Last Updated on 15 November 2024 by Colette
This post features a gifted experience & affiliate links
Christmas at Dunham Massey has been on my radar for a long time – but isn’t somewhere we’d ever got round to visiting before now – partly due to always having such a busy festive schedule ourselves and partly due to the fact that the light trail at Dunham Massey regularly sells out pretty early in the season!
Tickets for Christmas at Dunham Massey 2024 are available now – please note the tips in this post are from Christmas 2021 and don’t take into account any changes to lay out for the coming year! You can read our 2024 review here!
Christmas at Dunham Massey is a family-friendly mile long light trail which, now in it’s fifth year, has become a festive family tradition for many. A combination of music, lasers and stunning light installations guide you through the woodland – there’s light tunnels to walk through, shimmering snowflakes and disco balls, neon string and lasers (not even kidding), lights reflecting on the water and flickering flames in the fire garden (I could have stood and watched those for hours!).
We were lucky enough to visit Christmas at Dunham Massey in the snow which really added something very special to the experience – Amy actually thought that Dunham Massey had planned the snow . . . it was absolutely magical and definitely felt like the best possible start to our festive season!
There are plenty of options for food at Dunham Massey, most of these are before you start the trail itself where you’ll find wood fire pizza, gourmet hot dogs, churros and of course mulled wine! (We didn’t try any of the food and drink on offer as we’d packed flasks of hot drinks and food to eat in the car after!)
As you go around the light trail, you’ll find smaller food stalls where you can buy hot drinks, crepes and pretzels. About half way round the trail, you’ll find a clearing with several raised fire pits where you can toast your own marshmallows – these cost £1.50 each and were a fantastic treat. Definitely the poshest marshmallows I’ve ever eaten – the kids loved them so much they all bought themselves a second one. (Props to the lady I saw who had just brought her own bag of standard marshmallows and some wooden skewers – she told me her daughter didn’t even like them so there was no point spending a fortune on posh candyfloss flavoured ones!)
This year, Christmas at Dunham Massey runs from Friday 19th November 2021 to Sunday 2nd January 2022. Tickets for the 2022 Dunham Massey light trail are on sale now!
Tips for getting the best from your Christmas at Dunham Massey experience
Book the earliest slot you can – it will be plenty dark enough but there won’t be loads of people ahead of you on the trail so you’ll get great photo opportunities and plenty of space at the fire pits. (You’ll also be home for bedtime – which is a win if you’re going on a school night like we did!)
Dress for the weather – this is a fully outdoor adventure and you don’t want to let the weather spoil it! We wore sturdy walking boots and lots of layers for our visit and were all perfectly comfortable despite the snow!
You are advised to take a torch – I can only imagine this is in case of any light failure as we certainly didn’t need one – everywhere is well lit either by the displays themselves or additional lighting on the footpaths.
Use postcode WA14 4SJ for your sat nav or if you’re using Google Maps then just pop in “Dunham Massey” and you’ll get to the right place.
Don’t worry about printing your tickets – you just need them downloaded on your phone so that the QR codes can be scanned. (Your car parking pass will be checked before you are directed into the car park, the tickets for the light trail itself are checked much later on as you go through the two enormous reindeer that mark the start of the trail itself.
Don’t forget your National Trust membership card if you’ve booked membership parking / tickets – you may be asked to show this.
The time slots are carefully staggered to allow a steady flow of people through the trail (and also to manage the car parks) so don’t turn up more than 20 minutes before your timeslot.
The trail itself is about a mile long operates on a one way system spitting you out back near the car park – so once you’ve done the trail, you can’t go back and see anything again – for this reason I recommend really taking your time and taking in everything on your way round! (The whole experience took us between an hour and an hour and a half – but we didn’t buy any food or go on any rides so this would obviously add to the timing.)
Take the kids to the toilet before you set off on the trail – you can’t get back to them later (although there are some portaloos at the exit).
The main food and drink stalls are all set up before the trail and you can’t get back to these once you’ve passed them however there are a number of smaller food and drink stalls around the trail. If you’re planning to eat while you’re at Dunham Massey, you probably want to do this before entering the trail itself.
Before you join the trail, there’s a selection of funfair rides – these are paid for with ride tokens (£2.50 each) which must be paid for by card. (We nicely swerved the rides by telling the kids they were welcome to go on them but had to pay for them themselves – they quickly decided it wasn’t worth spending their money on!) Because of the one way system I mentioned, once you’ve passed the funfair rides, you can’t go back to them so don’t promise a ride “at the end” or “later” like I usually would because it won’t happen!
Try the marshmallows – they are are such a lovely treat and definitely something my kids will remember from this Christmas adventure!
Why not read these posts next:
Festive days out in Manchester
Where to go ice skating in Manchester this Christmas
The best places to visit Father Christmas in Manchester
Festive light trails near Manchester
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The trail ends back at the food stalls and fair not the car park. It is very easy to visit the rides and eat afterwards, dont be mislead by this inaccurate review
Thanks for letting me know – this review and tips is based on our visit Christmas 2021 so I’m pleased to hear they’ve changed that.