Busch Gardens Christmas Town
Disclaimer: This post was sponsored by Busch Gardens. All opinions are my own.
My family has many holiday traditions including a whole list of places that we visit every year, we will definitely be adding Christmas Town at Busch Gardens in Williamsburg, VA to the list. We were absolutely blown away with all the beautiful decorations. I grew up in Central PA where the cold weather and snow really help you get into the Christmas spirit. It can be tougher to feel like Christmas is coming in warmer parts of the country but after visiting Christmas Town I gotta say it’s beginning to feel a lot like Christmas.
My boys always love to grab a map when we visit amusement parks and do all the navigating and our evening at Christmas Town was no different. At Busch Gardens you always have lots of choices for getting from point a to point b. Tonight we decided to ride the train. Even the train was decorated for Christmas with multi-color lights. From the train we could see various parts of the park decked out with decorations and the excitement was building as we made our way to the opening night tree lighting ceremony.
We grabbed some hot cocoa when we arrived at the plaza for the tree lighting. The cocoa was perfect for warming up on such a chilly night. I would recommend getting the souvenir mug. The mug costs $5.89 but then you can get refills throughout the evening for only $1.29. You can get cocoa, coffee, or sodas. We also drank coffee from our mugs the next morning at out campsite and in our small RV with two rambunctious boys it was nice to have a big coffee mug with a lid. The tree lighting ceremony was a lot of fun. The lights were choreographed to Christmas music and changed repeatedly. We watched the tree for quite awhile just enjoying the music and lights.
There are plenty of rides for the whole family open during the Christmas Town event. You can see the complete list of rides here. So we hopped on a few rides. We also played some games. The boys were super thrilled that they got to keep the candy cane they picked in the Candy Cane picker game. I guess it is the little things in life that make us the happiest and a simple candy cane brought big smiles to my kids faces.
It was soon time for dinner at Santa’s Fireside Feast. Let me say, if you are going to splurge on something at Busch Gardens Christmas Town this should be it. The food was really good and a wide variety of choices were offered buffet style. When you are walking around the park you can build up quite an appetite and when kids are starving they have a hard time waiting for food to arrive but since this meal is buffet style there is no wait. But the food is not the best part of the Santa’s Fireside Feast experience. The best part is watching and listening to the Night Before Christmas told by Santa himself. What a magical experience. My son’s eyes were glued to Santa the entire time. Cookies for dessert are served up by Mrs. Claus and a rather jolly elf. You also get to have your picture taken with Santa. I gotta tell you our children have visited with a lot of Santa’s throughout the years but this Santa was the best. I felt like a kid again chatting with him when we were getting our pictures taken.
We decided to round out our evening by taking in a show. We settled in to our seats and were soon entertained by a host of pre-show performers. The show we saw was called “Scrooge No More!”, a condensed version “A Christmas Carol” by Dickens. The show was amazing! Great singing, elaborate detailed costumes, and great acting. The show was only 30 min long so it was perfect for the short attention spans of our young boys. We really enjoyed watching this performance. Be sure you find the time to take in one of the many shows at Christmas Town. There a four different show to choose from so every family should be able to find a show they will enjoy.
Christmas Town at Busch Gardens in Williamsburg, VA is on select days through Dec 31st. Check the calendar for dates and park hours. You can purchase tickets online. Christmas magic is everywhere at Christmas Town. Merry Christmas to you and yours. Enjoy making memories this holiday season.
