A review of Christmas at the Botanics

Birdy was afraid the rain may put a dampener on her experience of Christmas at the Botanics, but luckily the weather gods smiled upon her and it proved to be a very enjoyable time!

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Birdy went along to Christmas at the Botanics, and enjoyed herself immensely! @Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh #EdinburghChristmas #edinburghreviews #ChristmasLights #Christmas #Festive #FestiveLights

♬ Bright christmas songs – Pad

I’d been to Christmas at the Botanics once before – last year, to be exact – and although I could appreciate all the pretty lights, it rained heavily the whole time, so the experience was mainly about trying to get through it as quickly as possible and not lingering too long – and especially not for food!

When looking at the weather, my fear was that this experience would be exactly the same as my first – but thankfully, the rain turned out to be extremely light, and this time myself and my partner were able to take our time enjoying the beautiful lights, and even stopping for some currywurst and cheese steak!

And just lookit how pretty!

The video on the right will give you a much better idea of what to expect from Christmas at the Botanics – and will do a better job than any words I’m going to write in this entire review.

Check it out:

And now, let’s move on with the full review!

I do have a give a warning here, too – although you can book with cancellation insurance, you’re only able to change your date and time up to 48 hours in advance, and the terms and conditions are pretty watertight – so unless you can provide a doctor’s note or some other solid proof that you’re unable to make it, you can’t get your refund (I checked!).

However, we went along, the rain wasn’t terrible – even stopping at times – and it was also quite a mild night, making it an absolutely lovely and enchanting experience at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh.

Here’s the layout, so you can have a lookit what to expect:

Christmas at the Botanics vibe

I’d say the vibe of Christmas at the Botanics is welcoming, relaxed and family-friendly – without it being overly child-centric when comparing it, for example, to The Castle of Light: Magic and Mystery. It’s much more of a passive experience, where you simply walk, look and appreciate the sights and sounds around you.

This is absolutely fine by me, and there’s certainly lots to look at! There are some Christmas messages, and a little bit of Christmas music – I even spotted three Santas – but it’s all done very tastefully and mixed in with music reminiscent of Trans Siberian Orchestra, so a little something for everyone.

As always, you go through Christmas at the Botanics at your own pace, and plenty of families were stopping to take photos with the various lights, or pose under the arch of light. The atmosphere was a happy one.

Christmas at the Botanics highlights

There was a really fab light show on at the house, which I particularly appreciated, along with the lightshow featuring the music that sounded like it might have been Trans Siberian Orchestra (but cannot confirm).

The dragonflies on the water was actually my favourite, I think, as they’re just so pretty to look at.

For the kids around us, I think the highlight might have been the Santa Claus who stood at the side of one of the paths, waving and talking to everyone as they went past.

He was fairly convincing as Santa!

Also, we weren’t exactly sure what the rationale was behind the sparkly, glowing Christmas covid viruses (because that’s exactly what they look like to me!) but they did give us a chuckle.

You’ll also get the chance to go inside and look around – I believe the shop is even open!

And then, of course, there was the food…

Christmas at the Botanics food

You’ll pass the option for toasted marshmallows on your way to the middle of the experience – we decided to skip it this year – but once you reach the main food area, you’ll be greeted with three main hot food vans.

We opted to visit two of the vans to give us a some different options of things we could share – we settled on currywurst and fries from the ‘BRATWURST‘ van, and a venison cheese steak from Hog Bites the Stag – which is a fun name! We got a couple of soft drinks to wash it down.

Everything was very yummy, and just what we needed to fuel our journey through the rest of the experience!

Things to do near the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh

The Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh is right next door to Inverleith, where you’ll find the glorious Krem Karamel cafe and bookshop located on Inverleith Row.

Stockbridge is also in the vicinity, and the Stockbridge Market is on every Sunday between 10am – 4pm, full to the brim with lovely local traders. Stockbridge is also home to Edinburgh’s most famous Instagram spot, known as Circus Lane (mews).

And, of course, if you’re into history, there’s also St Stephens Church, which was designed by William Playfair in 1828.

Overall

I had a lovely time at this year’s Christmas at the Botanics! There seemed to be some new things this year, whilst others were carried over from last year – which is absolutely fine. It’s a great, passive, fun for all the family evening out which takes roughly an hour – hour and-a-half to walk through.

Don’t forget to dress for the weather and wear comfortable shoes. How much you enjoy it can be very weather dependent (at least, it is for me because I don’t do weather), but if you’re lucky you’ll hopefully get a nice, clear night! (And if the weather is really bad, they’ll cancel the event and move your booking)