Reindeer Festival Opening Weekend Recap

The Opening Weekend of our season-long Reindeer Festival was the perfect way to jump into holiday cheer! The nursery has been steadily transforming into a twinkly wonderland; sparkles to your left and glowing lights to your right! We set the scene for warm family entertainment, including holiday craft workshops, visiting with Santa’s reindeer and Curley the camel, and relaxing to live music while watching our model train circle a holiday landscape.

We had a host of family activities over Opening Weekend! Little ones were never short on things to do. Saturday and Sunday morning we had the best craft workshop! In between visiting coloring stations, Kids made reindeer hats and then moved on to decorating sugar cones with green frosting and carefully-positioned candy treats! Crafts are always more fun when you get to snack along the way, right? I heard once or twice, “one M&M for the tree, one for me.” We had a room full of happy children for hours (I’ll call that a definite success)!

During Opening Weekend kids were also delighted to roll out the figurative red carpet for our popular animal friends! We welcomed back Curley the camel and Santa’s reindeer, Dasher and Blitzen. Continuing through December 24th, kids can have their up-close and personal experience feeding the animals during snack time (daily at 10am and 4pm). Plus, it makes for a super-cute photo-op!

Opening Weekend guests could also enjoy a snack: Seasons Café served their yummy fare all day and local food trucks made visits as well. Families enjoyed Danielle's Crêpes on Saturday and Hot Revolution Donuts on Sunday. 

We continued our loved tradition of setting up a themed model train village. Generation after generation enjoy this festive attraction. This year’s theme is from the classic film, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. While relaxing and watching the train go round and round snowy scenery, lovely live music played in the background. Over the weekend, we enjoyed the very talented American Folk Music and William Pint & Felicia Dale! Check out our schedule of upcoming performing musicians!

Then, kids happily tired from a day of fun and tummies filled with yummy snacks, we turned our attention to our annual Holiday Party, just for the adults! To really celebrate the holiday season, our marvelous after-hours party was a benefit for the Ballard Food Bank.  It was a fantastic night, read more about it here!

Be sure to join us all season long for holiday shopping, Christmas trees, animal feedings, Santa photos and more. See you soon and Happy Holidays!