Welsand's in London

Father Christmas at Kew Gardens

This Saturday we spent the entire day at the Royal Botanical Gardens at Kew in south London. They are considered the most complete public gardens in the world. They display about 40,000 different kinds of plants. This is the place for garden and plant lovers!

"Father Christmas" (England's version of Santa) was also making a special appearance at the gardens for Christmas, so we thought it would be a great family day. This was not at all what we expected. Instead of children going to see Santa one by one and sit on his lap, ask what they want for Christmas, and get their picture taken, this was a group experience. Father Christmas talked to the children for less than 10 minutes in general and off you go. Very interesting. I, of course, had to research the difference between Father Christmas and Santa.

There were also carriage rides around the Garden which we enjoyed with Sophie as well. A great and quick way to see more of the gardens. We did this last year with Sophie in White Bear Lake when it was 15 below zero. Much nicer this year being in the 40's!

While it was the winter season and not much is blooming at the Kew Gardens it was still breathtakingly beautiful. There were lots of holly bushes, very common here, which made it feel festive. There were also peacock's (Sophie's favorite), and lots of other birds to view as well. The main buildings/sites include the Temperate House, Palm House, and Pagoda.

Our favorite site at the Garden was the Temperate House. In with all of the beautiful plants and flowers (feels similar but much, much larger to the Como Conservatory in St. Paul) are unbelievable sculptures of glass by Dale Chihuly. You can view many of the pieces at Kew! I was familiar with his work before this, but it really is amazing. His work is displayed throughout the gardens, which really adds to this experience.


The Palm House had some great sculptures outside and amazing grounds of grass and flower gardens and housed lots of exotic plants. And the Pagoda is interesting as well. Though influenced by the Orient, this Pagoda was definately built by the English.

Overall, this was a beautiful place to view and one day was not enough for us. We will definately be back to view it in the other seasons as well.

posted by Chris @ 9:00 PM