"Vegas often family-friendly this time of year" by Hannah Dreier | Associated Press, December 24, 2013
LAS VEGAS — Las Vegas has mostly shelved its attempt to rebrand itself as a family-friendly wonderland. But there is one exception: the dreaded holiday season, when visitor numbers crater and room vacancies soar.
In an attempt to lure tourists, Las Vegas casinos are staging increasingly elaborate holiday events.
The Bellagio has again transformed its conservatory into a faux winter wonderland featuring a 42-foot-tall Christmas tree, a life-sized candy house, a walk-through snow globe, and topiary polar bears, all a few paces from the gambling floor.
The casino’s famous dancing water fountains are leaping to Christmas classics, and tourists are taking photos with a 250-pound chocolate Grinch.
The Forum Shops at Caesars Palace is showing its Christmas cheer with ‘‘Elf Aquarists,’’ divers in elf-style wet suits who feed the aquarium’s tropical fish during daily shows.
Perhaps the most elaborate of all the exhibits is ‘‘Winter in Venice’’ at the Venetian, which the casino advertises as a public gift in banners strung outside its ersatz Italian facade.
December is traditionally the slowest month in Las Vegas....
In the Venetian and Palazzo hotel-casinos, beautifully costumed actors stroll around the casino halls, greeting children and posing for silly photos with adults. Outside, a 65-foot Christmas tree made of lights shines like a beacon, tempting pedestrians to come inside.
The Cosmopolitan Las Vegas has doubled the size of its rooftop skating rink this year. Chief marketing officer Lisa Marchese said the casino is going for a ‘‘ski lodge perched over the Las Vegas Strip’’ aesthetic. Skaters can huddle around fire pits and buy s’mores kits for $14. (It’s still the Strip, after all)....
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