Enjoy this winter paradise created for the whole family! Take a ride through an animated wonderland on the Winterfest Express. Board the train and sing Christmas Carols as you glide past spectacular lighted displays including the Twelve Days of Christmas and your favorite fairy tales. Visit the Winterfest Village which is located inside a festive, heated tent decorated for the season. Buy a cup of hot chocolate at The OC Recreation Boosters cafe, browse the Yukon Cornelius Gift Shop for that special stocking stuffer or OC souvenir. Santa available for photos every night until December 23.

Make holiday memories at Gaylord National Resort. Continue your family tradition this Christmas with the region's most spectacular holiday celebration. Discover our 60-foot glass tree and holiday decorations, be amazed by indoor snowfall and explore a walk-thru winter wonderland sculpted from ice.

Whale watchers will search for humpback and fin whales off the coast of Virginia Beach. You may see brown pelicans, northern gannets, double-crested cormorants and other sea birds, all of which make a dramatic show while feeding on schooling fish.

Admission Fee: $21 Adult (12 years and over); $15 Child (4 - 11 years old) For current schedule visit us online at VirginiaAquarium.com.  To make reservations call (757) 385-FISH.

This groundbreaking focus show will explore the implications of tactile perception for enjoying sculpture by melding the research of a Johns Hopkins University neuroscientist studying how the brain reacts to tactile stimuli and a Walters’ curator interested in the increased appreciation of tactility as an aspect of European Renaissance art – a period marked by a new availability of small “collectibles” meant to be held. Did artists anticipate a reaction to tactile stimulus in shaping sculpture, specifically statuettes of female nudes? Displays will illustrate the Renaissance attitudes toward touch, the sensation of touch being stimulated without actual contact, and the neural processing and perception of objects during touch.

Come share the warmth of the season and experience millions of lights and hundreds of events from Virginia's capital city to the Atlantic Ocean.

The region will glitter and glow, sparkle and shine with lights, lights and more lights. 100 Miles of Lights features holiday events and activities in Richmond, Williamsburg, Newport News, Hampton, Norfolk, Portsmouth and Virginia Beach.