Christmas Street at Intu Lakeside

Christmas is most definitely creeping up on us, the shops have all donned their Christmas apparel and Intu Lakeside is no exception. This year they are debuting their new Christmas street which is located outside the ground floor Marks and Spencer food hall, by car park 9. The normally bare expanse of space has been given a Christmas makeover and will be lighting up the faces of children throughout the festive period (and maybe the face of the odd adult too!)

The area is full of kiddie rides and German market style food stalls, which makes it the perfect place to stop off for a festive snack before your Christmas shopping commences. You can soak up the Christmas atmosphere whilst enjoying a cup of mulled wine, or hot chocolate for the little ones which they can personalise by adding a variety of flavoured syrups and toppings to. Then they can run off and play in the snow with Elsa and Olaf in the Frozen snow globe!

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To save yourself the hassle of long queues to visit Santa in his grotto, you can now book your time slot online. This is a godsend for those with small children who don't appreciate waiting in line for ages before getting to meet the big guy to tell him what they want under their tree this Christmas. There are even some great little additions in the grotto halls to play before meeting Santa. A special little device that scans you to see if you've been naughty or nice and sends the results electronically off to Santa will keep kids and adults alike occupied until it's their turn to go in, along with a little machine to send your Christmas wishes off to the north pole.

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The grotto is really interactive, so different from the garden sheds of my childhood! Upon entering the grotto you will be greeted by lovely elves who really immerse you into the Christmas story and are clearly all about making sure the kids leave with a smile on their face and belief in their heart. I think that our job as adults is to make Christmas magic for kiddies for the few short years of childhood and that is truly at the heart of the staff here at the Christmas Street.

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Sweet treats are a plenty, you can choose from chocolate covered mallow to gingerbread men as big as your head and all sorts in-between. Perfect stocking fillers or teacher gifts or maybe even something nice for when you get home and put your feet up with a cuppa after all the shopping you've done.

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The Christmas street is open daily until Christmas Eve, as is the Grotto and tickets are £6 per child. More info can be found on the Intu website here.

I may be an adult but I enjoyed my trip to the fab festive area and think it's worth a look when you next head to Lakeside.