Christmas right on Kew!

Christmas waves a magic wand over this world, and behold, everything is softer and more beautiful.

Norman Vincent Peale

On Thursday, the night the heavens opened sleet, snow, wind…… thank goodness we had tickets for Christmas at Kew!! So, off we pottered to Kew Gardens for an after dark Christmas visit. Visitors get to explore the Gardens along an illuminated trail, followed by a browse in a Christmas market. Sounded like a brilliant festive adventure to me! Luckily, by the time we’d made it there, the rain stopped and we were able to enjoy the trail without too much of a soaking.

Armed with my warmest coat, scarf, woolly gloves and a torch, we set upon the trail…

I’d heard lots about Christmas at Kew but never been, I mean, it’s for tourists after all!

Walking along the trail was like being in some sort of Narnia-meets-Christmas-meets-Alice in Wonderland park. Handy tip, go to the Glastonbury part of your wardrobe and root out your wellies! The trail is muddy and squelchy and your Louboutin’s won’t like it one bit! I’d really recommend bringing a torch as well, it was a lifesaver, genuinely!!

Colourful lights and lanterns lit up the trees, street lamps cast snowflake patterned shadows onto the ground, and every now and then we’d come across gramophones telling us about the trees in our surroundings. We literally lost our marbles crossing over a bridge, throwing them into the coloured hoops in the lake to help stimulate the plant life.

Halfway through the trail, we came towards a log cabin selling hot dogs, waffles and hot chocolate, hurrah!! If only it would have properly snowed! It was so festive and pretty, standing in the dark, under the shadows of the trees, with the smell of mulled cider in the air. Further along the path, the orange glow we saw in the distance was actually a Fire Garden. At that moment, I wished I had brought along marshmallows.

As we came towards the end of the trail, we ducked into the Waterlily House that had been transformed into the home of a giant pink Lotus plant. The most breath-taking thing about that was seeing the reflection of the flower in the pond- perfectly symmetrical!

Finally, we reached the warmth of the gift shop and scoffed down a hot dog from the Christmas market before picking out some stuff to take home. I’m a massive sucker for tree baubles and tree chocolates! Well, a massive sucker for chocolate anything, let’s be honest. There were some fabulous tasty Christmas treats in the gift shop, it took every ounce of will power to not poke the marshmallow snowmen who were just asking to be poked!!

I went with fairly high expectations thanks to all the hype which is always a danger with these things, however, I came away feeling VERY festive and pleased that I’d been a tourist for the night. It’s well worth a visit, but make sure you book, I don’t think there are any places left this year at all.