Christmas is Magical in Texas

On Christmas Day, we visited Santa’s Wonderland for the 1st time in several years. I bought the Super Saver tickets when they were offered (join their email list or like their Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/SantaWonderland/ to get notified of discounted tickets). When I was purchasing tickets online https://www.santas-wonderland.com/ there was the option to also purchase a private carriage tour for a Super Saver date (this saved quite a bit of money). I also opted to get a reserved parking pass at one of the 2 on-site paid parking lots, the Rudolph lot and the Prancer lot (There is also free parking at Post Oak Mall that includes a shuttle). I chose the Rudolph lot & at the time of purchase, I had to choose the date we would be going (the close parking was wonderful at the end of the night since we’d been walking the park for several hours and were all exhausted).

The crowd was not terrible but a LOT bigger than I expected on Christmas Day. The process of getting on the carriage ride was super quick and easy since I saved the QR codes to my Apple wallet. We had absolutely no wait and the ride included a free hot cocoa for each person (the carriages accommodate up to 8 people; be sure to bring cash to tip your driver).

It was not our initial intent to stay at the park beyond a few hours but I wanted to get a family picture in the giant snow globe (there is a charge so if you are wanting several pictures look into getting a package to save some money since there are various photo ops throughout).

The kids wanted to do the snow tubing (included in the admission ticket) so they had to wait in a pretty long line just to go down the snow hill once. My youngest son is 7 so he was only interested in playing in the snow & having a snowball fight and he got plenty of play time (it IS Texas & it was fairly warm so the snow gets compacted & hard quickly even though it is pretty continuously made).

The kids wanted to go back through the light trail on the hayride (included with all general admission tickets) but the line was super long so we decided to eat dinner. Most of the food stands had already closed (I’m not sure if it was because it was Christmas Day or because they typically don’t stay open until the park closes, but it’s a good idea to eat before 9 to ensure you have more food choices). We had the BBQ, (which was surprisingly good), chicken strips, & foot-long corn dogs. The food was all pretty reasonably priced.

We waited until after 11pm to attempt the hayride and only had a very short wait since the crowd had thinned significantly. The hayride was fairly comfortable (in spite of sitting on hay) because it is a spacious trailer so you don’t feel crammed in.

The lights trail is spectacular and takes around 20-30 minutes total (if you have the time, go through the trail twice, once for pictures and once to just take it in).

With only around 30 minutes to spare we checked out the separate walking trail of lights. There is an additional snow area near the walking trail & a train ride (which we did not have time to enjoy). We found some additional awesome photo ops (which THRILLED my kiddos) on the walking trail & lost track of time so we ended up staying until they closed at midnight.

Don’t leave without getting an amazing family photo by the Texas flag! There is a kiosk nearby where you can print it & pay for it yourself using a QR code provided by an employee. You’ll also have the option to just purchase a digital download.

Ultimately, I highly recommend experiencing Santa’s Wonderland at least once, in spite of the crazy crowds. #texastumblewieds