We were lucky to attend Knott’s Berry Farm’s recent media/blogger day to celebrate their on-going “Merry Farm” festivities. Our cold, rainy day started off by parking and then picking up our media packet from Knott’s PR and Social Media representatives, and we then entered the holly-clad gates. Walking down the streets of the park’s “Ghost Town” themed area, it looked anything but. The area teemed with holiday cheer and decor, featuring various vendors and dining locations. A particularly cool setup was in front of the hotel where they were making maple popsicles. This consisted of pouring molten maple syrup onto a bed of ice and then laying in a popsicle stick as it cooled. The result was not only tasty but, also, a great conversation piece.
We had lunch over at the Ghost Town Grill and were very pleased with our food. One of our party had the restaurant’s rib eye steak and couldn’t praise it enough. I had the buffalo chicken sandwich with mashed potatoes and gravy – it was great. I have dined at this establishment during the park’s annual “Halloween Haunt” event, and the quality of the food has improved a lot since then (which wasn’t long ago). I am unsure as to the reason behind this, but my compliments to the chef. The restaurant was also nice enough to help us charge our phones while we ate – which is something that a lot of theme parks won’t touch with a 33 and 1/2 foot pole.
“It’s Christmas, Snoopy!” is the park’s current holiday ice show, and is a fun time demonstrating the great skills of the skaters found therein. The show features both costumed Peanuts characters as well as skaters, but don’t expect a narrative to guide you through. The show is made up of various skating routines interspersed with clips from either Peanuts TV specials or live action, costumed Peanuts characters exchanging random dialog about Christmas. One moment that I was expecting to hear some controversy over was when the costumed character of Linus spoke his monologue about the meaning of Christmas – as heard in the holiday classic, “A Charlie Brown Christmas”. With so many places trying to be neutral and PC about the various holidays found this time of year, I was sure to hear some grumbles. Instead, I was pleasantly surprised by the reception it received. It was actually sort of refreshing for a park to actually focus on Christmas. I recently attended Disneyland’s festivities and they go for a very neutral approach to Christmas instead – “Happy Holidays!” instead of “Merry Christmas”, etc. But, I digress.
We walked over to Santa’s Cabin, which is setup in the park’s Wilderness Dance Hall, and got our pictures taken with Santa Clause (yes, kids, he DOES exist!). Also in the cabin is a cacophony of sweets and treats to delight. There is a sundae bar, coffee bar, wine and beer booth, and numerous others. My personal favorite was the booth serving sliced green apples mixed with real caramel. Note to those of you who partake of this amazing treat: It is REAL caramel. This means that it turns hard when cooled. So, don’t expect it to remain gooey when you walk outside in the blustery cold weather. The cabin was also serving Cinnabon cinnamon rolls with their delicious frosting, but I didn’t get the chance to try them as I was stuffing my face with caramel apple slices.
We walked around some more, enjoying the ambiance, and finally got over to the Calico Stage to see a reading of Twas the Night Before Christmas, followed by the park’s tree lighting show and ceremony. Both were just more of the continued Christmas fun we experienced throughout the day. During the show, a group of elves struggle to ready the last shipment of toys for Santa’s yearly flight and we even got a cool appearance by snoopy who pops out of a large, over-sized present. On our way out, Knott’s Berry Farm was kind enough to give us a few samples of their new “Berry Market” line of jams and preserves. I can’t say enough good things about this product line. It is great to see the park doing what made it famous in the first place.
Overall, Knott’s Merry Farm is the perfect place to take your significant other or family to get a nice dose of down home Christmas cheer. I highly recommend it and can’t wait to go back. Let’s just hope this Winter weather keeps up so that we can bundle up and really get into the spirit. We would like to thank Jason Soyster, Leidy Arevalo, and Josh Mikkelsen of Knott’s PR and Social Media department for making our visit possible.
[easyreview title=”Knott’s Merry Farm 2013 Review Score” cat1title=”Overall Score (out of 5)” cat1detail=”” cat1rating=”5″ ]
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