Maple Grove's December Is Scheduled. Elm Creek's Is Forecast.

Which parts of a Maple Grove winter can go on the family calendar this week, before anyone knows what the weather will do?

Most of it can. The City of Maple Grove has already posted dates, times and addresses for its events from a 65-vendor craft boutique on Saturday, Nov. 7, through a bakers market on Wednesday, Dec. 16. Three Rivers Park District has also posted the full 2026–27 hours and prices for the Winter Recreation Area at Elm Creek. Above each schedule, though, the page still says "Closed. See you soon!"

The difference has a cause. The city's season happens in heated rooms and on refrigerated ice, so it can be scheduled months ahead. Elm Creek's season depends on the thermometer.

The indoor half starts this Saturday

The city's season opens at the Maple Grove Community Center, 12951 Weaver Lake Road, and keeps coming back there through mid-December. These are the dated events, in order:

1. Maple Grove Lions Holiday Craft Boutique. Saturday, Nov. 7, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Community Center. Admission is free, and the Maple Grove Lions Club and the Maple Grove Seniors Craft Committee have lined up 65 vendors.
2. Beyond the Yellow Ribbon Veterans Day Event. Wednesday, Nov. 11, 11 a.m. to noon at Central Park.
3. Kids Glow Party. Friday, Nov. 13, 5:30 to 7 p.m. in the Community Center gym, $7 per person.
4. Breakfast and Lunch with Santa. Saturday, Dec. 5. The Maple Grove Community Organization lists breakfast from 8:30 to 10:30 a.m. and lunch from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Community Center, and registration opens Nov. 1. The city's calendar listing names the Maple Grove Arboretum as the location, but its own description places the games throughout the Community Center, so check MGCO's page for the final venue. The Maple Grove Lions and community volunteers serve the food, and guests are encouraged to bring nonperishable items for CROSS Food Shelf.
5. Maple Grove Bakers Market. Wednesday, Dec. 16, 3 to 7 p.m. at the Community Center, with local bakers selling holiday baked goods.

Registration for the Dec. 5 Santa meals opened Nov. 1, so the meal times may already be filling. Weather can't push any of these dates back. They take place indoors, at a known address, on a known day.

Why the city can promise skating on Dec. 12

The outdoor half of the city's season has a fixed date for a physical reason. On Saturday, Dec. 12, from 4 to 7 p.m., Central Park at 12000 Central Park Way hosts Santa at the Loop, a free event for all ages with skating, holiday music, the Maple Grove Rotary holiday lights and free photos with Santa.

Booking an outdoor skating party six weeks out would be a gamble on a pond or a flooded rink. The Central Park ice skating loop avoids that because its ice is refrigerated. The city describes the loop as an 810-foot-long, 20-foot-wide trail built for pleasure skating, and adds that if you stay long enough, you might see the Zamboni drive by. Admission is free, and skate rentals cost extra. Last season's rental price shouldn't be relied on for this winter. The city points visitors to its Central Park page for current information.

The next afternoon, Sunday, Dec. 13, Sensory Santa runs from 1 to 5 p.m. at Town Green. Between Dec. 5 and Dec. 16, the city has four Santa or holiday-food events on its calendar, and each one has a set start time.

Elm Creek waits for temperatures below 28 degrees

A few miles north at Elm Creek Park Reserve, the Winter Recreation Area at 12400 James Deane Parkway has a lighted tubing hill with lifts and snowmaking, a beginner downhill ski and snowboard hill, and cross-country ski trails. The park district lists 18.3 kilometers of groomed cross-country trail. Of that, 5.8 kilometers are lit and 2.5 kilometers are covered by snowmaking.

That equipment has to wait for the cold. CCX Media reported in November 2023 that Three Rivers can make snow once temperatures drop below 28 degrees. In that story, park operations supervisor Dominic Ray explained the order in which things open:

"Phones are ringing off the hook, people want to know when we're going to be opening. For those cross country folk, this Friday, but for everybody else, you're going to have to wait just a little bit longer until we can build that base."

How long building that base takes is explained in a HometownSource column by Three Rivers District 2 Commissioner Jennifer DeJournett. Her district includes Maple Grove. She wrote that the 12-person Elm Creek crew starts the snow guns once temperatures fall below 30 degrees, typically in late November, and runs them around the clock. Park maintenance supervisor Todd Beamish told her it usually takes about 17 days to build a base for the ski slopes, the tubing area and the snowmaking cross-country trail. Count 17 days forward from a typical late-November start and the full base is ready in mid-December, about the same week as Santa at the Loop.

The column also explains why the park makes its own snow instead of waiting for snowfall. Ten inches of natural snow packs down to about one inch of base. Ten inches of machine-made snow packs to about seven. The same column says Elm Creek averages 101 days of cross-country skiing a year, compared with 61 at Hyland Lake Park Reserve, which relies on natural snow.

Real snowfall can still move the date. On Dec. 19, 2024, CCX Media reported that 4.2 inches of snow had fallen in the northwest suburbs and that the Elm Creek tubing hill would open that Saturday, Dec. 21, at 10 a.m. That was the first time in a couple of years the hill had opened before Christmas. Even with snowmaking equipment, an opening before Christmas isn't guaranteed.

What is already set at Elm Creek

The opening day isn't known yet, but nearly everything else has been posted. Three Rivers' 2026–27 hours and rates are below.

Children 4 and under ski free with a paid adult. A 2026–27 season pass costs $311, and a 10-visit punch pass costs $202. Tubing reservations are strongly encouraged and open up to 14 days in advance, with a limit of 10 tubes per day. Three Rivers also has a new SnowSports registration system this winter. Its Winter 2026–27 brochure says registration opened Oct. 20.

The week the two schedules overlap

Santa at the Loop is on Saturday, Dec. 12. Sensory Santa at Town Green follows on Sunday, Dec. 13. The Bakers Market fills the Community Center on Wednesday, Dec. 16, from 3 to 7 p.m. If Elm Creek is open by then, that same Wednesday evening is also half-price tubing night, with two hours for $11 a person from 4 to 9 p.m. The Wednesday discount doesn't apply during winter break or holidays, and Elm Creek's winter-break hours begin Saturday, Dec. 19. That makes Dec. 16 the last half-price Wednesday before the break, and the earliest it could happen this year depends on how soon the base is ready.

That also affects reservations. The 14-day booking window means a Dec. 16 tubing slot could be reserved as early as Dec. 2, but only if the hill has opened. The Breakfast with Santa seats can be booked now, and the Loop's ice will be ready on Dec. 12 whatever the weather does. The tubing reservation is the one plan that depends on a cold enough late November.

When we talk with Maple Grove homeowners about where they live, the seasonal routine matters as much as square footage. Being close to Central Park, the Community Center on Weaver Lake Road or the Elm Creek hill on James Deane Parkway shapes how a December actually goes. If you're thinking about what your home is worth this winter, or which part of Maple Grove fits the way you spend the season, The DesMarais Team can help. Request a Valuation & Consultation, and we'll go through the numbers with the same local detail.