Madhouse diaries : The festive decorations

Well, it doesn't seem five minutes ago that we were coming out of school, excited about trekking off to visit the family on both sides of the Channel, but it's already time to head back into the classrooms. Where does the time go ?! As they were still open this weekend, we decided to go to the town hall to revisit the Christmas decorations and displays that they'd put up. I think they did a great job !

The whole entrance hall and staircase is decked out with towering Christmas trees, oodles of lights and giant displays hanging from the ceiling. I always think you can never have too much at Christmas, and whoever set up this display obviously shares my sentiment !

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We all oohed and aahed at the white Christmas trees, giant candy canes and gingerbread men welcoming us as we headed up the stairs.

 Heading around the corner, you are confronted with a giant steam train - after rubbing your eyes, you realise that it's just a giant poster, but with the addition of steam, as well as a bench and other decorations to make it look like a railway station platform, you do really feel like it's real ! This leads into a room showing off some miniature train tracks, but they were so busy, I didn't stop to take photos.

Heading through a darkened corridor, we arrived in the reindeer's stables, complete with smiley elves looking after the kooky-looking beasts !

They have great character and really set the scene. Pierre loved sitting on the wooden stools, complete with saddles, too.

No Pierre, you can't be a reindeer !

Next, we found ourselves in a wonderful, wintry landscape, complete with cheeky elves playing and hiding in the Christmas trees !

I love the way they've cleverly used the lighting to make this look so realistic. You could almost imagine you are in a forest in Lapland !

 From here, we headed into the wintry library and crafts area, where younger children could sit at big tables with people dressed at elves, making Christmas cards and reading festive story books.

Following the arrows, we headed into a room with a giant chair and a (fake) crackling wood fire. This is where Father Christmas was sitting in the run up to Christmas, but we'd missed him.

The Big Man in Red may have been long gone, but the Madhouse kids still had fun posing in the photo props !

 The visit was a lovely way to finish off the holidays and take a final chance to wonder at the festive magic.

 Pierre had a different idea of festive magic though, and asked if we could finish off with a trip to the festive fairground, which will be in the town centre until next weekend !