Christmas at Bute Park Review - A beautiful Light trail in the heart of Cardiff City Centre

Is there a better way to spend a festive evening than at a light trail event?! My family and I were invited to Christmas at Bute Park - a beautiful event being held in, you’ve guessed it, Bute Park, Cardiff. It’s such a perfect location given that it’s right in the city centre, and next to other lovely festive events like Winter Wonderland and the Christmas Markets. We had been due to visit on Saturday the 7th of December, but Storm Darragh did his absolute best to ruin our plans. The event was of course cancelled on that night (totally the right call!), but thankfully, we were able to rearrange for the following evening. It was still a bit windy, but we wrapped up warm, and thank goodness it stayed dry. It also helped that Hotel Chocolat had their hot chocolate van a third of the way round, but more about that in a minute!

Where should we park for Christmas at Bute Park?

As the trail is in Bute Park, parking is really easy. The entrance is near the RWCMD building, so we parked near the Museum, on College Road, which was just a 5 minute walk away.

There are also bus stops right outside the entrance, as well as train stations within walking distance of the event.

Is there food at Christmas as Bute Park?

The trail is arranged in a loop, with the start / end at the food court. Super handy for ending or beginning the evening with some food, depending on which time slot you’ve booked. Ours was 5pm, so we decided to do food first. There was a good selection, from burgers to pizza to sandwiches to loaded fries to churros, and all priced as you’d expect at a festival.

The gorgeous Pettigrew Tea Rooms is located about 2/3 of the way round, and was still open by the time we got round, serving hot drinks and sweet treats. There’s also the Hotel Chocolat van around a third of the way into the trail, which was a welcome sight given that it was so cold! The adults had the original and salted caramel hot chocolates, whilst the children chose the milky versions and we all enjoyed our indulgent warm drinks.

What is there to see at Christmas at Bute Park?

I don’t really want to tell you eeeeeeeverything, because it will spoil it for you! So before we went, I didn’t actually look at anything on social media because I wanted to experience it first hand. If you do want to know what’s in store, have a look through the images under this blog for a taster.

There are lots of beautiful installations that have been created by some amazing people. How people are creative enough to think up these things I will never know. They’re not only beautiful to look at, but they also sound amazing.

I know this might sound obvious, but do bear in mind although there are lots of light installations, the park is very dark by the time you go in, and given the amount of people in there, you need to keep tight hold of small children. One little girl just in front of us had lost her mum in the crowd (every parent’s worst nightmare), but we did manage to help reunite them after a couple of minutes.

What’s the best bit of Christmas at Bute Park?

Although all the lights on the trail were beautiful, I think my favourite part was the Doorway to Christmas. We almost missed it because it wasn’t straight in front of us, but I’m so glad we spotted it before we passed! Make sure you stay for the whole time though - I don’t want to say anymore and give it away! The girls loved the Seren yr Enfys section with its beautiful coloured floor and lit up trees.

I also like the fact that the trail is buggy and wheelchair friendly, and that there are some sessions that cater to neurodiverse people by reducing the number of people there and lowering the volume of the audio along the trail. You can take your dogs along, but given that we have naughty beagles, we didn’t think they’d be a welcome addition to the evening (can you imagine if they slipped their leads in the dark?!).

We had a lovely evening and it felt like wholesome family time spent together. Have you been to Christmas at Bute Park this year? Which bits were your favourites? Don’t worry if haven’t been yet, there are still tickets available through their website. Let me know in the comments what you thought!

Clare x

About Me

Hi, I’m Clare, Anglesey family photographer who loves working outdoors with natural light (or in this case barely any light at all!). I cover Anglesey, North Wales and Cheshire for maternity, newborn, child and family photoshoots. Get in touch if you’d like to book your family’s photoshoot, I can’t wait to meet you!