On Monday we spent a magical evening at Winter Wonderland Manchester. It was our third year of visiting the festive event and it certainly didn’t disappoint. One of my favourite parts of going to Winter Wonderland is surprising the kids with the visit. Each year we only tell them last-minute that we are going and they are always really excited.

Winter Wonderland is back at Event City in Manchester for its fifth year and is open until January 1st. Make sure you check out my Winter Wonderland post to find out lots more about the event.

Once the fun of surprising the kids was over it was time to set off to Manchester. We arrived just in time for the doors opening and were greeted with the most amazing festive sight and falling snow inside. The kids couldn’t wait to get on the many colourful rides. Daisy wanted to seek out the fast rides while Jake was in the mood for a much slower start. We chose a magic carpet genie ride to start with. Both my kids love fairground rides and were absolutely spoilt for choice.

There are tons of exciting rides for all ages and even a couple of quieter play areas for babies and toddlers. I feel like Winter Wonderland have gone out of their way this year to make sure every member of the family is catered for.

Although Daisy and Jake enjoyed lots of rides together Daisy was itching to try some faster rides. Daddy took Daisy on a few of the bigger rides while I went on a few of the more tame rides with Jake. Despite the venue being rather large and packed full of rides it was easy to navigate and arrange a meet up spot.

All of the staff we encountered were lovely and very friendly towards the kids. Security was also really good and I felt reassured that they had bag checks in place on the way in.

Santa is at Winter Wonderland if you want to visit him in his adorable festive cabin. Daisy and Jake chose not to visit this time as they were having too much fun on the rides.

Jake was delighted to see the Pip Ahoy! beach back again. He would have spent all evening there if I let him. He had a great time getting sandy toes and digging for treasure.

We managed to catch some of the Daisy & Ollie from Cartoonito live show and a little of the Rainbow show too. I would love to sit and watch more of the shows as they look fantastic but the kids are at an age where they would rather be on the go and trying to cram in as many rides as possible.

One of the brilliant things about Winter Wonderland Manchester is that it’s operated on a session basis meaning that it doesn’t get overcrowded. We hardly queued for any of the rides at all.

Our session absolutely flew by and soon it was home time. We left with two very happy but exhausted kids who crashed in bed once we arrived home. I think Winter Wonderland Manchester is amazing value for everything you get included in the ticket price. If you want to treat the whole family this Christmas then I definitely recommend a visit.

Disclosure: We were invited as guests to the press night at Winter Wonderland Manchester. All opinions are my own.