Winter’s Tail at Chessington World of Adventure

Chessington World of Adventure is an amusement park that we do not often go to, despite it being quite nearby! It’s quite a fun and large amusement park, though we didn’t get a chance to go this year, so I was pretty excited to hear about their Winter’s Tail advent for the holiday season. The park itself is limited during this event, but what is there has been transformed into a winter wonderland, with seasonal shows and special events going on that are themed with this time of year. There is also a lot included in your ticket price, as long as you go to each one.

We went to Chessington World of Adventure with the goal of meeting Santa in mind. Kai, Robin and Amelia had not yet had a chance to tell Santa what they wanted for Christmas, so we figured we’d go and visit him there! The Winter’s Tail event was set up where each family had a time slot. We arrived early for ours, but that was no problem. There is a really cute, winter walk from the ticket scanning entry to the start, and then a bunch of themed elves greet you! These elves were full of spirit! Each family is then taken on a little trail to a hidden house, which has Santa inside! This feels really personal, as you do not actually see any other family’s, and felt better than waiting in a big line to see Santa. Once we were in his house, Robin sat down next to him and was asked a few questions. Amelia also spoke to Santa, and Kai kept it quite short and cordial. We then were able to take our own pictures and they took some official ones too. They also were great about taking pictures for us on our own phones. Each child also got a golden ticket, and we were given a number card in case we wanted to purchase official picture. We ended up with a large picture, a digital download, and a snow globe, though there were ornaments for your tree too.

The golden ticket was used in the toy factory – a well decorated area full of toys, where children could put their ticket into a mail box and then get a really cute stuffed toy! All the toys were the same, but there was a huge show of getting them, and they had the Winter’s Tail Chessington World of Adventure logo as well! This meeting Santa was our main goal, so with that done, we continued on our adventures.

There were a bunch of different shows throughout the day, and we got along to a few of them! There was a party by a large tree that had “snow” being made and blowing on people. This party had the kids doing various games. Those same actors later did a Panto we went and watched, about saving a snow globe from an evil person. As an American, I did not know any of the panto phrases that you are meant to yell back, but the kids seemed really into it, and the actors threw candy part of the way through too! The panto and a show on getting a home ready for Christmas for Elmer both were on the main stage at Chessington world of Adventure, which had pyrotechnics – very cool to watch – and streamers flew out too!

The other thing we could not miss at the Winter’s Trail was the Christmas Kitchen. In small groups, we were let into a building that was set up to be something straight out of the north pole, full of elves. They had our kids picking out ingredients and getting cookies ready for Santa, which in the end, we ended up burning – but that’s okay as the elves had backups and gave us each (even the grownups!) a really lovely Santa cookie which had Santa’s face on it. There was a lot of showman ship in this event, which was super fun to be apart of!

Chessington World of Adventure also had a lot of decorations and cute photo points all around the bits of the park that were open. There were a handful of rides too; we rode the marry-go-round and the flying bus. One of the main things we were there to see, park wise, was actually the Sea Life centre inside the park. We had not previously had time to check out the Sea Life centre here, and this was a perfect time. There are tons of fish, jelly fish, and a small section of reptiles. We were able to stroke star fish and really have a good time walking around and seeing everything there! I really love aquariums and had a lovely time walking around this one! We also saw tigers around the zoo, penguins, bunnies, goats, owls, birds, and otters – all of which were out. There was even an owl show that we caught the end of. It’s so cool being able to see all these animals while at the park.

It’s also worth mentioning there was a small grotto full of the traditional winter stalls; German sausages, marshmallows and crepes – though we had packed our own lunch and had grabbed some holiday chocolates from the sweets store. We had a lovely time at Winter’s Tail Chessington World of Adventure!

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