This fair offers families, teachers, toy and game enthusiasts the chance to preview new toys and games, compete in tournaments, meet toy and game inventors and shop for the holidays. Also featuring live entertainment and roving characters. Includes giant-sized games, Settlers of Catan North American Catan Championship, Speed Stacks sport stacking demo and tournaments, meet the Moshi Monsters, Star Wars lunch (Sat.) and Pony Royale Princess Party (Sun.).

Santa visits on Saturday-Sunday and there are special activities each weekend.

Play with toys and games from all around the world and meet their inventors, stage events, characters, Radio Disney, Top Trump Tournament, KenKen Tournament, Star Wars Breakfast, mascots and more. New in 2012, toy and game fashion show on Nov. 14.

Features samplings of the country's finest chocolates, education sessions about chocolate-related topics, a "Pairings Pavilion," interactive demonstrations and a chocolate art gallery by the French Pastry School.

See a toy so amazing, so unbelievable, it has the power to transform into anything you want it to be. Enter a world where imagination rules, and ordinary becomes extraordinary.

Build a snow fort, throw snowballs, dress up a snowman and ice skate - all inside.
The brand new "ice" rink has more space to skate in your socks.

Take a behind-the-scenes glimpse at the world of magic and its historic roots in Chicago. Features a multimedia object theater experience, artifact display and live performances. Discover the tricks of the trade and witness Chicago's magical past reappear before your very eyes.

Visitors become space adventurers and set off on a journey to discover the Universe in a way never done before. Travel a billion light-years and back, fly through space, orbit the Moon, zoom into a canyon on Mars, and soar through the cosmic web where a million galaxies shower down. The experience was created utilizing real telescopic data and the best scientific imagery.

Exhibit examines the ancestry and evolution of numerous species, ranging from huge to tiny, from speedy to sloth-like, and displays animals with oversized claws, fangs, snouts, and horns. Highlights include taxidermy specimens, an entire skeleton of a giant hoofed plant-eater, a life-size model of the largest land mammal that ever lived, one of the oldest fossilized bats ever found, and an impressive diorama featuring the swamps and forests of an island in the Arctic. Runs May 26, 2012-Jan. 6, 2013.

Exhibit explores Schulz's personal history and his role as the sole inspiration and artistic talent behind Peanuts and its unique cast of characters. Through original cartoons, reproductions and related Peanuts ephemera, guests see how characters were developed and evolved. Schulz's Santa Rosa, Calif. studio, recreated for the first time, allows for a deeper look into his work and life. Kids and families have a chance to exercise their own Schultz-like creativity with activities like making a zoetrope.