Santa’s Christmas Steam Adventure

"It's Santa's train!"

I am a bit of a train geek. I am blaming this on the fact that I have two boys and the eldest has always loved trains. On Saturday we headed over to the National Railway Museum at York for the launch of Santa’a Christmas Steam Adventure, and we loved every minute!

The museum itself we have visited many times and Kieran has also been with school. It is free to enter and there is so much to see and do! More details on the NRM can be found here.

On arrival to the special festive event we were cheerfully greeted and shown into the festive area (for ticket holders only) where we could see a whole array of festive delights!

Our tickets were for 12.45pm and at 12.40pm we were ushered onto the Santa Express. Kieran was agog! A train AND Santa? Surely it doesn’t get any better than this? The children were all invited to take one of the cushions and warm blankets that were dotted around and get snuggled up and comfy. The storytelling began and the storyteller had a fantastic knack of capturing the children’s imagination and keeping them involved as the story progressed.

Let the storytelling begin!

I won’t tell you much more about this because I really don’t want to spoil the surprise, but Santa did arrive and everyone was given an age appropriate gift by the wide-eyed man in red! The tickets for this event are £7.50 for a child and £5 for an adult (which includes a mince pie and hot drink in the cafe) and it is worth every penny. The gift that Kieran received from Santa was worth more than the ticket price alone, no “tat” like you sometimes see at various grottos and the like.

Santa’s Christmas Steam Adventure runs literally right up until Christmas, see below for details and visit here to book.

Dates and times

  • November 19, 20
  • November 26, 27
  • December 3, 4
  • December 10, 11
  • December 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23

Times are 10:30, 11:15, 12:00, 12:45, 13:45, 14:30, 15:15, 16:00.

This was a fantastic way to spend the day and Kieran is still talking about it. This is the first time Santa has visited the NRM for a long time and seeing as he has already been a bit hit, I hope we can see him next year too!

The staff were brilliant! Nothing was too much trouble and there were smiles a-plenty. This is Rhona, one of the staff helping out who really did make you believe it was Christmas with her genuine cheerfulness!
We have always loved the education side to the NRM. A festive occasion it may have been but there is still a lot to see and do outside of the event making it a full visit!

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Don’t forget that you can be kept up to date with the NRM’s news and offers on Facebook and Twitter!

*We were offered free tickets to this event in exchange for a write up of the first day of the event. This review is based purely on our experiences as a family and the NRM have had no influence over this. Neither has Santa.

Silver Cross – Rufus Rabbit Pull Along #review

I’ve always known Silver Cross have prams, everyone knows Silver Cross have prams, but I didn’t know that they have toys too. I was sent the Rufus Rabbit Pull-Along toy for Taylor to play with and review and I have fallen in love with it myself!

This wobbling pull-along cart with it’s soft vegetable puzzle including a carrot with a bell, cauliflower with a rattle, and a beetroot with a squeaker has kept Taylor interested and absorbed for hours. As well as pulling along the well made cart, with or without vegetables, he has enjoyed cuddles with Rufus and great fun putting the vegetables back together (velcro).

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In my opinion Rufus has everything that a toy for a little one should have. It is visually pleasing, promotes thinking and understanding, hand-eye co-ordination, goes hand in hand with physical play and really captures the imagination.

As well as being an educational toy, and obviously great fun Rufus Rabbit Pull Along is also visually gorgeous! I wouldn’t hesitate to give him as a gift. Rufus is suitable for boys and girls aged 9m+ and at £24.99 I believe it is worth every penny and more.

To see more of the Homegrown range have a nosy here!

Competition!

A beautiful prize!

For fans of Silver Cross and anyone with a little girl who would love a dolls pram for Christmas, Silver cross are running a fantastic competition, ending 3pm on Friday (this week!) on Facebook. It is very easy to enter and the prize, a Chatsworth doll’s pram worth £300 would really make a dream come true on Christmas morning.

Good luck to all that enter!

* We received a Rufus Pull Along Toy (RRP £24.99) in exchange for this review. Silver Cross has had no input into the content of this review, which is based purely on our families experiences of the toy.