It's like as soon as October hits I'm officially in autumn mood. I fill my lounge with unnecessary and quite frankly hideous looking squashes and pumpkins and light three million candles to fill the air with comforting spicey scents!
With less than 12 weeks to go to Christmas it's around this time I look to fill my diary with festive treats for the family and here are a few festive things that you might like to do with your family in the run up to the festive season!
Book Your Visit To Father Christmas!
Crazy but some places opened their bookings for the big man in August. This year we are going to Center Parcs for their Winter Wonderland, they transform the parks in to magically snowy retreats and we've done it a couple times the week after we break up and we love it.
Locally for me the FC that stands out is Painshill Park with a new attraction for 2018 - Festive Illuminations! They are lighting up the landscape like you have never seen it before
See the landscape garden transformed with twinkling colourful lights and laser beams. Walk around the magical winter trail to discover glowing follies, amazing reflections and breath-taking illuminations. The winter festivities continue under the stars with a live band, food stalls and a marshmallow camp fire. New this year - brand new, Santa’s Toy Factory Families can also enjoy our brand-new children’s experience, ‘Santa’s Toy Factory’ (evening slots only, additional costs apply). Meet the cheeky elves who will lead you through the toy factory to see the presents being made and to meet Father Christmas, where your child will receive a gift! Prices start from £18.50 per person.
Book ice skating!
Take the kids ice skating! Hampton Court Palace ice skating booking has just opened. Set with the back drop of the palace as the skies get darker, the twinkly fairy lights dance across the ice and the magic of Christmas fills the air! We missed out on this last year so it's definitely on the Christmas activity list this year. A family of 2 adults and 2 children will cost you approx £46.50.
Make a date with your local garden centre!
As bizarre as this sounds - we love doing this in the run up to Christmas. Our local garden centre Garsons have their friendly resident reindeer visit each year and the children can visit and feed the reindeer and after enjoy a cup of tea and a wander around the amazing Christmas decoration section!
He's behind you - Oh no he isn't! Bag those Panto tickets!
Well Christmas would not be Christmas without taking the family to a good old fashioned pantomime! There are the usual ones at the big theatres but I'm a sucker for a bit of amateur dramatic so for me it's got to be Leatherhead Theatre with tickets from £!2.50 per person it won't break the Christmas budget and the kids will love it with all the classic fun and frivolity you'd expect from a Christmas panto!
Get baking!
My kids love helping me bake and in the run up to Christmas I like to make gingerbread dough for the freezer (you know for those last minute gingerbread emergencies!), mincemeat for the mince pies and obviously getting the Christmas pudding made and stashed in the cupboard!!
Downtime!
I am massively guilty for having the tendency to over commit us as a family to every single Christmas event going so this year in the month of December I will be making sure that we have sufficient down time which will probably involve a lot of Sundays on the sofa after rugby, roast dinner in the oven, Christmas films and mugs of steaming hot chocolate!
Have you got any must do activities for the run up to Christmas that you'll need to book to avoid disappointment??
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