'It promised a ‘fully immersive’ Christmas experience, with reindeer, a festive market and, of course, Santa’s grotto. But visitors to Yorkshire’s Magical Winterland found it to be far from magical and barely wintry. Children were left in tears as they entered a desolate warehouse with cardboard boxes and random material strewn all over the ground. Magical Winterland only opened its doors on Wednesday, but was forced to pack up just 24 hours later due to its "appalling" quality.
'The Yorkshire Magical Winterland, set up at the Great Yorkshire Showground, advertised the event as having "fantastic features" and offered visitors the chance to "focus on losing yourself in our Magical Winterland". But the grim reality of the Christmas-themed event was that of rubbish-strewn hallways, poorly-constructed exhibitions and sombre-looking reindeer surrounded by a sprinkling of straw.
'Hundreds of messages were posted on the Magical Winterland's Facebook page after it opened. All complained about the price of admission - the top price for a child is £22.50 - and accused the management of misleading the public. Matt Freeman wrote: "I could have cobbled something together better than this in my own back garden for half the cost."
'"Something didn't feel right," wrote Beryl Mansfield. "Perhaps it was the thick white paint that rubbed off the festive polar bear fountain and all over our clothes. Or the rictus-like grins of the shivering elves in their cheap velour outfits. It was a spectacular disaster of smoking elves, sweary Santas, smelly mud, piles of rubbish and sacks of fake snow dumped on wooden pallets by the main entrance."
Families were left stumped by many of the exhibitions in the winter walk, saying it was unclear what the scenes were supposed to represent
'Kat Manson, from Skipton, West Yorks, who booked to take her niece Evie to the event, said: "We've had a family ticket booked for a long time for this special event. The journey there was full of excitement and wonder, Evie was going meet Santa! We checked the website this morning to see what we were going to be doing but there was no mention of any closure. We were all excited. We arrived at a near empty car park and a lonely car park attendant ushered us into a car parking space without saying a word. We were met at the desk by two female staff who said sorry we are closed. They explained that our tickets were valid for the other days but so many people had complained that it was a waste of money that they were closed. How were we supposed to explain to a four year old girl that she couldn't see Santa after all. She was devastated. She thinks Santa didn't want to see her."
Parents complained about the creepy-looked mannequins and statues of an ice queen and one which looked like an attempt at the Grinch
'Mother-of-one Suzie Smith, of Barnsley, South Yorkshire, who brought her daughter Heidi, two, to the attraction, said: “I had a vision in my head of a really magical place for kids to come before Christmas but to be honest it’s just a bit depressing. The area is too big and they haven’t been able to fill it. It’s been advertised as a magical place to come and it just isn’t."
'There were multiple reports that the attraction's multiple Father Christmases (five were spotted by some confused children) were alternately too gruff, too skinny or smelt of booze. One elf reportedly told a guest to ‘have a s*** Christmas’. The presents they gave out were cheap, plastic and unwrapped. And then there was the "snow".
'"Mummy, this isn’t snow. It’s strange," said one child within earshot of this reporter. He was pointing at what looked like dirty papier-mache spread greyly across the mud outside the front entrance. "It looks like paper. I think it’s litter. It looks like litter. It’s stuck to my boot. Mummy, get it off!"
There was a three-hour wait to visit Santa, who was guarded by another pair of elves who were reportedly Incapable of answering basic questions about the event
'Mother-of-one Laura Bamforth, who is also 30-weeks pregnant, from Pontefract, West Yorkshire, said: "We spent a total of 20 minutes in the building and we were totally appalled with the entire event. The event itself was nothing more than a fairground. The rides was overpriced and the so-called Christmas market was a total of four stalls. When leaving the event feeling very let down we told the staff on reception who also was very rude and never tried to apologise. I would like a refund for all the money I have spent."
'One family from Solihull spent £85 on tickets for three adults and two toddlers. "It was even worse than I had read in the newspaper," said the mother of the family Karen Brosius, 32. "The elves’ smiles were so fixed it was scary. It was as if they had never seen a child before — they didn’t have a clue."
The festive nine hole golf course promised 'twinkling Christmas lights, fantastic gifts to overcome and even Santa Claus himself'
'After nearly three hours — a good half of it spent waiting about and looking vainly in the stalls for something decent to buy — this reporter had had enough. As had a young boy near me. "Can we go home now?" he asked his father. "I thought there was going to be snow. But there isn’t — it’s just that strange grey stuff." And when his father asked him what had been his favorite part of the Magical Winterland, perhaps Father Christmas, or the merry-go-round or the Fairy Queen, or even the two live reindeer? "Splashing in puddles in the car park," he said.'-- collaged
It is with great regret that we have decided to close Yorkshire’s Magical Winterland at the Yorkshire Event Centre in Harrogate permanently from tonight. We worked very hard to create a family event and have received some positive feedback but also some adverse publicity. We plan to refund anyone who bought tickets in advance and can be contacted at info@yorkshiresmagicalwinterland.co.uk
*
p.s. Hey. ** Chilly Jay Chill, Hi, Jeff. Thanks re: the post. No, as far as I can remember this morning, I don't know that Saul Bass film at all. Wow, cool, I'll see if I can track it down. Thank you a lot for alerting me. I just saw that there's a new Stewart Home novel yesterday. And you're the news anchor about the new English language Guyotat. Wow! I know, both are total musts. Of course I'd really, really like to read your new novel stuff. A wait is okay, though, because I'm going to be out of commission regarding almost everything for the next month at least, I fear. The editing goes well, very intensively. Whatever happens, I think we'll be pretty headfirst continually into the editing for quite a while. I'll have a several day break around Xmas when Zac goes off for family holiday thing. If the Berlin Film Festival wants the film, it'll be intense because that means the film would need to be completely finished by late January including at least two weeks of post-production work in Berlin. If they don't want it, we're going to try to finish in January anyway. A lot of work to do, a lot. ** David Ehrenstein, Hi, sir. So nice that you knows Ms. Laurie, and that she's as great a person as she would seem to be. She's wonderful in her interviews. ** Kier, Hi! Yes, well, you were yet again the trigger and inspiration re: the Piper Laurie post due to your mention of her in 'The Faculty', so that post owes you a ton. Bardufoss photos! And film? Link(s) would be awesome. Yesterday was our longest editing work day yet. We started on Scene 4. We always knew it would be a tough one because we shot 24 hours of footage for that scene, and it took us all day and into the later night yesterday just to go through all of that and begin to pick out shots and moments and things that we liked a lot and that could work. It's going to be the toughest scene to get right. Its narrative is quite complex, and we made so many changes to the scene just before shooting and during the shooting that the scene has become a big mess, or I mean a mess relative to what we had originally planned for it to be. So we need to kind of reinvent the scene in the editing, and we're not sure about the best way to do that yet. It took so long to go through the footage that we only barely began to lay out an extremely rough cut at about 9 pm last night. Hopefully, we'll have a solid draft by this afternoon, and a plan in motion by tonight. The good thing, or one of the good things, is that the scene, which was mostly shot outdoors in a small town and a forest in Northern France, looks amazing and beautiful visually. Anyway, that was complete entirety of my day, and today will be more of the exact same, but hopefully we'll have figured out a clear route forward by tonight. Oh, and the only other thing that happened yesterday is that my eBook-like, non-novel-like new novel got officially announced, here and elsewhere, if anyone cares. Okay, I'll be stepping onto the metro very shortly on my way to the editing room, and what will you be doing very shortly, or, rather, what did you do very shortly and what was the end result of that come the fall of night? ** Damien Ark, Hi, Damien! I love when something that seems like it'll be short reveals itself as the basis and piece of a possible novel, don't you? That's exciting, man. I don't ... think I know Sion Sono. Hm. If you want to do a post about him and his stuff, I would fall to my knees or something, or I could try to do one from my total ignoramus pov. ** Steevee, Hi. I think some counter-hacker group would have to offer a million dollars or, I don't know, immortality, to anyone who actually goes to see 'The Interview' to get me to see it. It just seems like the epitome of what I have no interest in seeing. But if you see it, let me know if I'm just being a hard-ass. Really, you think film journals/mags would be too squeamish or something re: that piece you were interested in writing? It sounds pretty interesting in theory. ** Robert-nyc, Hi, Robert. She kind of really rules. PL, I think. Thanks about my lists. If you do yours, do tell us where. I'm glad you said hello, man. Hello! ** _Black_Acrylic, Hi, Ben. Well, this post today would never have been a thing of any thingness without you. I fear you've probably already read and seen the all the stuff in the post. I scoured, and I think I found everything lurking in the corners. I hope. Ooh, 'the break out' area sounds very exciting. What is it, and how it get that kind of explosive name? ** Keaton, Hard Rock nachos are peculiarly amazing. Most of the time. Sometimes they have a rushed quality about them. But I think they would die before they could be delivered. Just a guess. I think their lifespan is maybe 15 minutes. We got the Pierre Herme buche. But it will not be my final buche. I'm studying the candidates and making my decision on #2 as we speak. Ha ha, startling and awesome: your Xmas narrative, and weird too 'cos Santa is a character in the novel I'm writing. Although he behaves slightly differently in mine, ha ha. Thank you for the glory, buddy! ** Sypha, Hi. Yeah, I'll take your word for it on the Minaj album. Cool about the review! Everyone, Sypha gives his no doubt masterful opinion on the David Cronenberg novel 'Consumed' on goodreads, and you can read it. Best of luck on the long Xmas shifts. Man oh man. ** Bill, Inscrutable, me? Cool. ** Misanthrope, You forgot to put in the link, ha ha. Okay, see, while your enthusiastic writing about this basketball stuff is quite a joy to read in and of itself, you've entered territory whose foreignness glazes my eyes. Interesting mixed experience, in other words. Ultimately a very positive one. ** Okay. Today you get to see how one attempt to create a simulacrum of Xmas at its best on earth went horribly wrong. I love this kind of stuff, and I'm gambling that some of you might too. Basically. See you tomorrow.