Mini Wonderland MK

As I mentioned in a recent post, Milton Keynes almost had a disastrous Christmas when it's own 'Winter Wonderland' was cancelled on it's second day after stacks of complaints from visitors and parents of upset children who had had their dreams ruined. You can read about it more here, but basically the promised ice rink was a few sheets of plastic, and 'Santa' was a group of young skinny guys who's beards were falling off and who hadn't bothered to do their costumes up properly so their normal clothes were on full view.


Now, I'm not claiming that all residents of Milton Keynes are fantastic - working in a nightclub in the town centre for a year and a half made me dislike a large proportion of them - but there are some residents who deserve more praise than they get. This includes the group of parents who clubbed together to try and save Christmas for the children of MK.

This group has 5 days to organise their unofficial 'Mini Wonderland MK', where they were going to set up a Santa's grotto and free ice skating for anyone who had booked for the Winter Wonderland disaster. They also wanted stalls such as crafts, cake and a raffle to raise money for charity.

MK Ice, a not for profit ice rink in the centre of Milton Keynes gave their space, and honoured the free ice skating, and the group rallied round local businesses, corporate businesses and local residents for donations to help the event happen. The response was crazy, with some corporate businesses donating very large amounts of money, and local businesses donating their trade (one business printed out all the signs on proper board for free, and 50 Christmas trees plus decorations were donated)

I found out about the event over Facebook, and saw they were asking for volunteers. I LOVE Christmas, I love that you walk down the street and you can just feel Christmas in the air, everyone's happy and everything is pretty. To think that some children had had their Christmas ruined by the Winter Wonderland hit a nerve with me so I wanted to volunteer my time.

When I arrived at the ice rink there were stalls up and Christmas trees being decorated and it all looked very festive, and even just this would have been a feat to achieve in the 5 days the group had to plan the event. But this was before you got to Santa's grotto. The grotto was INCREDIBLE. It looked so magical and Christmassy, it was insane that that could have been done by a small group of parents. There was stars and reindeer and trees and proper grotto buildings (even if they were inflatable). I can't describe it well enough, so have a look for yourself:

Most of the things in the grotto had been rented at a reduced price, or donated. The creativity that went into the grotto was amazing and I cannot imagine that even a real planned grotto that parents pay fortunes for their children to visit would be able to match this.

The feedback from the parent and children was fantastic, they all loved it and had nothing but praise for the organisers. We heard stories from families that had been to visit the original MK Wonderland, and those who had booked. One dad said he hadn't told his children they were coming to Mini Wonderland right up until they got here because he couldn't bare for them to be disappointed again.

One thing everyone was saying was how good Santa was. Obviously parents and adults know that the Santa they are visiting is just one of his helpers really, as the real one is busy getting ready for Christmas ;) But after hearing all the praise for this Santa I went in to see him, and I'm pretty sure he's the real one!

He told me how he's from a big family of Santa's who have been doing their job for centuries, he spoke about how difficult it's getting to fly his sleigh now he has to avoid so many commercial flights, and how he's getting frustrated that all children want now are gadgets, they're not happy with simple wooden toys and imagination anymore. I know he is just a man in a costume with a beard, but he really made you believe he was Father Christmas and made it even more magical for the children.

I was so proud to be involved in an event like that which had honestly saved some people's Christmas, and the group of parents who worked non-stop for 5 days to make it happen, and all the volunteers and people who donated are awesome.

If you want to know more about it check out their Facebook page here

Sorry that was a long post but it needed to be said! Hope you all had a great Christmas, I'll hopefully post something soon!

Bucks x

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