If you want to blow away the cobwebs Nostell is always a good bet! From parking our car to walking towards the house, I immediately relax as all you can see is open space and fields.Mini Mumbler loves running with his friends to see who will get to the cafe first! As the cafe is a good 5 minute walk from the car park you don’t have to worry about vehicles coming and going!!
We visited just before Christmas and the path is lined with Christmas trees all with a different fact about the house. As you enter the courtyard, there are yet more Christmas trees, small ones from the different groups who use the park!
Now we love the adventure playground at Nostell and have spent many an hour running through the trees from activity to activity! Of course, Mini Mumbler slipped in the mud within 5 minutes … he just laughed and ran off again! Unfortunately, this time, the zip line was out of action – if you haven’t been before its a good one and fine for Mum’s and Dad’s too!!
As we walked through the courtyard we picked up the Christmas Trail (£2 per entry) and immediately saw Santa’s reindeer who we thought were part of the trail (I hadn’t read the instructions!) We were looking for willow animals, not reindeer! However, we spotted all of Santa’s reindeer’s, including Rudolph before getting back onto the Christmas Trail!!
There were 8 willow animals to spot and on each information board, next to the animal, you had to work out the letter! It kept the kids amused as we went on the hunt to find them all!! It took about 40 minutes to complete and the path is buggy friendly. As you can imagine at this time of year your buggy wheels are going to get muddy!
And then it started raining, so we popped in the house to see the gingerbread house display!! You can smell it as you approach the room, there must have been about 50 gingerbread houses around a train track in a village scene. The kids were mesmerised and did pretty well to keep their hands off!
As we had completed the trail and had figured out the forest animal, and the house was closing for the day, we went to the cafe to get our prize as well as warming up with a cuppa! Whilst we were there the kids spotted Santa, he was heading back to the north pole for Christmas Eve preparations, and he came in to say hello and have photos which was a really special bonus to a lovely day out!!
We all had a fantastic time at Nostell, it was great to get out for some fresh air and the kids went home feeling very sleepy!!
Nostell Priory is open every day apart from Christmas Day. Parking and admission charges do apply if you do not hold National Trust Membership.
Disclaimer: Nostell Priory did not pay us for this review, however they have taken other advertising options with Wakefield Mumbler for Christmas 2019. We did have a brilliant time and all of the opinions and comments in this review are a true and honest account of our visit!
