Viewfinder: Winter Fun at Snow Mountain

Last winter's week of freeze was very unusual for Atlanta. Most of the time when it snows here, it melts in a few days. So there's usually not much time to enjoy winter activities such as sledding, snowball fights and and snowman building.

However, if you go to now through Feb. 20, you can experience a wide variety of winter activities during your visit. During this time the park transforms the lawn with the laser show into Snow Mountain.

Activities include tubing down the giant snow hill, snow fort and snowman building, snowball fights, making s'mores and cookie and cake decorating.

After dark you can stroll through Crossroads Village and enjoy some of the over two million lights decorating the park as part of . There are many shows going on as well, such as A Crossroads Christmas Carol and Simply Christmas. The evening highlight is a snow and fireworks celebration.

There are combo packages available through Jan. 1 for both the snow area and the Christmas village. You can even use them on separate days if you can't do both in one day.

The best part of this snow is you don't have to shovel it or drive in it.