Recommended by Emma with children ages 2 and 5 on Sun Dec 22 2019

Christmas at Temple Newsam estate includes the beautiful house and farm all decorated and loads of hands on activities and festive touches! The house is decorated for Christmas and also includes The Temple Newsam Quest which involves finding items throughout the house, not that easy as they are not in order ha ha! There are also loads of activities taking place. There is a lady reading stories and there were carol singers in the main hall -so lovely and definitely got us in the festive mood! There was also a simple elf craft in the main hall with all the pieces you need to make the elf well laid out and organised. There were also loads of activities throughout the house, including dressing as an elf for an elfie, board games, drawing your own Christmas dinner, puppet shows, jigsaws, adding special messages to a thoughtful tree (lovely idea!) -so many lovely activities for the children to join in with! There were plenty of staff available throughout the house to help with the activities too. You can also see Santa in the house- prebooked only as it is extremely popular! We spent a long time in the house, listening to music, doing the quest and all the crafts and activities! The farm is also decorated for Christmas and has some lovely Christmas crafts for the children to do- my two and just 5 year old managed all the crafts, had to drag the 5 year old away! You can make clay shapes and decorate them and also a Christmas wreath-grab a wreath shape and some branches and fasten them all together to make a wreath! You can also add bows, ribbons, fruit...... They look really good and this was very popular! Both these crafts are excellent, and free too. The farm is all fully open as usual with the various decorated farm buildings featuring farm machinery and animals. You can also walk down through the farm to the play area, the farm is so much bigger than you may initially think! We particularly liked seeing all the impressive cows in their sheds for the Winter. Entrance tickets to the house and farm are purchased in the shop within the courtyard area. The courtyard also contains the cafe, there is a special festive menu alongside the usual menu. The food is fresh, tasty and the Christmas cranberry scones were amazing! Temple Newsam is such a huge place to visit, if you have time after all this there is a walled garden to visit, lakes to stroll around and vast expanses of grounds to roam and explore. We enjoyed a brilliant full day out with so many activities to take part in, excellent value!

Recommended by Jenny Cooper with children age 4 on Mon Dec 09 2019

We were lucky enough to visit Temple Newsam for their Christmas event (including a trip to santa!) - it was an amazing event! You get access to the house and stables and then santa is an extra £5 - so so worth it! We visited on the first day of santa visits and arrived early to visit the stables where staff were hosting FREE christmas wreath making (the only charges were for extra decorations like cinnamon sticks, orange pieces and acorns which were 50p each or for 2 so an absolute bargain!). We were also able to join in clay modelling for free where the little man made a chrismtas table decoration which was lovely. The animals were all nice and lively whilst we were there with lots of new baby animals to see! We also took a stroll around some of the grounds where we were able to play on the play areas and have a quick look at the Go Ape which is now on site too. Santa was AMAZING! You get allocated a time slot with a number of other families however you get taken to see santa individually. This meant that Santa was running a little late however it was totally worth it. We were taken out of the North Pole and through to the elves workshop where we were told about and shown the naughty and nice list and the present wrapping station. Then we were taken through to a gorgeously impressive large room where santa was sat in front of a chrismtas tree. He knew our little boys name on entering which was just magical (you write it on your ticket for him before hand). Then he really spent time to speak to our little boy and ask him what he wanted for Christmas (making no promises he would get it - a rollercoaster no less!) And then he gave us a little present to take away and posed for lots of pictures for us. It was such a fab experience and the staff couldn't do enough- they were amazing! There was also a live choir whilst we were there singing christmas Carol's in the main hall. You could spend so much time here, theres so much going on! We also treated ourselves to some cake in the cafe which was expensive but nice. Overall a fabulous day and we cant wait to to back!

Recommended by Kylie with children ages 10 and 6 on Wed Nov 06 2019

We went to the 'Spooky Spooktacular' at Temple Newsam on Halloween. The kids had moaned beforehand because they were missing out trick or treating at home but they soon changed their mind and have already pestered to visit again next year! It was fantastic! I've never been to (or even heard of!) a haunted house that was suitable for families- it is such a great idea so that kids can join in with the scares too. It was a just the right sort of scary for Halloween without being too terrifying! The live actors were great and made conversations when some of the children were scared. I absolutely take my hat off to them- I couldn't have stayed so still and in character for so long! One lady was even upside down on the stairs! The setting was brilliant, the whole house had been decorated for Halloween (although I couldn't help but wonder how they would get all of the cobwebs off the antiques the day after!) and the kids loved being able to pick a 'treat' from the skeleton at the end of the house. The farm is also open too, seeing the animals ready to celebrate Halloween was a unique experience! Actors were walking around the farm again, giving the odd scare but again, everything was family friendly. There were crafts in the barn to take part in- complete with witches to help and give instructions! The littlest loved this! We stopped off at the cafe before heading home, the kids picked up a halloween themed cake and I had a coffee, but there were hot meals and pastries available too. The Halloween event was something unique that we had never experienced before, but we loved it and will definitely be keen to visit again next year!

Recommended by Emma with children ages 2 and 4 on Mon Oct 28 2019

Halloween at Temple Newsam includes the farm all dressed for Halloween and big bugs in the house! We have never been to Temple Newsam and even without the Halloween events- what a place! Our visit was on a sunny autumn day and the colours of all the long avenues of trees was just breathtaking. The grounds are just immense and so beautiful, especially this time of year. In addition to the house and farm there is a walled garden, lake, rolling lawns and even a Go Ape. Within the house for Halloween it is all about “Creepy Crawlies” and how to look for them yourself. You can also make a minibeast craft to take home too. The farm is decorated for Halloween with giant cobwebs, spiders, skeletons and other spooky stuff in all the farm buildings. My particular favourite was the sawn off body parts in the saw mill! There is also a lovely craft activity to make a spooky witches hat when we visited. You are able to roam around the farm amongst the animals and the spooky farm rooms which is nice as you can do it at your own pace and the children’s enjoyment. The farm is in lovely traditional old brick farm buildings and it is bigger than I had imagined. There are further animals through the farm yard as you walk down hill and towards a small but nice wooden play area. There is also a little tractor ride on area near the cows-very popular with our little guy. Near to the farm there is a courtyard with reception, cafe and toilets, check opening times on line as not everything is open every day. The cafe is lovely inside but popular and busy. The food was great and there are children’s meal options available too. I saw the burgers and think it might have to be a burger next time! As well as the entrance fee you do have to pay for parking too (£4.20 on our visit). We had a lovely day and I would love to return to Temple Newsam and explore the full extent of the grounds, it is really vast and very beautiful!