Winter – a difficult season to be opened for the public – has led to a new creation; holiday events. Increasingly, European parks are open year-round. The non-stop daily operations forces to find solutions to challenges such as yearly maintenance, the malfunctioning of elements at cold temperatures, and the decrease in guests due to weather conditions. Holiday events are certainly no new invention, but are organised more frequently to cope with the difficulties and to offer a different product. The atmosphere is created by wintry decorations and shows, transforming the parks with Christmas scenes.

Why would guests spend the holidays in a theme park? It provides all that is necessary! People spend time together with family or friends, can enjoy the entertainment and make usage of a parks’ dining options. Besides that, a unique experience is provided. The majority of cities have a sort of winterland, but almost none of these can offer a complete full-day experience as a theme park – an attraction park, zoo or family entertainment centre – does.

Which parks participate in the organisation of holiday/ winter events? ATPM has visited to the Phantasialand WinterTraum, as it is the ‘yearly tradition’ (click the link to read more about that). The list is long, but the largest parks in neighbouring countires do the following events: Christmas event in Disneyland Paris, Winter in Europa-Park, ‘WinterEfteling’, ‘WinterPlopsaland’ and of course ‘Phantasialand WinterTraum’. Perhaps you should consider visiting once to really experience winter? Enough choice!