We visited Audley End Miniature Railway earlier on this year (read about it here) and we loved it so much we decided to book tickets for their Christmas Special.
The past couple of years we have always done our Father Christmas visits at the end of November, we find it’s less crowded and it’s just the right time to start getting the kids excited for Christmas.
We booked our tickets for Audley End Miniature Railway Christmas Special online, tickets for the last week of November were £8 each ( £10 in December ) and they included a gift from Father Christmas and a complimentary hot drink for the adults.
When you buy your tickets online you have to prebook your slot and we decided to go for 1.20 to give us time to have something to eat beforehand.
After lunch we joined the queue to wait for our train. We were then told they had a slight delay and they were running about 20 minutes late, it was not a problem for us but it was absolutely freezing, the kids however did not feel the cold at all and they were just running around getting excited.
We finally boarded the train and the ride was lovely, we saw little Christmas teddy bears, Christmas pandas and lot’s of other festive things along the way. We even saw some elves running around in the woods waving at us – the kids thought they were hilarious especially as they seemed to be jumping around following us.
The train came to a holt at what seemed to be Father Christmas living room where more elves were waiting for us. The elves did say Father Christmas would be joining us shortly but in the meantime they offered to take pictures of all us. It was all very exciting.
The elves did spend a bit of time chatting to everybody, asking the kids what their name was and what they wanted for Christmas. Finally, the main man arrived; Father Christmas approached the train waving at everybody. Everybody big and small was excited to see him.
My youngest was amazingly chatty and he did tell Father Christmas his name and what presents he wanted. My eldest was unusually quiet and reserved. Father Christmas gave them both some presents and carried on talking to the rest of the children on the train.
The elves delighted us with a bit of a festive dance and then we were waved good bye by all of them before carrying on with our train ride. My only regret now is not having asked one of the elves to take a picture of all of us together with Father Christmas.
It was so cold that we did not stay behind for the rest of the activities of the day, but there was a bouncy castle and Father Christmas letter writing.
We love Audley End Miniature Railway and whenever we have visited we have always had a great time. Most of the pre booked slots are now gone but you can still turn up on the day and queue to get a ticket.
Have you been to Audley End Miniature Railway? Have you been to their Christmas Special?
