All Aboard For Santa At The London Transport Museum!

The above picture was my gang and that of the Modern Mummy contingent this past weekend when we went for our annual festive trip to London to meet up with them and spend a day having fun in the city before heading somewhere after sun down to appreciate the lights of our beautiful capital city. It’s not the quick trip into town that it used to be now that we have both moved out of London but it’s oh so worth it and this year, as we have on previous years, we visited The London Transport Museum for the majority of our day out. This is always a treat and as Londoners we were never without our annual passes (£17.50 buys an adult ticket which lasts 12 months and kids go FREE) and we have been many, many times but we never tire of it and I am pretty sure that though the children always like to do their staple favourites (the stamp trail, the lift which takes you back in time, having a chat with the talking horses, laughing at all the life sized models of people on the trains, trying their hand at driving a tube train, crossing the road safely using the traffic lights and climbing on and off all the double decker buses as well as playing on the play equipment) we always find something new and on this visit it was a whole new area where the DLR train driving used to be and now you can become an engineer to fix broken trains. Gosh they loved it! What also made this trip a little bit different was that we got to meet Father Christmas (all included in the entry) where we sat in his beautifully twinkling lights forest of a grotto and listened to him telling tales before having a meet and greet with the big man ourselves! Of course let’s not forget the badge he gave each of the children which they were thrilled with!

It’s not just a meet and greet with Father Christmas on their festive itinerary, they also offer Christmas crafting with festive bunting making and story times with sing-a-longs in the grotto. It’s totally magical and a lot of thought has gone into this gorgeous area which we found calming and a delightful respite to the hustle and bustle of the day. Not often you’d say that about meeting father Christmas is it but it really was delightful!

After we’d done our favourite bits and met Santa we headed to the Upper Deck cafe bar which is above the gift shop.I had no idea that they had a proper restaurant as in all the times we’ve visited we’ve used the cafe downstairs which is rather in the thick of things so this was a tranquil break yet again – who’d have thought you could be in central London on a weekend in December and experience not only one but two spaces within a museum where true relaxing could be enjoyed. We sat and ate some delicious food (highly recommend the burger and kids meals are extremely reasonable) while we chatted and laughed and stored up some more energy to go back and finish off looking around the museum!

We had a magical and memorable time once again and I find this is a museum which you can either spend the whole day in as we did on Sunday or you can dip in and out of throughout the year when you find yourself at a loose end when in the city. The fact you only pay once for a whole year and that kids go free make this one of my absolute top buys for an annual pass in the whole country and we will be renewing ours on our next visit because even if we only go a handful of times in a year now that we are Norfolk based it is money absolutely well spent. There’s also concession discounts so my Mum gets in for even less money which is amazing!

Now I feel absolutely certain that you will be looking at our Christmas jumpers admiringly if all the comments when we were at the museum are anything to go by! They’re great aren’t they and they’re also from the London Transport Museum which has a wonderful shop! When we left London I bought one of their Moquette (the material used on all public transport upholstery) magazine racks to remind me of our days in the big ole smoke and it sits in my living room so I look at it often and think of the London Transport Museum. I LOVE the things they sell there from the tiniest of pin badges (they were all sold out of Central Line ones boo – we bought a District Line one because we love the colour green instead) to these gorgeous jumpers which we were very kindly gifted on the day along with a few other lovely pieces like mugs with our names on and a gorgeous wooden bus toy for Raffie to play with. The jumpers which sadly don’t come in baby sizes but start at age 5 are £25 for children (although they had 20% off on Sunday) and £35 for adults. Katy bought her other half another jumper when were were there so that they could all match on Christmas day and I have to say I’m thinking of doing the same for Jonny. You can order on line thank goodness as I wasn’t quick thinking enough to do that on the day! My only criticism is that poor little Raffie can’t have one, maybe i should buy a child’s size and boil wash it until it shrinks small enough, ha ha! They do have lots of other baby clothes which are bus and train related of course so I might just get him something from that collection! As parents we all know that heart sinking moment when you have to walk through the gift shop to the tune of ‘CAN WE BUY SOMETHING’ and you just know you’ll spend over the odds on plastic tat but the London Transport Museum shop isn’t quite like that, it’s full to the brim with really cool and eclectic pieces at reasonable prices so it takes the sting out!

What a truly wonderful day which we recommend for all throughout the year but especially for a Christmas visit, it’s brilliant!

We were gifted entry to the museum and a selection of goods from the shop including our fabulous Christmas jumpers.

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