to purchase tickets, visit winterwonderlandokc.com and follow them on Instagram @winterwonderlandok.