The Jarvii 
A great way to get into a festive spirit whilst in London is the Hyde Park Winter Wonderland. We did this 5 years ago, the last time we were in London for Christmas. So it was nice to see that it was still here. A portion of Hyde Park is turned into a carnival/German market. There is a lot of things for everyone, kids young and old to do.
Since we have a 3 year old, we booked tickets for entry between 10am and noon. This was actually perfect for our group as the park was not quite crowded despite it being a beautiful Sunday. There were hardly any lines to the rides, so we were able to hit the ground running.
We rode the Big Wheel, which is just a huge ferris wheel that has spectacular views of London. We did two rollercoasters–the Time Machine and the Euro Coaster. I think the older kids preferred the Euro Coaster. For our 3 year old, she did merry-go-round type rides, the Santa train, and Jumbo (If you’ve been to Disney, it’s their version of the Dumbo ride). By far the cutest family ride is the Christmas tree ride. It’s not exhilarating, but how can you not go on a ride where you are in a Christmas ornament (they say bauble) as you spin around on a giant Christmas tree.
There’s also a German style Christmas market. They sell various trinkets and Christmasy keep sakes you may want to gift to a loved one or yourself. My daughter was definitely eyeing the panda bear ear muffs.
They have several carnival games, some claiming that there’s always a winner. My daughter really wanted to win a Pokémon she saw people carrying around. When we initially walked by the people manning the game weren’t doing a good job enforcing the rules, so many people were walking away winners. We decided to circle back at the end of our day to try out the game. But at that point they had better monitors, and hardly anyone walked away with a new Pokémon stuffie.
As you would suspect, around noon all the food places were packed. We had a hard time finding a seat to enjoy our food, but eventually we were able to swoop in on a picnic table. Luckily they did offer a lot of different foods to satisfy everyone in our family, from Mexican to pizza to gyros. There’s also many stalls that sell beer and mixed drinks. And just as many stalls selling sweet treats and hot chocolate.
Overall, this was an excellent place for everyone in our family. There’s enough for everyone to do without getting too bored. And they tire out kids instantly–our 3 year old immediately fell asleep in her stroller as soon as we left the park! It’s also not just for families. 5 years ago when we were there we came in the evening as we hadn’t adjusted to the time difference. There are tons of adults enjoying everything. I think it would be a fun place to do a date night.
Top Tip:
- Make sure you book as soon as possible though. We didn’t book until the night before for a Sunday with arguably perfect sunny London weather. There were many entry time slots that were sold out. You just need to book an entry time (a two hour window), but you can stay as long as you want.
