Explore: Winter Wonderland

It's the now annual pop-up festive event that people flock to every Christmas. A beautiful sight? Uh, no. Happy tonight? I guess. Yep, walking in the Winter Wonderland is essentially the lovechild of a dodgy German Christmas market and Blackpool Pleasure Beach. Full of fairground rides that charge a crazy amount of money for otherwise useless tokens, but you know what? People go crazy for it! It must be an overdose of Christmas cheer or something.

My colleagues braved this!

Nice views over Hyde Park I'd imagine

The reason I wanted to visit was for the Bavarian Village. I definitely wasn't disappointed by this enormous Bratwurst I had! Nom.

There was also more places selling mulled wine than I could shake a stick at. That is definitely something I love about Christmas as an adult. When else in the year do you get mulled wine or bucks fizz in the morning? Makes up for not getting a visit from Santa anymore! The Carousel Bar was great, as it actually veeeeeeeery slowly rotated with hobby horses and everything. I can't imagine it's as much fun after you've had a few bevvies though.

The entrance to the Carousel Bar

Full of gimmicks, cheese and tat, this tourist trap is tacky, brash and overpriced. But then that's British Christmas right?! Too many baubles on the tree, everyone wearing crap paper crowns around the dinner table: standard. Winter Wonderland is all of those things + an ice rink. Be prepared to queue, be prepared to be crowded, but the mulled wine will help ease the pain.