Christmas at Blithbury Reindeer Lodge
We were hugely excited to have been invited along to Blithbury Reindeer Lodge to celebrate Christmas so much so that we were up at 6.30am waiting with our cuddly reindeer (well, at least one of us was)!
If you haven't booked this year's visit to see Father Christmas yet, make sure you check out Blithbury Reindeer Lodge – you won't be disappointed.
With a number of updates that have brought even more fab features to this beautiful spot in Staffordshire's countryside and a herd of gorgeous reindeer, we had a super morning.
[breakout title="View From A Daddy" align="right"]John Hibbs is the voice behind View From A Daddy. He looks after his daughter Xanthe full-time, and blogs about the adventures and experiences of having children. You can read more from him at View From A Daddy.[/breakout]
After parking up in the expanded car park, we were warmly welcomed by the hosts. Tips of antlers could just be seen over the gates which set an immediate enhanced buzz of excitement from our party.
We made our way into the entrance, which has been opened up for this season to allow for more visitors. The fab and friendly staff explained what there was to see and gave details about the route. With a map in hand, tokens for the fun activities ahead, and of course a pot of lichen each, we set about visiting the beautiful creatures that are housed all around the site.
The baby reindeer greeted us with their huge, gorgeous eyes, and although they were a little shy at first, they soon started to nibble our lichen before we were drawn away to their elders who were equally splendid. I struck up a bond with Cloud who I'm sure only had eyes for the treats I had.
At a range of times throughout the day, you can go into the great barn, which is lit with a roaring fire to hear the elves tell you tales against a back drop of the flames (all safely enclosed I hasten to add). Perched on tree stumps we were all ears at the family tale. The elves then invited us over to their kitchen to make gingerbread Rudolf reindeer, which were delicious!
As we were there on the opening day the big man himself had arranged a journey to the lodge on his reindeer drawn sleigh to say hello. We waited in anticipation singing Christmas songs as the jolly fellow sped in out of the clouds as if from nowhere. He was pleased to see everyone and promised to make time to see us all.
Another of the enhancements this year is an expansion to the cafe with extra seating available. What more could we do than indulge! There's a great range of delights on offer from sandwiches to cakes; lattes to hot chocolate with all the trimmings. Again you'll be welcomed by the friendly team and orders are brought to your table.
After this we were booked into Elf School to learn all about the reindeer and their habitat. We could even handle some of the reindeer's bells and tack.
From here we were invited to meet Father Christmas in his cosy lounge! The little lady's face lit up as she led the way accompanied by an elf to the Christmassy den. Once inside you can have your photo taken which you can then purchase from the shop but that's only after you've had a lovely personalised talk about what you'd like for Christmas. This is such a special place where there's no sense of rush or pressure to move along. As ever the lodge offers superb value with gifts from Father Christmas that won't disappoint.
You can take advantage of the fun sleigh rides on beautiful sleighs; you can hear a talk about the truly super herd, as well as meet some of the famous faces from the big screen.
The facilities are clean and ample with baby changing faculties and disabled toilets too. The layout is easy to navigate for pushchairs or wheelchairs so everyone can enjoy this special spot!
Mrs View from a Daddy was, as always, super keen to get into the bigger and better shop which has hundreds of beautiful Christmas treats to get your shopping underway. We of course came away with a reindeer now called Sven and two delightful Christmas Eve boxes that we'll use for years to come.
We had a terrific morning and found Christmas spirit in the heart of the countryside at Blithbury Reindeer Lodge. We'll definitely be back year on year!
