Bethesda's annual Winter Wonderland festival returned this weekend, hosted by the Bethesda Urban Partnership.

The event began Friday evening with a free winter concert at Imagination Stage, and continued Saturday in Bethesda's Veterans Park. Large crowds gathered to watch ice sculptors create a snowflake, reindeer, and a penguin out of blocks of ice.

Choir groups from the Academy of the Holy Cross, Garrett Park Elementary School, Our Lady of Lourdes, Seneca Valley High School and Watkins Mill High School also performed for the crowd, and Santa Claus made a cameo.