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It's finally beginning to look a little like Christmas, and Utah's own winter wonderland comes to life right after the holiday this year. The seasonal Ice Castles attraction is scheduled to open next week and last until Valentine's Day, (cold) weather permitting.

Ice Castles, based out of Midway, sprang up five years ago when co-founder Brent Christensen was tasked with building an ice fort for his kids. When his first strategy — constructing the fort around a wooden frame — didn't pan out, a little experimentation with what nature gave him inspired the creation of ice forts on a larger scale outside the backyard.

"We use icicles as the building medium," CEO Ryan Davis said. "By doing that, we're able to build really large structures that you could not build otherwise. The whole thing is built solid like a rock."

Considering the size of the structures (25 million pounds of ice span over an acre of icy real estate), the construction process is surprisingly simple, and the Ice Castles company has re-created its designs at four other locations in Wisconsin, Minnesota, New Hampshire and Edmonton, Alberta.

"The only thing we need to build it is running water," Davis said. "We just need to hook into a fire hydrant and we can make 5,000 to 10,000 icicles at night." After harvesting the icicles, 40 or more mostly local employees at each site fuse them together by spraying water on them to create a giant, formidable mass of ice, repeating the process until the castle lives up to its intended height and design. Davis estimates that production of the Midway castle requires as much water as two restaurants would use in a year.

The artistic and interactive designs of the castles feature LED light displays frozen into the ice that twinkle to music, slippery slides and waterfalls frozen in time. Visitors walking along pathways of crushed ice — the crunchy texture reduces the fall risk — range from small children in awe of the frozen fairytale scenes to a 92-year-old woman who Davis said was celebrating her birthday with her younger friends … in their 80s. Davis says engineers appreciate the process and work that goes into the creation of the castles, while creative types view them as an enormous art installation.

For Davis, the real beauty lies in the temporary nature of the castles.

"The whole thing melts to the ground, and you don't even know it was there," he said. "It's a lot of work to start over every year, but you're not married to it for the next 40 years. We get to start over and change things." Midway Ice Castles

When • Expected opening Wednesday, Dec. 28; open Mondays-Thursdays, 3-9 p.m.; Fridays, 3-10 p.m.; and Saturdays, noon to 10 p.m.; closed Sundays

Where • Homestead Resort, 700 Homestead Drive, Midway

Tickets • $6.95-$13.95 online, $10-$15 at the door; http://icecastles.com/midway

Entertainment • Take photos with ice princesses Mondays-Wednesdays, 5-7 p.m.; Fridays, 5-8 p.m.; and Saturdays, 2-8 p.m. Catch a high-energy fire performance before entering the ice, Fridays-Saturdays, 5:30-8:30 p.m.

Details • http://icecastles.com