The Christmas period is, quite frankly, a brilliant time of year. Even the most curmudgeonly of people cannot help but be charmed by the conviviality of the season, between the shining lights and garlands that constitute Christmas decorations and the timely resurgence of seasonal cuisines. When Christmas arrives, our cities spring to life just as much as our homes do – but which cities are the best for seasonal fun?
Continue reading “Top Five UK Cities to Visit This Christmas”
We love to get out and about, especially on the days our children are off school! During the holiday season, there are a lot of lovely, themed places to visit in and around Essex, that can make the holidays shine even more than ever! Some of these places have options to meet Santa himself, others are just fun activities that are only available during the Christmas months. Either way, I am sure you will find an activity you and your family enjoy.
Continue reading “Best Christmas Days Out for Families 2023”
Dann is a big fan of Christmas markets, and I love light trails, so he set up a little date night at Christmas at Blenheim Palace! This palace is one of the few that we have not been too previously, and we were excited to see it all decorated and set up for the festive season. The palace’s Christmas market is free to enter, with optional ticket add-ons for an in-palace tour and a light trail! We ended up only going for the light trail this year as they are some of my favorite things to walk around and see.
Continue reading “A Day Out at Christmas at Blenheim Palace”
[Ad- gifted experience] Cattows Halloween Farm is a massive pumpkin farm that we had gone to last year, to check out the fair rides and all of the pumpkins too. This year, they have a new event under the name Cattows Halloween Farm After Dark. It’s an after hours, illuminated event that brings Halloween to an entirely new level, as there is so many bright lights and spooky haunts for the whole family to enjoy.
Cattows Halloween Farm After Dark is massive! We entered through a large tent, full of Halloween decorations, and are greeted by the fairgrounds. These fairground rides do cost per ride, with no wristband option, but are quite reasonable in price per ride. Amelia and Kai were a bit too big for a few of the rides, but still found some really fun ones to go on. The fair is in the middle of the grounds, with the food trucks being at the back end of the area. This food village only had a few food stalls open, but you could get your classic burgers, fries, nuggets, donuts, etc from them.
Audley End House and Gardens is a really lovely English Heritage grounds, that we tend to visit whenever they do any of their seasonal events. This year, they had a light festival called Enchanted Audrey End. I had heard all about Audrey End light shows, but you do need to pre-book well ahead of time! So, this year we were prepared and we were able to get the whole family along for the fun trail!
