Expect somthing rather different at Tatton Park this Christmas with a glittering Christmas light trail that blends lanterns, light installations and magical foklore.

Hosted by Tatton Park, Yuletide is a unique trail that has been created by Wild Rumpus. A not for profit arts organisation in East Cheshire, they’re the ones behind the Just So Festival and 6 years of the Chester Zoo Lantern Festival so you’re in experienced hands.

Yuletide 2024 at Tatton Park Review

Glittering Trail at Tatton Park

The glitering Yuletide adventure started as soon as you stepped inside the walled gardens. The world of folklore, festive traditions, and rituals came to life with colourful characters and creatures everywhere.

Roasting marshmallows around the campfire while listening to enchanted stories told of festive folklore. Enjoy live music inside a tipi tent and fire juggling shows before embarking on the adventure that is The Glittering Trail.

This is not your classic Christmas trail. You won’t find “rocking around the christmas tree” music playing as you wander around the festivities, it’smagical folk music that changes the mood completely. It’s still magical but in a totally different way. Like you’ve been transported to a different world or time.

Setting off on the trail, we instantly fell under the spell of Yuletide and were totally blown away with the first glimps of the Rainbow Bridge installation. The main long path up the gardens to the momument was filled with beams of rainbow light, which was stunning.

We met Jolbuck the goat, where the girls stired his imaginary porridge, and when he was fed, he shook his head, making his bells jingle in enjoyment. Further along the path, we spotted the sun queen, dancing in the moonlight.

The Japanese Garden, one of the most striking parts of the garden, was normally covered by a blanket of red. The lights picked up the detail of the ornante bridge and pagoda perfectly.

One of our favourite characters was the Ursa Major bear and baby Ursa Minor bear. These puppet creatures glowed in the darkness and had such delecate movements that you almost forgot they were being controlled by a puppeteer. Every twist and turn in this magical garden brought with it something entirely new and unexpected.

Yuletide Gathering

Anyone familiar with JustSo festival will know how good the campfire stories are. Ian Douglas stands at the front of a circle of benches filled with an excited audience, he in his element at Yuletide delivering his tales with the usual mixture of wonder, mischief and wisdom. The story times are on and off during the evening so you sort of have to time that well to catch the start and to get a seat.

After that, we huddled around the glow of the firepit and the girls stretched their arms with sticks loaded with marshmallows. The fire licked at them, making them bubble and start to burn.

Inside the garden there were hot drinks, sweet treats of waffles and dutch pancakes, mulled wine and hot toddies. Outside the gardens you could get savoury hot food including loaded fries and pizza. I wished there were a few more food stalls in general as the queues were quite long due to it being busy. And having to queue in the coffee line to just get marshmallows was a shame.

Top Tips

• The fire juggling is on for 20 minutes each hour so you can watch this before or after you do the trail.
• The trail is about 1km and a circular loop. The trail is flat and suitable for pushchairs and wheelchairs.
• The book about Yuletide is available from the box office for £10. We didn’t get the book and we were still able to enjoy the trail. It would make a nice keepsake though.
• There are hot drinks, marshmallows, a small bar plus waffles and Dutch mini pancakes avialable in the gardens.  If you want savoury food this is just outside the gardens, in the stable yard. Here you can get pizzas and loaded fries.
• You would easily spend a few hours at Yuletide so dress appropriately. Wrap up warm.
• The only toilets are back out of the gardens in the stable yard. You are given a stamp on your hand so you can come and go during your time.

Winter Solstice

There will be a special event on Friday 22nd December for the Winter Solstice. With more whirling music, a torchlit procession, and extra performance, on the day when the sun stands still and we start to look towards Spring.

Find all the best Christmas events in Cheshire 2023