This year Family Day is Monday, February 18 meaning we have a long weekend to enjoy winter carnivals, learn how to do an Ottawa Valley step dance, meet a new dinosaur – the ultimate example of everything old being new again – luxuriate in Impressionist paintings or amble among light sculptures and installations off the shore of Lake Ontario.

Catch the last day of

• Hamilton Winterfest

• Ottawa Winterlude

• Cochrane Winter Carnival

• Penetanguishine Winterama

Specifically for Family Day Weekend

• Fort William Historical Park, Thunder Bay: Voyageur Winter Carnival, Feb 16-18

• Brantford Frosty Fest, Feb 17-18

• Artissimo Studio - Paint Play, National Gallery, Ottawa, Feb 16-18

• Danse dans la Neige, Step dancing lessons with Tiny Township’s wonderful Ariko band playing lively fiddles and assorted strings at McMichael Canadian Art Collection, February 17 & 18

• Thunder Bay Snowday, February 18

• Oakville Family Day, February 18

Plus:

• Ontario Place Winter Light Exhibition, Toronto until March 17

• Art Gallery of Ontario’s new exhibit, Impressionism in the Age of Industry including works by Monet, Pissarro, Van Gough + February 16-May15

• Royal Ontario Museum’s Zuul: Life of an Armoured Dinosaur, to May 20 [ Side note:  This spectacular, 76 million year-old find – named after a look-alike monster in the original Ghost Busters – was prepared and mounted by the world’s leading dinosaur display craftspeople, Research Casting International, in Trenton, Ontario.