As a dutiful dad-of-two, I’ve met my fair share of Santas, both good and bad.
It’s safe to say not all Father Christmases are of the same standard. Something that hasn’t escaped my nine-year-old daughter, who will always comment on a dodgy fake beard or half-hearted ‘Ho Ho Ho’.
With customary cunning, my wife has brilliantly explained away these subpar St Nicks – the big man can’t personally visit every shopping centre in the UK in the lead up to Christmas.
To be fair, he’s a tad busy this time of year. So sometimes he has to send others to stand in his place – an explanation my daughter and seven-year-old son have seemingly accepted as entirely logical.
But this past weekend at Bluestone National Park Resort in Pembrokeshire, Wales, aka the ‘Kingdom of the Elves’ from November 4 to January 2, was different. Why? Because we saw the real deal!
Arriving in darkness on a Friday night, we entered the site’s Serendome, an open air entertainment, dining and activity centre sheltered by a huge umbrella roof, which has been transformed into a wondrous Snow Dome with beautiful lights, decorations and Christmas trees.
We were met by a hilarious elf who told the children he’d transport us to Santa’s Lodge. But not before his pointy-eared friend secretly handed my wife a tablet and asked her to quickly fill in a form and answer a couple of questions.
Only a short while later, Santa welcomed his two young guests by name — asking our son whether he’s been enjoying going swimming with his grandad and quizzing our open-mouthed daughter about how it’s her little cousin’s first Christmas. He even said she could take an extra present for her cousin.
It was one of the best moments I’ve had as a parent. Astonished faces broke out in huge smiles, followed by their post-grotto verdict: “How did he know all that about us? He must be the real one!”
After all that excitement we decided to have a relaxed start to our Saturday and spend some time just enjoying our Carningli Lodge accommodation and its woodland surroundings, in the Merlin’s Crest area of the park.
One of Bluestone’s ‘Platinum’ lodges, this luxury building had two double bedrooms with ensuite bathrooms featuring his and her sinks, plus two twin bedrooms, meaning it could have slept up to eight, all on the ground floor.
The open plan living area upstairs was something else. It boasted a beautiful kitchen, dining table, a cosy lounge with an electric fire and flatscreen TV, and then two really special rooms, a ‘Cwtch’ cubbyhole with its own TV (predictably commandeered by our children), and a stunning sunroom.
You might think a sunroom in winter, one week removed from Storm Darragh, wouldn’t be of much use, but what a feature it was. We pulled back its bifold doors revealing glass balconies and stood with a cup of tea taking in the picturesque view, listening to a woodpecker in the distance, as birds swooped past.
The lodge came with two complimentary electric golf buggies. At first I thought this was just a practical and not particularly fast way to travel around the vast site. However, our children were so excited to be ferried around in them, waving to other families as we drove past, while we also avoided the inevitable moans that come with tired little legs. Add a few Christmas song playing on my phone and a lot of laughs listening to Chamillionaire’s Ridin’ – “they see me rolling, they hating” – and the buggies added so much to our stay.
That afternoon we headed back to the Serendome to try a booked activity, The Star Catcher climbing tree. The instructor Ricky was so encouraging, as he showed our monkeys how to scale it and dispelled their fears of belaying down.
After grabbing delicious fish and chips for lunch, we headed to The Hive, a free play centre where we could let the kids loose on slides and a bouncy castle, and booked another session with Ricky on the Power Tower, a three-sided climbing wall, on Sunday afternoon. Seeing my daughter conquer her fear to reach the top and activate a buzzer that lit up the tower left me feeling very proud.
The Hive is also the home of the Elf School – a brilliant experience. Head elf Elfie and her team put the kids through their paces, playing games and getting scanned for Christmas spirit in a fantastical room that felt like it was straight out of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, before racing around catching baubles and bubbles in a wacky factory, solving puzzles in Hoot the Owl’s treehouse, and ‘graduating’ with honours and green capes in a celebratory hall.
Back at our lodge, letters our two had written to Santa were collected by his elves as he drove past on a Christmas float, all part of a ‘Polar Postal’ service. Although we nearly missed it and had to pursue him up the road on our buggy!
That night we went to nearby Black Pool Mill, a gorgeous restaurant owned by Bluestone in a restored Grade 2 listed former flour mill, which dates back to 1813. It’s a unique venue, with tables set next to huge iron cogs and wheels, and a menu based around locally sourced ingredients.
I had pan fried lamb liver in a creamy Penderyn whiskey sauce, followed by a cracking bacon loin and as much of my daughter’s baked Alaska dessert that I could get away with pinching… while a kind waitress voluntarily taught the kids how she folds napkins into Christmas tree shapes!
On Sunday we visited the site’s subtropical themed Blue Lagoon water park. The water was pleasantly warm, even when venturing outside on a great lazy river with a heated bubble pool, and down a flume that was split into sections with two hot pools to relax in mid-descent. There were three other flumes that you could zoom down in semi-darkness with sparkling lights, plus a wave pool that our son loved.
No Christmas is complete without a pantomime, so we treated ourselves to winter cocktails and settled down in the Serendome’s impressive Cloud theatre to watch ‘Snow White and the Seven Elves’. This reimagined production has festive songs, a bit of Taylor Swift and Katy Perry thrown in for good measure, lots of good gags and some fun surprises for the audience, including fake snow and giant bouncy balls!
The heart of the resort is The Village, with a pub, coffee house, restaurants, gift shops, a mini-market (which is very handy if you’re a dopey dad who has forgotten to pack any teabags) a playground and treehouse. It’s also where we watched an outdoor light show complete with talking reindeer before enjoying dinner at the Farmhouse Grill.
It was with more than a touch of sadness that we checked out on Monday morning, but we weren’t required to leave the park until the afternoon, so went for a walk around a pretty lake, which must really come into its own with ranger-led activities in the summer.
There we encountered grey herons, ducks and a beautiful yet territorial swan — the only inhabitant of Bluestone who didn’t give us a warm welcome all weekend!
The park also has Winter Lights in 2025 and for anyone wanting to book a Kingdom of the Elves 2025 break now, can receive free Elf School Journey tickets – further details on pricing costs can be found on Bluestone’s website.