Gov­er­nors Island will open its first-ever Win­ter Vil­lage on Friday, Dec. 17, at Colonels Row — the landmarked brick buildings mid-island — featuring a skating rink plus lawn games, fire pits, sled and bike rentals and cold-weath­er food and drinks. This is just an fabulous idea and while I can’t picture a hill there offhand (other than *the* hills) the sledding will definitely be better than Washington Market Park.

The skating will be open Friday through Sunday, noon to 5 on Friday and 10 to 5 on weekends. The fee will be $11 but it’s free on Fridays; skate rental is $8.

There will be rotating food trucks plus Lit­tle Eva’s (brats, chili, fish and chips) and Joe Cof­fee at the Bat­tery Mar­itime Build­ing.

In addi­tion to the rink, the Vil­lage will fea­ture bike and sled rentals from Blaz­ing Sad­dles NYC and win­tery activ­i­ties includ­ing lawn games like corn­hole, can jam and giant Jen­ga; fire pits; win­ter arts and cul­tur­al pro­gram­ming and a sparkling dis­play of hol­i­day lights through­out his­toric Colonels Row. The Trust for Governors Island will also dis­play a his­toric Coast Guard-era fire truck at the Win­ter Vil­lage for photo ops.

The island is now open seven days, all winter long, 7a to 6p. See the ferry schedule here.