From skating on a magical outdoor ice-skating rink to getting creative with mask-making and lantern workshops, mini-festival-goers can enjoy a feast of family activities at the festival, which begins on June 24.
The children's events have been organised to take place outside school hours and during festival weekends, with children invited to become involved in as many events as possible.
Starting with the opening party on June 24, young festival-goers can celebrate the start of winter as Jordan Luck and special music guests perform on stage alongside a huge fireworks display at Earnslaw Park.
The next day the festival street parade will bring colour and fun to the streets of the resort with a parade of floats created by individuals, businesses and community groups.
The McDonald's Teddy Bears Picnic follows the parade and young children are encouraged to bring their favourite cuddly toys to Earnslaw Park for the Ronald McDonald Magic Show and family fun including a bouncy castle, face painting and prize giveaways.
Creative young people can also attend mask and lantern-making workshops over the first weekend, while More FM Day on the Bay on June 26 and Saturday and Sunday evening ice hockey matches will provide plenty of spectator action.
June 28 will see the return of the Air New Zealand Holidays Mardi Gras, beginning with the street parade, which will feature an unmissable selection of decorative masks and lanterns and finish at Earnslaw Park, where the party will start with food stalls and live music.
The American Honey Night Ski and Coronet Concert will provide winter fun for all the family on July 1, from 4pm, while the puck drops at 7pm on Friday and Saturday nights for Southern Stampede v Botany Swarm ice hockey matches.
The next day, Mountain Mayhem has all sorts of madcap family fun including a snow dig and musical chairs for the younger set while older children can take part in the suitcase race or beach flag race. The festival action moves to the Remarkables on July 3 for the Quiksilver Invitational Slopestyle.
Festival director Simon Green encouraged all young locals and visitors to join in Queenstown's official start to winter and said a majority of events were designed for families and children.
"A big percentage of our events are designed to appeal to young people and have been specially arranged so they can come along after school and plan their weekends to get involved with festival.
"Queenstown Winter Festival is an annual event that's essentially produced by the community for the community and the kids are very much part of that."
