Even though we’ve moved away from Bristol now I still love a shopping trip to The Mall at Cribbs Causeway. The Christmas decorations are always beautiful and it has a Marks & Spencer AND a John Lewis. Two of my best things.
A couple of weeks ago we actually went to a special event at M&S to take a look at all their lovely Christmas things, and they are lovely.
I love The Mall even more at the moment as they are hosting their Winter Wonderland; festive funtimes at their very best. Their outdoor ice rink is the largest in the south west and has real ice, not just that funny board stuff that gets put down in marquees in town centres and tries to pass itself off as ice. It’s proper and cold and between sessions you can watch the big machine come round and resurface the rink. (Almost the best bit.)
We went to visit Father Christmas and to try our hand at skating last weekend – me, Belle and my niece and nephew, five and three. This was perhaps a little on the optimistic side as none of us are naturals on ice, especially not my nephew, Finn, who’s technique seemed to be to run in a cartoon style on the spot for about five seconds, fall flat on his face, then repeat, over and over and over again. It was HILARIOUS.
Fortunately Adele from Circus Queen was there taking photos, so while I was doing my best to stay upright, she took some pictures of us on the ice – thank you Adele!
If you’re looking for something fun to do this Christmas I’d definitely recommend a trip to The Mall. Winter Wonderland is open until January 11th. Don’t forget to take some cash with you so you can treat yourself to a crepe or chocolate marshmallow kebab after skating.
Disclosure: We were guests of Winter Wonderland for the afternoon
It turns out that the ONE sport I’m better than my husband at, is ice skating FTW :)