Hello, Christmas!

COEUR d’ALENE — Christmas is 64 days away, but the holiday magic is already beginning to glow at The Coeur d'Alene Resort.

Specialty designers, engineers and Resort staff members are now on site crafting specially tailored interior displays that will give Christmas a whole new look this year.

“At the end of last year, they decided to do all-new interior décor,” Amy VanSickle, director of marketing for The Resort, said Tuesday. "This is the first year for all of this."

Each area and restaurant will have its own enchanting theme and color scheme, with custom decorations hand-selected by the pros at Design by Jennifer, an Inland Northwest company owned by Whitworth University graduate Jennifer Grace.

Grace and her team went to a Christmas show and warehouse in Florida earlier this year to find just the right pieces. More than 10,000 pounds of decorations were delivered to The Resort, including two life-sized Santas, 12 nutcrackers, 13 wreaths, 20 elves, 70 woodland creatures, 100 presents, 120 snowflakes and more than 663 feet of garland.

“We’re just excited to bring something new and fun to the community because of the challenging year,” VanSickle said. “It’s festive. We're moving into Christmas, we want people to feel like we're moving into Christmas and I think it will be exciting for people who are local who are used to seeing our normal décor."

Grace said a hot trend in the design industry this year is scale, so guests will be delighted to see big displays sprinkled everywhere.

"Every area of The Resort will have new elements, and they’re fun, stunning pieces, like a 9-foot tall nutcracker that we’re going to have to crane up to Beverly’s," VanSickle said with a smile. "They're figuring out how to get it up there right now."

"You need large scale to make a statement, and you need mass to make a statement,” Grace said. "And that’s really what we went down to Florida with the mentality to do, is get some statement pieces. We want to get that mass and bring it in and be like, ‘Hello, Christmas!’"

VanSickle said also new this year will be the Holiday Marketplace, a free event that will take place in The Resort convention bays the weekend after Thanksgiving. She said vendors are still needed — those interested can visit www.cdaholiday.com for info and to apply.

"There will be Santa and cooking demonstrations and just a fun, walkthrough experience for guests" Nov. 27 through 29, she said.

And the annual lighting ceremony the day after Thanksgiving is still a go, she said, with COVID-19 safety measures in place.

“Lighting ceremony will still be going on,” VanSickle said. “There will be fireworks."