Havering Christmas Land – Wonderful Lights

[Ad- gifted experience] We have been going to quite a few light walks, so it’s no surprise that we went along to another! Havering Christmas Land is a compact light trail, all for the charity Mind. If you aren’t familiar, Mind is a charity that’s all to do with Mental Health. They raise awareness about mental health stigma, support people living with mental health problems and fight for governmental change for mental health services, which is all fantastic.

The outside of Havering Christmas Land had tons of little photo points, with two entrance points to the venue itself. One area has a few light up frames and a giant advent calendar, which is what we saw first. This is right by Santa’s grotto, where you can get in line to meet Santa himself. We went along to see Santa, who was quite silly and gave Robin a little gift. This was a sort of separate area, and then we went into the house to come out on the other side, where the lights were! The historic Harrow Lodge House was covered in lights, which were very sparkly and really set everything up! On the other side, there were a few smaller fairground rides, along with some Christmas stalls selling churros and hot chocolate.

Then, there is the entrance to Havering Christmas Land lights! We love light trails and were astounded when we saw the smoke bubbles coming from the entrance, which Robin (and many of the other kids) started popping and jumping about in. They let people in, in smaller groups, so that the area didn’t get overcrowded, which I very much appreciated! The entire walk was a great use of the space, very compact and well designed. There were a mix of lights, photo points, and different themes all throughout. One of the areas even had cut out Wicked characters, which Amelia was surprised to see. We also loved the animated, moving butterfly area which was just so much fun!

It does feel like a community light trail – more intimate and interesting then some of the larger, company-ran light trails that we have attended. There were interesting layouts, great uses of different smaller pieces, and lots of traditional sections sections set up. Kai commented on the Dinosaur area, which had an interesting mix of cartoon dinosaurs and some more realistic dinosaur figures. There were some cool crystal-looking decorations, which Amelia and Dann both very much loved, along with some large circles that could be tapped to change color. Instead, there were more photo points, which was fantastic to take pictures by, along with a New Years section too. On the other side of the light walk, there is a fence where you can tie up your Christmas wish, which always feels like a good ending to a trail. It’s just a lovely little light walk, a very good use of the space, for such a good cause.

You can check out our other Days Out to see what else we’ve been up too!