Enchant Christmas DC – A Night Out

It’s the winter holiday time! That means lots of lovely lights. This year’s biggest lights attraction in DC is Enchant Christmas which boasts “the world’s largest Christmas light maze and market”. Who can’t help be intrigued? So when a friend (TRB) asked if I wanted to go, I said of course!

When the day came, we met up at the Navy Yards metro station. As we approached Nationals Park, where Enchant Christmas DC is being hosted, TRB asked if there was a QR code on the tickets. Confused, I replied that he got the tickets. Turns out there was a misunderstanding and he had purchased a singular ticket and I had not. Oh no!

So here I am wondering how I’m going to get in. TRB is checking his bank account to see if he indeed purchased any tickets because the email he thought was a confirmation from Enchant Christmas didn’t include a QR code for scanning at the gate and his email to them to enquire about it had gone unanswered. While he’s figuring this out a party of 5 comes up behind us and we let them go ahead of us. TRB overhears that they were scanned in for 6 people and that the sixth person couldn’t make it. He springs into action, asking them if I may enter on their ticket which they agree to. So I get shooed in, not quite understanding what’s going on at the time. The kind family refused for me to Venmo them for that ticket. MERRY CHRISTMAS to me!

So I’m in but TRB is still trying to prove that Enchant Christmas DC has his money even though he doesn’t have a QR code in return. Finally, someone official comes and checks him in by his email address and we are through. Off to the skate rental kiosk we go. A queue, a waiver, and $10 later I have my ice skates. I say I, because of course somehow TRB’s credit card gets charged $30 instead of $10 for the skate rental and there’s no way to cancel the charge except to email corporate. The stars are not quite aligning for him.

But no time to fuss. We had chosen an 8:30 pm start on a weeknight. We had till 11 pm to be enchanted and we had already spent almost an hour getting to this point. With squeals of excitement, TRB races off to the ice ring while I hold on to the railing for dear life. Did I forget to mention that I do not ice skate? That I cannot ice skate? Hahaha! Sure I’ve been on the ice before but often on my bum. But I have older joints now and cannot afford to be out of work.

TRB goes round and round and round while I continue to gingerly step on the ice holding on to the railing along with all the other inexperienced skaters, quite a number I must say. What am I doing here?!

Finally, Energizer Bunny TRB comes for me and slowly we make a circuit sans handrail. That felt good but I’m ready to say I’ve checked “ice-skating” off. But not so for TRB. He has limitless energy so off he goes again, round and round and round. KChie seriously? I ask myself while reflecting on the purpose of life if not to live. So off I go and with each step I gain more confidence, round and round I go, at a speed of a turtle, 1 circuit for every 4 or 5 of TRB’s until SPLAT, my right skate hits a rough patch and face meets ice. No TRB around to witness but more importantly to get me up. No railing in sight. Luckily, not that many people around either.

Would I be able to get myself up? Will my extremities go every which way? Will my backside also be making introductions with the ice? Is this karma for laughing at a fellow novice earlier in the evening whose legs he couldn’t control?

Ah, but all those hours at the gym paid off. I got myself up, first in a crouched position like I was Karate Kid then standing straight up. Amazing how a fall suddenly makes you realise it’s cold. My feet were frozen. TRB came up to me clueless that I had met the ice, giddy with pure joy, sweating in this frigid weather. We were on the ice, well he was on the ice until they kicked us off. Closing time!

Overjoyed, I removed the skates from the frozen feet attached to my body and put on my boots. We attempted to enter the light maze but we were denied entrance. So TRB ran off to charm an Enchant Christmas official-looking person, then ran back to say we had been given permission to go in for the few minutes that remained before true closing time. So we zoomed through the maze snapping as many people-free photos of the illuminated magical land as possible and delighting in the pathway lighting up under our feet.

Finally, it’s truly closing time. No shopping, no dining, no Santa, but Enchant Christmas DC proved to be a fun outing.