Sarah Zanolli: The Ice Ambassador of New Orleans

The Ice Ambassador Sarah Zanolli at WWNO studio (photo by: Kelley Crawford)

Sarah Zanolli fell in love at a young age. With ice. Growing up in New York, Zanolli did what a lot of kids did in the winters, she learned how to ice skate. Once she laced up those boots, though, they were something that she never wanted to take off. As she explains it, “It just stuck.” 

Time went by, and the bond between Zanolli and ice skating got serious. She became a professional skater–performing at private parties, festivals, and ceremonies. It was a match made in frozen water heaven, but then something started to call her down south. That something was New Orleans and all the heat it brings with it. 

New Orleans clamped its charming claws in Zanolli the first time she visited, and from then on she made a vow. “In my heart, I was always trying to think of a way to bring ice skating to New Orleans,” Zanolli says. Yet, ice and New Orleans just didn’t fit, so Zanolli had to make a choice. She hung up her ice skates and moved to New Orleans. 

Thinking that her days of slicing the ice were over, Zanolli pursued other New Orleans favorites–working on film sets in costume design and engaging with the art scene. And then she discovered Nola Christmas Fest, an annual Christmas Festival which runs from December 21 to December 31 this year. The most intriguing part of the fest for Zanolli was the “real ice rink” the Christmas Fest promised to have.  

The moment she saw those words, she called up the director and said, “I’m a professional skater, what can I do for you?” And that is how her role as the Ice Ambassador began. 

Each year the New Orleans Christmas Fest takes over part of the Convention Center and turns it into a winter wonderland. There is ice sledding and snow ball fights as well as special appearances by Santa and some major creativity with the gingerbread houses. In true New Orleans style, there are eggnog daiquiris available, and as Zanolli warns, “We do not encourage eggnog daiquiris before skating, but plenty after.”  As the Ice Ambassador, Zanolli is at Nola Christmas Fest every day and on the ice for around 10 hours. Her ice time includes performances as well as ice skating lessons. 

Although she is surrounded by magic in this winter wonderland, it is not the custom snowmen that enrapture her heart the most during the festival. The most magical part of being the Ice Ambassador has to do with the relationships she builds with the patrons. “My favorite part is definitely exposing people who weren’t raised around ice to this winter wonderland,” Zanolli says. “The [New York] kids were used to ice and snow, but here there’s this element of wonder that you don’t find ice skating anywhere else in the country.” 

The kids who come to cut the ice with Zanolli believe that she is an ice princess, a snow fairy, and on occasion they ask if she is Mrs. Clause. “I was even asked if I lived in a snow globe,” Zanollis says. What did Zanolli say? That she does, and her snow globe is in Uptown. 

To make the magic of Christmas come alive, she believes in the magic that all the kids who come to skate with her see. So even though our Ice Ambassador lives through souring temperatures and high humidity throughout the year, she knows how to chill when the time is right. 

You can see Sarah Zanolli peforming at the Nola Christmas Fest, which runs from December 21-December 31 in Hall I at the Convention Center. Sarah Zanolli also offers ice skating classes during Nola Christmas Fest, and you can see prices and book lessons on her website.