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Blog And Photo Gallery: Winterfest Is Just Plain Cool And Our Local North Escambia “Hero Girl” Was Too

Pensacola Winterfest is just plan cool; there’s probably not a better way to put it.

The NorthEscambia.com family loaded up and headed to downtown Pensacola Friday night, eager to take in the sights and sounds of Winterfest and Ernest Ward Middle School’s Angel Mitchell in her “starring” role as the girl in The Polar Express.

For a complete photo gallery from Friday night’s Pensacola Winterfest performance, click here.

There are several Winterfest tour options available. We took the “Performance Tour”. On an old fashioned trolley, we rode the decked out streets of downtown Pensacola to take in 15 performances and scenes that brought back lots of childhood memories and lots of warm fuzzy feelings.

The tour begins at the T.T. Wentworth museum, complete with snow blowing off the building and a round of “Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer” with Rudolph himself on the trolley, complete with blinking nose. Then it’s aboard the trolley and around the corner to the Pensacola Historical Museum for some old fashioned carolers. Then there’s a bit of a history lesson about early Christmas in Pensacola and a stop at Pensacola’s very own orange tree.

A block or two away, it was snowing on the street corner as Frosty the Snowman boarded the trolley much to the delight of the young and young at heart on the trip.

The next stop was the highlight of the trip, both in our opinion and of those that visted Winterfest last year. The trolley stops at a railroad crossing as The Polar Express steams its way along, complete with the “hero girl” and “hero boy”. They board the trolley for a song along with the conducter, and, in a scene straight from that wonderful holiday movie, the boy hands out Santa’s bells to everyone.

The “here girl” is portrayed by Angel Mitchell, a student at Ernest Ward Middle School. She sings a delightful song and does North Escambia proud.

The next stop is Seville Quarter, where Elvis boards the bus to sing “Blue Christmas”. (Even though it is in Seville Quarter, everything is family friendly.) The Cat In The Hat boards the trolley for some furry fun, followed by that green Dr. Sueus character The Grinch as the tour stops by Whoville.

Angels board the trolley next for a few moving verses of “Silent Night” as you sit before a living nativity scene. Kudos to Winterfest for including the nativity scene. Then, in front of the Escambia County Courthouse, a snowy scene from the movie “White Christmas” is acted out as the movie cameras roll. The tour ends with the big red guy himself, Santa Claus, in Plaza Ferdinand.

Our overall impression? Wow! It was like being in the middle of an NBC holiday special. The actors, the scenery and props, the entire production was top notch. It was magical time for both the very young and the very old at heart. It was one of the best Christmas fun things we’ve ever done with our kids; we made some good memories that we’ll be talking about for a long time. The kids were excited to text their friends that they had seen Rudolph, Santa, Frosty and Elvis.

There are several Winterfest tour options, ranging from the performance tour like we described above, to a walking tour. Whatever you choose, it would be well worth a little time out of your busy Christmas schedule to check out the magic of Pensacola Winterfest.

NorthEscambia.com has been giving way tickets to Winterfest all week, and have more to give away. Click here for more information and to register to win.

For more information on Winterfest, visit www.pensacolawinterfest.org.

Pictured above: Ernest Ward Middle School student Angel Mitchell portrays the “hero girl” from the movie The Polar Express at Pensacola Winterfest Friday night. Pictured below: The Grinch hops on board the trolley at a stop in “Whoville”. NorthEscambia.com exclusive photos, click to enlarge.