Walking in a Winter Wonderland

Christmas in London is spectacular. I don't know why I didn't expect it but there's so much to see and do: lights strung up on every street, shopping everywhere, Christmas Markets... and Winter Wonderland in Hyde Park.

The best way to describe Winter Wonderland in Hyde Park is a Christmas-themed, adult version of the Puyallup Fair x 10,000.

Let me walk you through a Winter Wonderland:

• Stands with mulled wine, beer, tea and hot chocolate everywhere you look.
• Two huge stretches of Christmas markets filled with crafts and gifts
• Rides, rides and more rides! They look larger and faster than the fair ones, and there are some that would not pass American safety inspections (or so we think)
• A magical ice kingdom which houses ice sculptures and an ice castle. It's 5 degrees Fahrenheit inside and they don't give you anything to bundle up with like fur jackets, mittens or hats. Inside you walk up the ice castle and slide down an ICE SLIDE... yes, we totally did this. Did I mention there's also an ice bar inside?
• Carnival games galore! We were shocked to see a few games that included air soft rifles and bow and arrows which seems a little dangerous.... Our favorite was a reindeer racing game: you were competing against 15 other people and had to play skeeball to earn points to get your reindeer closer to the finish line (similar to the water pistol horse racing carnival game).
• Tons of themed bars. To name a few:
• Mirror Bar - an outdoor area surrounded by disco balls and mirrors
• Nordic Bar - a bar made to look like a traditional Swedish house
• Bavarian Village - bratwurst, German beer, dancing and live bands inside a huge tent
• Après Bar - modeled after a ski lodge look and feel
• Carousel Bar - they basically removed the plastic horses from a carousel and put a bar in the center of it. And no, that's not the alcohol giving you the spins... the bar actually does slowly spin like a carousel!
• Santa's Village where you can get a picture taken with old St. Nick
• And of course the classic ice skating rink in the center of it all

And amazingly entrance into Winter Wonderland is free! The only thing that could've made it better was snow. I am still hoping to see a little snow this Christmas.

And the answer to your other question is yes. Aaron and I will be going back there this weekend : )