Winter Solace

Postcards from a virtual winter: Skaters wearing shorts take a spin around an outdoor ice rink flanked by palm trees hung with garlands of jumbo plastic icicles. Children slide down machine-made snow banks that have sprung up near thrill rides and wild animals. A skater who goes by the alias of Suzy Snowflake simulates an ice show on a Teflon rink.

This is what winter has come to in the flats of Southern California. Faux snow and ice have jumped off the movie sound stages and into the streets and local attractions.

“It kind of feels what you’d think Rockefeller Center is like,” says Eric Sawyer, 35, of South Pasadena, who has stolen some time to skate with his wife on a recent afternoon at the outdoor rink in Pershing Square.

OK, so mariachi music is playing in the background and the trees are barely turning color. Ifyou skate at night, when there’s a little wind and it’s chilly and the trees are twinkling with lights, you can almost forget you’re in downtown Los Angeles.

“You have to stretch your imagination a little bit,” says Vicki Israel, of the city of Los Angeles Department of Recreation and Parks, which brought back the rink for a second year. “It’s our Rockefeller West.”

The search for a hassle-free winter wonderland experience has gotten easier. No chains are needed to travel up the hill to Universal Studios Hollywood, which will dump 40 tons of manufactured snow every night in its snow zone.

“Last year, we just had a small patch of snow, and kids would spend hours in it because they had never seen snow,” says Pat Moloney, vice president of entertainment for Universal. “It was like introducing oxygen to them.”

Perhaps it’s the adults seeking out the imitation snow who could use a little extra oxygen? After all, the real thing is but a day trip away.

“It doesn’t matter whether it’s fake snow or real snow or that the ice is kept cold by machines,” says Cathleen Brown, a Claremont psychologist. “Particularly in our current make-believe society, people are content with virtual snow. Even if they can see the machine blowing it on the hill, it’s still snow.

“One of the real subliminal attractions of snow is that it makes you feel like a kid again,” she says. “It awakens that idealistic feeling about most people’s original family, the one that they were a child in.”

In Pomona, the Teflon rink for the first MerriFest winter carnival at the Fairplex will bring the aura of an ice show without the expense of the real thing. By using a pseudo-ice rink, the festival’s budget has been stretched to include other counterfeit elements of winter such as a North Pole, a refrigerated pole that will be cold to the touch, and an artificial snowbank.

Snow is such a novelty here that people are entranced by it, Brown says. It also has another built-in attraction: Unlike typical Southern California pursuits such as surfing or in-line skating, it doesn’t take a lot of skill to throw a snowball or make a snow angel.

And at these five places, you won’t have to climb a mountain to encounter a hint of winter.

Way Cool Winterland,

Universal Studios Hollywood

By manufacturing ski resort-quality artificial snow, Universal Studios Hollywood is trying to conjure up a winter experience that occurs naturally in the Northeast and Midwest, where snow falls from the sky instead of being blown out of what amounts to a traveling science lab.

Universal’s snow stands apart from other local impostors because it is created by a company that makes snow for ski resorts. The snow will be made at night using liquid nitrogen and forced water, which results in fluffy stuff. This is an upgrade from last year, when Universal made snow from blocks of ice that were fed through a wood chipper, which spewed out crystals that make a harder surface, Moloney says.

“We’re really creating snow,” he says. “Where I grew up in Chicago, snow meant Christmas to me. I think it really creates kind of a family experience.”

Beginning Friday, Hollywood’s version of snow play opens for business in the Rugrats Snow Zone. With park-provided inner tubes, children can slide down a 20-foot-high hill that’s 100 feet long. They can play in snow-covered igloos and throw snowballs at targets.

More traditional fake snow, the kind you see in the movies, will be sprinkled on the audience during the “Way Cool Show” featuring the Rugrats and dancing reindeer. It will be presented three or four times a day, along with other holiday shows.

Larry Kurzweil’s children want to “be the first to throw a snowball,” the new president of Universal Studios Hollywood says with a laugh. “I’ve legitimized all their fighting with this promise of snowball throwing.”

* Way Cool Winterland, Universal Studios Hollywood, Hollywood Freeway at Lankershim Boulevard, Universal City. Friday through Dec 24, 9 a.m. to 7 p.m.; Dec. 26-30, 8 a.m. to 10 p.m.; Dec. 31, 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.; Jan. 1-2, 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. $39, adults; children 3 to 11, $29; through Jan. 2, Southern California adults with valid driver’s license get in for $29. (818) 508-9600.

Downtown on Ice,

Pershing Square

“Skating outside in downtown Los Angeles when it’s 75 to 80 degrees? I think everybody around couldn’t believe that this crazy idea would work,” says the Department of Recreation and Parks’ Israel of last year’s inaugural season.

It was so successful that 20,000 people came out to skate, and with a larger rink and extended hours, organizers expect even more people this year. Beginning Saturday, the rink will be open 12 hours a day, seven days a week through Jan. 9.

Skating begins at 10 a.m., and the first session of the day is the best deal because it lasts for 90 minutes. Most remaining sessions are an hour, and they each start after a petite Zamboni resurfaces the 50-by-90-foot rink. Some companies have discovered that the rink is a good place to hold holiday parties for employees.

Beginning Monday, live entertainment will be presented from noon to 2 p.m. weekdays through Dec. 31. Music will range from reggae to country and western, jazz and Christmas carols. On New Year’s Eve, four bands will perform, beginning with the Blazers, who play Latin salsa, starting at 2 p.m., and ending with Lucky 7, a ‘70s tribute band that will ring in 2000.

On Jan. 17, the rink’s final day, Urban Dread will present a concert of reggae music from noon to 2 p.m. as part of a Martin Luther King Jr. Day celebration.

Because the L.A. Kings are a rink sponsor, free weekly hockey clinics are held for children and adults, with skate rental and equipment provided. Clinics for children 14 and younger are from 12:30 to 1:30 p.m. Sundays. The remaining adult clinics will be from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. Dec. 29 and Jan. 5.

To ensure that people feel comfortable coming downtown, especially at night, security is plentiful and discounted parking is available beneath Pershing Square.

Like most skaters queried, Jin Kim, 26, of Diamond Bar thought the rink was Rockefeller-esque but that it was missing a certain something. “It sort of simulates winter,” he says, “But they could use something whiter, like snow.”

* Downtown on Ice, Pershing Square, between Olive and Hill streets and 5th and 6th streets, Los Angeles. Today, noon to 9 p.m.; Friday, 11 a.m. to 10 p.m.; Saturday, 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. through Jan. 9, except noon to 10 p.m. Christmas Day; open 10 a.m. to 2 a.m. New Year’s Eve. Call for hours Jan. 10-17. $6 per session plus $2 skate rental. Family pack of four, which includes skate rental, $28. Eight-pack skate pass, excluding skate rental, $35. Call (213) 622-4083.

Arctic Snow Hill,

San Diego Wild Animal Park

Kids have been sliding down Arctic Snow Hill at San Diego Wild Animal Park for 12 years. Twenty tons of the chipped-ice variety of snow will be blown onto the hill through Dec 30.

“For many children, this is their first snow encounter,” says Michele Rieches, the park’s special events manager. “And for anyone who comes here from the East, it brings back memories.

The snow play only takes place from 4 to 8 p.m. because it is part of the park’s Festival of Lights, a display of more than 100,000 lights that grows each year. The hill, which starts out at 3 feet high, also grows taller as snow is added.

Children 16 and younger are allowed to slide the 100 yards down the hill in five-minute increments until silver bells ring to signal the sledders’ time is up.

“It’s just as much fun for the adults to watch all of this,” Rieches says. “At the bottom of the hill is a great ballet by the staff catching the little ones so they don’t run into each other.”

* Festival of Lights at San Diego Wild Animal Park, 15500 San Pasqual Valley Road, Escondido. Thursday through Dec. 23 and Dec. 26-30, 4 to 8 p.m. $7.95; kids 3 to 11, $3.95. Call (619) 234-6541.

MerriFest,

Pomona Fairplex

The same people who bring you the Los Angeles County Fair are producing their first winter carnival, complete with an indoor, New England-style village, outdoor rides and two snow areas.

Children can slide on discs down a 5-foot-high, 30-foot-long snowbank made from chipped ice. A separate flat area will be set up for frolicking. About 75 tons of snow will be used during the course of the event, from Friday through Dec. 28.

Elements of the county fair will come into play, with a holiday twist. Competitions will be held to see who can make the best pumpkin pie or tamales, or decorate the finest Christmas tree or front door.

Daily competitions aimed at families also will be held, including making mini-snowmen out of that most accessible of snow substitutes, marshmallows. A petting zoo, featuring reindeer, will be set up at Santa’s ranch.

“We’re trying to make it winter inside and outside the building,” says Sid Robinson, a Fairplex spokesman.

He says they’re a little worried about the refrigerated pole that identifies North Pole town. “We are hoping people won’t stick their tongues on it.”

* MerriFest at the Fairplex, 1101 W. McKinley Ave., Pomona. Friday through Dec. 28, noon to 9 p.m daily, and until 6 p.m. Dec. 24; closed Christmas Day. $5; children 4 to 10, $2. Call (909) 623-3111.

Reindeer,

Los Angeles Zoo

The folks at the Los Angeles Zoo know better than to fool with Mother Nature, so they embrace a popular myth instead. Four 18-month-old reindeer are visiting the zoo for six weeks.

“The zoo decided it would be nice to let kids in Southern California see reindeer, but they can’t be here all of the time because they need a colder climate,” says Judy Shay, a zoo spokeswoman.

Velvet, Belle, Jingle and Noel, 18-month-old reindeer, are displayed in the zoo’s Eucalyptus Grove, and zookeepers are on hand to answer such questions as:

“Did Santa bring the reindeer to the zoo and leave?”

“Why don’t the reindeer fly away to help Santa?”

“Do the reindeer stay here all night or go home?”

So where did the reindeer come from?

“Unofficially, they’re from a farm in Oregon,” Shay says. “Officially, they’re from the North Pole.”

* Reindeer at the Los Angeles Zoo, Griffith Park at Ventura and Golden State freeways, Los Angeles. 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. through Jan. 2; closed Christmas Day. $8.25, adults; $3.25, ages 2 to 12. (323) 644-6400.

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Let It Snow:

When only the real deal will do, take a day trip to Big Bear. In next week’s Calendar Weekend.