From chaos to calm - that's why a Coombe Mill Christmas is perfect.

What ? Christmas posts already ? You may well think it's too early to be planning Christmas, but I have a good reason for writing this post about Christmas. You see the lovely Fiona and Farmer Nick of Coombe Mill are offering an amazing prize win a fab festive break at their lovely family run farm. Alliteration aside I want to win this for me and my boys so please bear with me while I explain what is so special about Christmas with the Coombe Mill family. 

I think I should explain that I haven't always been the biggest fan of Christmas. I usually look like this in the run up to it. 

Bah Humbug

As a result I've wanted to go away for Christmas for many years and me and Hubbie spoke about it so many times. We always felt guilty so we didn't do it, then we visited Coombe Mill last Summer and the idea to go there was planted in my head. I mentioned it to Hubbie and we decided to go away with Big Boy as we had such a lovely summer break and we wanted to spend time in beautiful Cornwall again. 

Everything at Coombe Mill is geared toward children and families having a great time and Christmas is even more special. Before we arrived Fiona asked me if we wanted a real tree or an artificial one and when we arrived we found this waiting for us: 

A home away from home - complete with tree 

I brought some decorations from home to make it personal to us and we loved getting the tree ready and lighting the fire. We never really got the hang of this and had to ask Fiona and Nick's oldest son Ali to help us, we are such townies ! Thanks Ali for this - all the family are so very helpful.

A warming fire that we did not make

The great activities that are on all year round still go on with a festive twist so the train that runs every afternoon is transformed with a magical grotto with lights and trees. Guy - the driver - had Christmas helpers to operate the flag and signal and there was even a special visitor who gave gifts to the good children one evening.

The train shed transformed into a twinkly grotto 

We're not terribly religious as a family, but I've often heard mother in law say she'd like to go to midnight mass on Christmas Eve. To date she's never made it as something always gets in the way (gin usually) so when we were invited to see Guy and Clio (two of the triplets) take part in the Christingle service at the local church I really wanted to go. The service was so child friendly and Big Boy loved being part of it. As a bonus we also saw Father Christmas on his sleigh outside the church before he had to go and give presents to all the children in the world.

We made reindeer food with Fiona 

As a bonus the clear skies enabled me and Big Boy to look out for the International Space Station in the sky (well I told him it was Santa's sleigh actually) and that made it even more magical. The night before Christmas Fiona and Nick host a party for all the guests staying on the farm which is a lovely idea. We could have a drink, not have to cook and Big Boy dressed up as Olaf for the occasion. We both wore our Christmas Jumpers and had a short walk back to our lodge ready to put out a drink and mince pie for Santa and the special food we'd made with Fiona for the hardworking reindeer.

The view on Christmas morning 

If you want a traditional white Christmas you may not appreciate the view that greeted us on Christmas morning. We, however, were delighted to see sunny, blue skies. The highlight of any stay at Coombe Mill is the feed run and Big Boy is an enthusiastic volunteer tractor driver. When he knew that Farmer Nick was going to dress up he decided to make a special effort as well. If you've not seen Father Christmas driving a tractor with Spiderman as his assistant you just haven't lived !

Santa Nick and Spiderboy

Spidey feeding a donkey Christmas breakfast

The feed run on Christmas morning is the perfect way to start a day that will descend into chaos, presents and overeating. It's refreshing in a way that you can only know if you have woken up to this view from your bedroom. When it comes to animals it's pretty hard to beat waking up to see Alpacas outside your window. Baby Boy has been delighted to spot these and it makes missing our cat Neo much less harrowing.

I spy with my little eye an Alpaca

I asked Big Boy what his favourite things about Coombe Mill are. Unsurprisingly he drew a tractor, the sword in the stone and the train rides every afternoon. If I asked Baby Boy I'm pretty sure he'd say, "animals, animals, animals." Big Boy drew those too.

It's our first Christmas with Baby Boy and one of the things that his birth family really wanted was for him to celebrate Christmas. I can't imagine anywhere else that would be more perfect to spend with my boys who love everything about being here.

Baby Boy's thoughts 

We're no different from any other family in wanting our children to have a wonderful Christmas. The thing that we really want them to remember is not opening presents, but the experience of waking up somewhere beautiful, being in nature and enjoying time as a family. That is what we come to Coombe Mill for.

This post is my entry to win Christmas 2015 at Coombe Mill for my family. If you want to enter you can find out all about it here: Win Christmas at Coombe Mill