Christmas at Butlins

As many of you will know I went to Butlins Bognor Regis for the Tots 100 Xmas party, however, I didn’t just go for the night. We took full advantage and decided to stay for the whole weekend so with Elizabeth’s ok to leave school we headed on our way to Bognor.

Living in Manchester means that Bognor is quite a long way away but it is worth every mile, every traffic jam and every whinge from the back seats because when we arrived the welcome is like nowhere else I have been.

Last year we visited Bognor 3 times prior to this trip, the last one being in September for Alison’s birthday, we know most of the redcoats by name and the girls certainly know all the skyline gang. What we were not expecting is that the redcoats would know us too.

As we left our car in the car park and went to check in we heard someone shout “hey” we turned round to see redcoat Charlotte who recognised the girls straight away and although she struggled with their names (she must see thousands of kids every month) she welcomed them back and stopped to ask us how we were. We are sad to say we did not see her very much on this trip but we certainly enjoyed her as one of the amazing singers in Billy’s Jingle band.

There are many reasons to come to Butlins at any time of the year from the great accommodation (our favourite being the Shoreline hotel) to the huge range of activities but Christmas time had an extra special feel to it.

Fake snow drifted down from the top of the Spar, the trees and gardens featured snow and snowmen and the twinkly lights certainly put me in the mood for Christmas. Butlins changes its schedule at Christmas to include many new shows including Bjorn the Polarbear (which was amazing to watch) and Bjorn’s snowstorm (the kids loved throwing the snowballs). Both Billy Bear and the Skyline gang had special Christmas shows and even the puppet castle had Christmas shows on as well as one of our all-time favourites Under the sea (Shoo Sidney Shoo we’re sharks too!). Each child got the opportunity to visit Santa but my girls don’t really get on with Santa so they collected their gift from the Leisure Hub, the fact that Butlins thinks about this and knows that some children wouldn’t want to see Santa shows a lot of foresight on their parts and I thank you for this, the girls also thank you for the selection boxes which meant they could save their pocket money for other things.

Now as 2012 has started I find myself already planning to return to Bognor for Christmas this year but maybe this time we will be there over Christmas day as I hear it is amazing. I am sure that we will be there between now and then a few times anyway, in fact, I might go and have a look at booking another trip. So whilst I go price up our next visit why not have a look at the photos below which show some of our very special memories.