REVIEW: Christmas at Cotswold Farm Park
With December finally here, and with our tree officially up and decorated, what better way for our family to truly kick off the season, than with a day wrapped up warm in the outdoors surrounded by nativity animals, elves, and a quick pre-Christmas check-in with Father Christmas.
With a dubious 8 year old son in tow (questioning the great man’s current priorities, having just spent time wrapping Christmas shoeboxes for the homeless) and a sceptical 6 year old daughter (already devising tests to see if this could be the real deal) our family arrived at Cotswold Farm Park Christmas Experience on Sunday 2 December, with our adult fingers crossed that this would revive the innocence of Christmas hope and magic for another year.
Waiting in the warmth of a tent, Elves rushed and ferrying around distributing candy canes, clutching notebooks, and calling out names from the nice list. We watched Christmas movies, wrapped in blankets and on cushions, making cards and writing letters to pass the time. Soon our names were called and the enthusiastic elves took us out to see Father Christmas. Our children were quite genuinely gobsmacked at what Father Christmas knew about them, his little notebook revealing their achievements this year (“There is just no way he’d have known any of that if it wasn’t the real one” - 6 year old daughter), their passions and hobbies (“Mum, that was VERY real” - 8 year old son), and even gave their local football youth club a good luck cheer for their upcoming match (“That was quite cool actually” - 36 year old husband). Each received a key that then led them through a elf door to a toy room from which they could choose a pre-Christmas gift, then through yet another door to make, decorate, and fill a Christmas Eve box (largely with reindeer food). Clutching more than they could carry, and with a photo of themselves beaming with Father Christmas, we left the grotto firmly convinced that the magic of Christmas is alive and well.
We went on to spend time feeding the cattle and sheep our animal snacks, meeting the new donkey foal (Sprout), holding newborn Christmas chicks, and cooing over baby lambs, and running through the maze for a prize. The barn and the menagerie provided the perfect backdrop to the narration of the Nativity Story, after which we boarded the farm safari tractor, and rode through the fields singing Carol-oke. Sitting on hay bales, we scoffed Christmas fudge, while laughing through the Elf Show Live, and testing out our new designated Elfen Names.
A great way to kick off Christmas this December weekend, and if you still need a tree, for £40 you can pick one, and have it wrapped and packed in your car. Pack your thermals, and head to Adam Henson's Cotswold Farm Park for an awesome Christmas Experience. The elves await...
Explore Gloucestershire
3 December 2018
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