Alaska’s North Pole will be a little less festive this Christmas thanks to, believe it or not, a lack of ice.
North Pole, Alaska, is exactly how you’d imagine it. It’s a small Christmas town that keeps its holiday decorations up year-round and boasts candy cane-striped street lights. On the corner of Kris Kringle Drive and Mistletoe Lane, Santa’s workshop sells toys and accepts letters from children eager to receive one in turn.
But this year, the town will have to do without its annual “Christmas in Ice” sculpture park. It’s the first cancellation of its kind, said Executive Director Keith Fye, but one that can’t be helped. Alaska is experiencing a warmer winter than usual, and as a result, there isn’t enough ice on the ponds to harvest for ice carving.
The sculpture event attracts carvers from around the world, said North Pole Community Chamber of Commerce Director Marlene Fogarty-Phillips.
Alaska’s temperatures have certainly been rising. August marked the warmest month recorded in Anchorage, Alaska, and last year’s winter was historically the warmest the state’s current occupants have experienced, according to the International Arctic Research Center.
Environmentalists might blame this on climate change (and humanity’s contributions to it), but most Alaskans don’t think much of it.
“That thing has been a blessing,” Anchorage resident Lucy Davidson said in July, pointing to her portable air conditioner. “If it wasn’t so expensive, I’d buy one of those big outdoor pools.”
Similarly, North Pole, Alaska’s residents said they won’t let the warm winter dampen the holiday festivities. Christmas is, after all, still worth celebrating, ice or no ice.
