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With the holiday season just around the corner, residents in all areas of Prince George's County have their pick of holiday entertainment as event planners in the county are serving up both new holiday shows and various past favorites.

The choices are as varied as choosing between sliding down ice castles, seeing new spins on classic holiday tales or even catching traditional holiday concerts.

Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center at the National Harbor in Oxon Hill is set to roll out its holiday celebration when it debuts its ICE! show as part of the annual Christmas on the Potomac, starting Monday and continuing through Jan. 10.

"It will pretty much be the grandest thing in Prince George's County," said Amie Gorrell, spokeswoman for the resort.

ICE! features a life-size castle built out of ice and is housed in a tent outside of the hotel, Gorrel said. The display will feature life-sized holiday and nativity scenes, and a giant ice slide will be built within the display that children and adults can use to spin down the slippery slope.

"We really think that people here are going to be excited," Gorrell said. "You will be able to walk through a Victorian village carved completely out of ice."

ICE! requires two million pounds of ice, with carvers being flown in from China, Gorrell said.

"It is a very big effort we are undertaking," she said. "We are trying to transform Gaylord National into the capital of Christmas."

A little Devil for the holidays

While National Harbor is banking on pulling in big business with spectacles, others will keep it simple by putting a new spin on an old holiday tradition.

After years of sitting through productions of the holiday classic "A Christmas Carol," Penny Martin of Greenbelt felt like she was being punished — that's when she decided to put a spin on the classic in her play, "The Devil's Christmas Carol." It is scheduled to be performed Dec. 4 through 12 at the Greenbelt Arts Center. The play sets the story and its characters in hell and they are ultimately forced to play-out "A Christmas Carol" again and again.

"A Christmas Carol is one of those epic things that happens every year," Martin said. "It just seemed like hell."

In the play, Martin said she takes the characters from the original story and places them in hell. In order for them to leave, they each must learn the lesson that sent them there. Another twist includes the cast — for example, Martin included the character Ebenezer Scrooge as an insecure hospital nurse who died of a heart attack after not having the courage to stand up to a doctor who unknowingly let a patient die.

"It takes off from ‘A Christmas Carol' in a totally different perspective," Martin said. "In my version people are [in hell because] they need to learn something to get out."

Another character, Jacob Marley from the original story, is portrayed as a teenager who represents Generation Y and is consumed with watching YouTube, listening to his iPod or playing Nintendo DS, but a malfunction always happens to thwart him.

While meant to be entertaining, Martin said the play's theme actually encourages people to let go of things they cannot change.

"Not everyone in hell is evil — you just have something to learn," she said of the characters. "People are intrigued [by the play]. I have to be careful to let people know it's serious."

The Laurel Mill Playhouse will take a more tongue-and-cheek tone to Christmas with its production of Robert Fulghum's "Uh-Oh, Here Comes Christmas" showing Dec. 4 through 20. The show is a series of nine vignettes and four songs featuring families acting out the mayhem that goes into planning the holiday season, said Maureen Rogers, the show's producer.

"It isn't your standard fare of Christmas shows," she said. "It will make you laugh until you cry — it takes Christmas to what it was originally intended to be, without the preaching."

"I expect to see a lot of anticipation for this from families and adults," she added. "Everybody will get something to take from this."

Cost-conscious residents looking for a more traditional outing during the holidays won't have to look much further than the Bowie Center for the Performing Arts, which is enlisting a flurry of events including "The Nutcracker" from Dec. 3 through 6.

The classic ballet is also scheduled for Hallam Theatre at Prince George's Community College Dec. 10 and 11.

Mary Nusser, outreach coordinator for the center, said many of the acts set to perform at the venue are drawn from local talent and help keep cost low and audience members close to home. "The Nutcracker," for example, is being produced by National Ballet Company, based in Crofton.

"It is a beloved show, parents will bring their little ones dressed up as if they were going on Broadway," she said. "The beautiful thing about this is that people can stay local. This seemed like the perfect opportunity."

The center will also host the Bowie Senior Chorale' Holiday Concert, which will feature the senior choir singing 1950s rock ‘n' roll as well as traditional Christmas classics.

"There is something here for everybody," Nusser said. "There is everything from free to $30."

Further south in the county, residents near Fort Washington may swing by the Harmony Hall Regional Center for the sixth annual USO Christmas Show, presented by the Tantallon Community Players and scheduled to run Dec. 4 through 13.

Charla Rowe, founder of the group, said she was inspired to write the show by veterans of World War II 15 years ago. The show is based on a real United Service Organization event that happened in Paris in 1944.

Rowe said the idea for the play came after she read about the high-number of WWII veterans that pass everyday.

"I knew that I needed to do this to honor them in a short period of time," she said.

Audience members can expect to see the set designed like a 1940s radio program with actors portraying popular figures of the day like Bob Hope, the Andrews Sisters, Dorothy Dandridge and Judy Garland, among others.

Rowe said the show was her way of paying homage to the troops and mid-20th century culture. The show will feature a series of songs and dances spanning the time period, including swing, performed by a cast of 27 actors.

"We sell out every time and the money that is left over we donate to the U.S.O," she said. "[The audience] loves it."

While the USO show will have its audience jamming to the 1940s, the University of Maryland, College Park, is planning a more intimate and community-driven bash with its sixth annual Festival of Nine Lessons at the university's Memorial Chapel on Dec. 11.

The show features the university's men and women's chorus in a series of readings and gospel song but will also include faculty members, students and College Park community members, said Edward Maclary, director of choral activities for the university.

"It's a really nice and inclusive event," he said. "It's an event that people really look forward to. It feels good on a cold December night."

E-mail Joshua Garnet at jgarner@gazette.net