The other night, my family and I went to the Aurora Winter Festival at Ontario Place. The boys LOVED it so I thought I'd share our visit since it's new to our city in case anyone wanted to check it out!
When you first enter, you walk through their outdoor Christmas market with booths similar to the Toronto Christmas market at the Distillery District. We bought Nicholas a $5 foam wand that lights up from the official Aurora Winter Festival merch booth which I highly recommend! The boys loved it, and for $5 I can't complain.
Our first stop was visiting Santa in his big igloo dome. Santa and his elves performed a little story time act and played some interactive games with the kids. Side note: There's no sitting on laps or picture taking with this Santa. It's more like a little show rather than the kids visiting with Santa. I didn't get any photos of it, but I've posted a video at the end of this post that has a quick shot of us in Santa's Workshop.
Next we went to check out the Mystical Worlds. This was our favourite part, with all the lights and different areas, it really was magical and to see the kids face light up was the best part.
Each section has a different theme. Also if you download the app, you can participate in a quest where you have to find and scan the codes found amongst all the displays. Find all 8 and you get a prize (Don't tell the kids, but it's just a glow stick, still fun regardless). It took us a while to find the prize booth, so if you're looking for it, it's at the south side exit of the Mystical Worlds.
All the staff were dressed up in characters and were all enthusiastic and super friendly.
There were also a bunch of rides including a carousel, Ferris wheel, tube slide, and train. Each ride requires a token and we purchased 10 tokens for $20. The train had a little mishap when we were there so it was out of order, but we took a ride on the carousel and I went with Nicholas on the Ferris wheel. We got a great view of the city skyline and the CN tower from the top!
The festival also had a pretty ice skating rink, and behind it was an entertainment tent (which we didn't check out). There was also a few bars serving alcohol spread across the park, which we'll take advantage of if we go without kids!
I was worried it would be too cold being at night and so close to the water, but honestly we were all just fine with our layers. It's the first year the Aurora Winter Festival is here in Toronto, so I was curious to check it out and see what it's all about. I know we'll be back next year - definitely a holiday activity for the family I highly recommend!
Here's what I shared on Instagram that night! Watch below!
