On Saturday Sean and I took the Kids for some festive fun at the Winterland MK. The Christmas event opened in November at the Towcester Race course.
Entrance into the Winterland is free. There is an open air ice-rink, a Santas Grotto, a live production, food, fully licensed bars and fair ground attractions.
You can book tickets for the Santa’s Grotto, the Mermaid Cove Show, the ice-skating and the kids indoor stay and play. For prices and availability Click here .
To pay for the attractions and rides inside the event you have to use the pre-payment ‘top up’ card. You basically pay as you go.
We decided to watch the Mermaid Cove Panto ‘A Winter Tale’, set in ‘The secret world of the Enchanted forest’. Here you will meet the Ice Queen and her collective of ethereal creatures as they prepare for winter and the snowflake fairy who needs help to find her courage to fly. There’s a real swimming mermaid in the secret underwater grotto. The cast invite the kids to take a photo and ask if they would like a silly photo or a smiley one. Here is Cuba taking a silly photo. Can you spot the real life mermaid?
There are plenty of food and drink stalls to choose from. My kids couldn’t resist the fresh hot donuts with sauce and sprinkles.
The fair ground rides are pretty expensive in my opinion. On average they charged £4 per person for the waltzers for instance and the dodgem cars are £4 per car. However, its still cost us £8 in the end as the kids obviously had to ride with an adult. So, it soon adds up after a couple of hours at the event.
Cuba enjoyed the smoke and mirrors maze.
You can’t beat the dodgem cars.
The large outside ice-rink.
The Naughty or Nice bar.
The German sausages were very popular.
This mobile bar has a cosy sheltered seating area and an upstairs drinking area.
Final Thoughts
The location was easily accessible especially for people living in the south east of England.
All the staff were very friendly and helpful.
We had fun at the Winterland Mk however, I feel it was lacking in Christmas magic. For instance, the Ice-rink could have been completely dressed in Christmas decorations, twinkly lights and a Christmas tree. And, some Christmas characters interacting with the kids would have been a nice touch. Also, a traditional German Christmas market would have been perfect.
We arrived around 3pm and left around 6pm. There were large groups of adults having fun in the bars and walking around the grounds with pints in their hands getting merry. Which is fine however, it did come across like it was catering for grown ups more than the families with young children. So, my advice to the event organisers would be to provide more Christmas magic for the kids next year please.
Have you been to the Winterland Mk? Are there any local Winterland events in your area you have visited? As always I would love to hear about your experiences.
Merry Christmas,
Lots of love,
Dana x x
This looks magical #bloggerclubuk@_karendennis
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The most magical time of the year x x
Fab snaps, looks like a fun couple of hours. Shame that some of it wasn’t as good for kids as it could have been. #twinklytuesday
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Thank you Kate x
This looks like fun, but good to hear the honest review that it could have been more Christmassy. Great to have you joining us on the #DreamTeam and hope to see you again next week
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Thanks Kirsty, and I look forward to joining in future Linkys x
I did feel that there wasn’t much of a xmas cheer going on from the photos but it looks like Cuba and Coco still had a great time and you took some lovely photos.
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Yes you’re right we were expecting a lot more Christmas than we got for our time and money. The organisers need to work on that if they are to hold the event again next year x