Each year whilst my girls are still young enough to believe in the magic of Christmas, we try and take them somewhere different that has something special on to start our festivities.
Being National Trust members we considered Dunham Massey last year but thought £13.50 per person was a tad expensive.
So we went to have a toot through the garden walls to see if it would be worth it and what we saw got us thinking...
So I looked at recommendations on a Facebook group I’m a member of called Happy Days Out and on there were mums who have been multiple years on the trot as they say it’s so good. So this year I bit the bullet and booked for us to go.
I picked the 14th December, not too early but close enough to get us in the Christmas spirit.
So our day to go arrived, it started chucking it down as soon as we got out the car, but that didn’t dampen our excitement.
We headed down towards the main house and were directed straight into the Christmas Market stalls full of food and drink.
After downing a festive hotdog, a mulled wine and hot chocolate, we headed to the beginning of the Christmas Trail.
The house was all lit up with different projections, it was beautiful!
Off we headed into the gardens and WOW!!!
The first thing we saw were two huuuge magical reindeer, the girls were mesmerised with the size of them.
It was a one way path all around, each section with a different theme, it was so magical! All the twinkling lights, holding hands with the girls as they stirred eyes wide with wonder.
There were displays all over the grassed areas, timed to music, they were brilliant!
Families like ours stood watching in amazement and wondering how long it must have taken to arrange such coordinated beauty.
And the arch was magnificent! Trying to get a picture though with Hubs and the brolly was a nightmare, so this is the best I could get.
We headed into one part of the gardens were there was a little kiosk selling marshmallow of all different kinds of flavours to then toast ourselves over a fire pit; I have to say chocolate orange was a firm fave of mine YUM.
After stuffing our faces we headed back through the twinkling tunnel and back round to the back of the house.
We even got to see the big man himself, so the girls were super happy and even more ready for Christmas.
It took us about an hour and twenty minutes to complete the whole trail, taking in all the lights and activities.
We had a truly magical time and can say it was very much worth £13.50 per person, I would definitely recommend this to start your Christmas and we would even consider doing it again next year.
