On New Year’s Eve, Niles Park District’s IceLand ice skating facility rang in the new year a bit early for local kids who were too young to stay up until midnight.
The IceLand New Year’s Eve skate was held between 12 and 2 p.m. at IceLand’s indoor rink. Staff held games in the rink’s eastern corner, the lights were dimmed slightly and Christmas music played through the speakers, while the rink clock counted down to “midnight.”
At 1:50 p.m., kids and their parents celebrated the New Year as balloons dropped from the ceiling.
By noon, families already started to crowd IceLand’s lobby. As usual, it cost $8 to get in — $5 for general admission and $3 to rent the skates. But this time, every kid got a free “Happy New Year” party hat, a wreath, a noisemaker and a glow stick. While the lobby got less crowded within the next half hour, families continued coming in over the course of the next hour.
At first, families simply skated. But at 1 p.m., Iceland staff started the countdown and asked skaters to skate clockwise – the opposite of the direction most of them had been skating for the past hour.
Staff set up a play area in the eastern corner of the rink. Kids were invited to play games, which included a hula hoop contest and a competition where kids were split into teams to see which team could throw the most balls into a hula hoop placed on the ice.
As “midnight” drew closer, most kids gathered under a bag that contained the balloons. The staff asked them to take a few steps back. But as the countdown ended, the bag didn’t fully open, so only some balloons spilled out. It took a few more tries to get it to open completely.
Afterward, families left the rink as it prepared to close for the rest of the year. Kids were invited to grab some free punch on the way out.
Parents praised the event, with many expressing interest in enrolling their kids and grandchildren in IceLand’s classes.
Jeff Krouse, who skate IceLand as a kid, came to the New Year’s Eve Skate with his son.
“I think it’s awesome,” he said.
Krouse said that while he and his son don’t come to IceLand often, he may reconsider.
Anna Kocol, who was standing at the bleachers as the rest of her family skated, also praised the event.
“This is a very good idea,” she said. “[The kids] have some games, so they have fun.”
If she had any complaint, she said, it was about IceLand’s usual public skating hours. On Mondays-Thursdays, the indoor skating rink is only open in the morning, when kids are at school, Kocol said.
“It would be nice if they had public hours in the afternoons or evenings,” said Kocol. “But otherwise, it’s very nice.”
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