Do you know what Christmas needs? It needs a man in a tutu on roller skates pretending to be a flamingo. You weren’t expecting that, were you?
We took the monkeys and the in-laws to The Lanterns at Chester Zoo. After the zoo closes there is a lantern parade where the animals come to life. They want you to help them make sure they get their Christmas presents and there are elves throughout the path ready and willing to get the message to Father Christmas.
There are knitting spiders, swinging gibbons and roller skating flamingos. We were lucky and although it was 30th December Father Christmas was still there to make sure everyone got what they wanted but he was very sleepy.
The monkeys loved it. They were very concerned that the flamingos got enough shrimp to make them the pinkest for New Year’s Eve. We got caught in the snow and ate gingerbread. It was magical. Proper, suspend all disbelief, childlike wonder, magical. I’m already waiting for tickets to go on sale for this year.