Students gathered for the annual Woodland Wonderland event hosted by UK Campus Housing on Wednesday, Jan. 10. 

Despite temperatures being in the low 30s, hundreds of students gathered to enjoy the event, which consisted of pop-up ice skating, a mechanical reindeer, inflatable axe throwing and a human snow globe.

Alyson Tate, the marketing director for campus housing, has been part of planning the event for the last two years but said it has been held for the last decade.

“Woodland Wonderland is essentially to get students back out and about in the middle of winter,” Tate said. “It’s kind of like a warm welcome.” 

The event had free food such as soft pretzels, warm drinks and kettle corn. 

Jimmie Jones works for Residence Life as the assistant director for the Living Learning Programs and said he has been helping out with Woodland Wonderland for the past three years.

“This gets students out of their rooms and kind of mingling with people and having treats,” Jones said. “It makes you (students) feel connected to campus and Lexington as a whole.”

The event was located in an outdoor tent on the South Campus Lawn across from the Johnson Recreation Center. Students were given a free T-shirt from Campus Housing upon arrival.

From there, they were able to pick up their skates, get free food or socialize on the lawn. There was also a DJ for entertainment.

“It’s a good way to kick off the semester, especially with the winter weather and still bringing them (students) outside,” Jones said. 

Chloe Halcomb, a sophomore biology major, said she attended for multiple reasons regardless of the temperatures. 

“I try to see all the opportunities that are available for me and when my friends invite me I try to go despite the cold weather,” Halcomb said. “And I wanted to see what ice skating was like.”

The event was projected to have around 400-800 students in attendance, according to Tate and Jones.

Tate said they begin planning the next Woodland Wonderland the week after the event takes place. She said it is the second biggest event Campus Housing puts on after Up, Up, and UK. 

“It takes a little while to get everything, get our budget going, get our campus spot saved,” Tate said. “We start as soon as we can for the next one.” 

She also said that they may do something new and improved next year.