I love reading blogger’s weekend recaps, but I don’t do a ton of them because I don’t always have much to share – or if I did do something, I just make an individual post for it. However, this past Saturday, I did a couple Christmas related activities an I figured I’d share it all in one post for you!
My Christmas Weekend of Fun at King's Island's WinterFest #kingsisland #ontheblog Click To TweetFirst up, Regal Cinemas is showing a Christmas movie every Saturday this month for only $5. I was going to go with a friend, but she got sick so my mom and I went instead. The movie was National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation. I’d never seen the movie, but I heard it was really funny, so I figured this would be a fun way to see it. While I liked it better than the first movie – and hey, little Johnny Galecki – I didn’t really love it.
It had funny moments but some of the things that bugged me about the other National Lampoon movie still bugged me in this one. There’s the whole killing off animals, in what is supposed to be comedy I guess? I don’t know, but I don’t like it. Also, the character of Clark is always ogling women and pretending he doesn’t actually have a wife…and again, not cool. At any rate, I think the whole premise of a Christmas movie every Saturday in an actual theater is really fun.
If you remember, I said I wanted to go to King’s Island WinterFest on my Fall Bucket List (it’s on my Winter Bucket List too) and I was able to do just that Saturday evening. King’s Island is an amusement park in Mason, Ohio, and my family and I have season passes. WinterFest used to exist at KI, but it hasn’t been around for 12 years, so I was so excited to learn that it was finally back. My mom, sister, and I went this weekend and we all had a great time.
The park was open from 4-10 and we got there around 4.30 and ended up staying until right around 10. We hadn’t planned on staying all night, but were having a great time and there is plenty to see and do (and eat!)
We randomly walked around, checking out the lights and taking pictures until 5.30 when they had the lighting ceremony. There was singing and then the Eiffel Tower’s lights turned on, which were really cool looking. They turned different colors – and had some fun patterns- staying on all night.
There was a whole area called Candy Cane lane with all sorts of fun places to take pictures, like a Gingerbread house and chair, a couple gingerbread families, and some life-size lollipops.
After exploring and the opening ceremony, we went and grabbed food in the main food hall (if you’ve been to King’s Island, you know what I mean). They had normal offerings like pizza and Panda Express, but where you get the pizza, they were also selling turkey, ham, green beans, mashed potatoes, and pie. We all went with the ham and it was pretty good. There was a show going on here too, happening every hour I believe. It seemed cute – especially for the kids – but we came in at the end.
We spent a lot of time exploring the park and checking out what they had Christmas-fied. My sister and I did the Snowglobe photo op (it’s free), and we were thinking of doing “sledding” (they were right by each other) but the line was so long, we opted out of that. There was a food truck that was selling caramel hot apple cider, and my mom and sister both got one. Other food was S’mores Donuts from Tom and Chee, a local restaurant. They have some amazing grilled cheese donuts too, by the way. The s’mores were yummy though! If you’re going, you can find Tom and Chee located in the kid’s area.
After this, we finally found the Cinnamon Pull Apart Bread that the website had mentioned. Most of the shops/restaurants had new names for WinterFest, which was fun, but they didn’t tell us where to find everything, except on a map that was a bit hard to read and only found online. At any rate, if you’re going, it’s right next to the Yogurt shop (to the left of it). Omg, this pull apart bread was amazing and so worth the money. It was essentially a loaf of what tastes like a cinnamon roll. We all shared this, and highly enjoyed it!
The only other thing I “ate” was a Blue Hot Chocolate. Now, if you know me, I don’t really like warm drinks but I’d heard that KI’s famous blue ice cream was being turned into hot chocolate and I had to try it. You can find it at Graeter’s (and you can get other types of hot chocolate there too), and once it had cooled a bit, I really enjoyed it. It wasn’t my most favorite thing in the world, but not too bad!
While most of the shows and sing-alongs were somewhere outside, there was one in the King’s Island Theater and I had to see this one since I love the Peanuts gang so much. Charlie Brown’s Christmas Spectacular is a fun show and definitely good for kids, or kids at heart like me!
After the Charlie Brown show, the final thing that I did was go to Mrs. Claus’ Kitchen (near the Eiffel Tower) where for $14, you get 4 large sugar cookies that you can decorate with icing and fun sprinkles. I did this by myself, but I did end up sharing my table with two teens later on so that was fun. It wasn’t just families with little kids, so have fun if you go! It doesn’t matter what age you are. Plus, the cookies are amazing! Seriously!!
While I decorated my cookies, my mom and sister went to the Artisan Village (where little “houses” were set up for people to sell homemade goods- it’s around the Eiffel Tower) and they got some dip mixes they had been tasting earlier in the evening. My sister had also gotten a hat around the time we got there and it’s super cute! Definitely some fun items for sale, and I like the idea of letting local people come in and share their goods!
And that’s about it! Whew, I know it was a bit of a long recap, but hopefully you enjoyed it. I don’t know if I’ll have time to do WinterFest again this year, but if you live nearby, it’s worth it! Find the activities here, food here, and shows here.
A very Christmas-y weekend indeed! What did you get up to this past weekend?
Sounds like you had an amazing weekend.
That picture inside the snowglobe is so cool and decorating those sugar cookies must have been so much fun.
Looks like a wonderful place to visit with so much to do! Glad you enjoyed yourself.
Oh gosh Lauren, you’re all rugged up like Eskimos, it must have been freezing! It looks beautiful there and I love that they’ve also provided free activities too because an entire day / night can end up being quite expensive. I love handmade marketplaces, I would have been in my element. So glad you all had a great time and thanks for sharing <3
It looks like you had a great weekend that really put you in the Christmas spirit. Those sugar cookies look delicious too!
What fun pictures! This looks like it was a blast, thanks so much for sharing them and I’m glad you had a nice time!
What a fun and festive weekend!
It sounds like Winterfest was a lot of fun! I vaguely remember going when it existed years ago! Glad you had a great weekend.
Ok Winterfest looks like so much fun!! I totally want that gingerbread cookie.
I’m not going to lie, this post made me incredibly jealous! I grew up in Cincy so KI was a staple in my life growing up but I never got to to to Winterfest! It looks like such a blast!
Going to Winterfest when there was snow on the ground was perfect – it looks like it was a lot of fun!
That sounds like such a fun event! I am trying to wrap my mind around what a grilled cheese donut would be like, I have never seen one.
That sounds like a blast! I wish we had something like that here. I’m drooling over the thought of that pull-apart bread too, yum! It’s so funny, I love Christmas Vacation but never really thought much about the things you pointed out, but you’re right, Clark is kind of a jerk.
Looks like a super fun weekend! Glad you had such a great time!
Christmas Vacation is one of KC’s family’s favorites. I don’t really love it either. It is finally LESS annoying to me.. but yeah. I think it bugs me because everyone is kind of an a-hole, and Clark wants to do nice things for his family… but it gets ruined at every turn. That being said, he is kind of a douche bag. I hate that part at the lingerie counter. Gross. All the animal stuff isn’t my favorite either. Whomp Whomp. But I agree that seeing movies in theaters is fun, especially if they aren’t new! The winterfest looks like such a blast!! I love the photos, so impressive! I’d like to go see pretty lights someday soon! 🙂 XO – Alexandra
Simply Alexandra: My Favorite Things
The Winterfest event looks like so much fun! I love all the lights and the cookies look so yummy! I also think it’s cool that Regal has a holiday movie every weekend. I like Christmas Vacation but I don’t love it. I did watch it once already this year though.
Wow, that looks like so much fun!! My local amusement park (Kennywood) has a lights festival and I’ve never been. I don’t think it’s anything like your Winterfest though!!
My family has a tradition of watching Christmas Vacation on Christmas Eve. I love it because of our tradition but if I saw it for the first time now I don’t know that I would love it. Except for baby Johnny Galecki of course!
King’s Island WinterFest looks chilly, but a lot of fun, too! $5 movies? That’s the deal of the season.
I’m a newbie to Grater’s ice cream since I just recently moved out here, but OH MY GOSH IS IT GOOD. That hot chocolate must be heavenly.
This looks like the picture-perfect weekend to me. I love all things Christmas!
Yay for loving Graeter’s; it’s so yummy.
It looks like you guys had lots of fun! Love that you get snow for Winterfest. We haven’t been to any of the holiday celebrations around town just yet. We will get to one or 2 this weekend though! Hubbys family always watches Christmas Vacation and I just saw the whole thing for the first time a few years ago. I thought it was funny but not as funny as they did. lol
What a fun way to get into the spirit of the holidays! The decorations look so festive and pretty!
I have to be honest with you, and all of the Lampoon stories have some funny moments, but they mostly seem too sexist for me. I watched them as a kid, but take a hard pass at my old age. I would have much rather been hanging out with you at King’s Island! lol Just sounds like tons of fun, fun, fun! Hugs…RO
OH yeah, it’s really sexist! LOL
I love National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, but I think it’s mostly because it was one of two movies my great aunt had at her house. I wonder how much I’d like it if I watched it for the first time now.
I need to make my way to a regal cinemas to see their $5 movies! xo, Biana –BlovedBoston
What a fun filled weekend you had! Despite LOVING Christmas, I don’t love many Christmas movies, but the National Lampoon’s ones are such classics! I’ll have to see if I can pick them up this year.
Indya || The Small Adventurer
Sounds like it was a fun weekend!
I think our theater is doing something similar to where we can see a Christmas movie once a week, I need to look… because, maybe it is something I can do with the kids since they get out of school next week for 2 weeks! We have a theme park here (Six Flags), but I have yet to go for their winter fest. I need to!
Carrie
curlycraftymom.com
oh yes, definitely check out the movies if you have them! It’s a fun outing!
You have snow! We are finally in the low 70’s and that is at least making it feel a little like Christmas 🙂 What a fun time you had. Thanks for sharing you adventures with us!
Winterfest sounds really cool! Our theaters are showing Christmas movies for cheap too during the holidays. We saw It’s a Wonderful Life last week and loved seeing it on the big screen.
The Christmas movies at the theater sounds fun but I’ve never been a big fan of the National Lampoon movies. That kind of slapstick humor that Chevy Chase is known for just does nothing for me. I think I’d be all over that blue hot chocolate. I mean, hot chocolate made from ice cream? Yes please! 🙂
Oh how fun! That looks like a great way to spend an evening 🙂 Our theater here does movies and I’m hoping to get in to see one of them, too 🙂