Christmas at Fort Hunter - Harrisburg, PA

Website: Fort Hunter
Season: Thanksgiving to Christmas
Cost: Mostly free but see website for details
Expected Length of Visit: 1-3 hours
Recommended Ages: All ages

We finally visited Christmas at Fort Hunter in 2011.  We visited the day Mrs. Claus and one of Santa's reindeer were there, which is probably the best day to take kids to this event.

Their regular Christmas activities are the toy train exhibit, a Kid's Shop (where the kids can buy gifts alone), the Festival of Trees and there is a mansion tour. The mansion tour is open during the week but the rest of these activities are weekends only. There is only a fee for the mansion tour and of course, if your child is shopping in the kid's shop, they will need money.

There are other events scheduled throughout the season too - plant and craft sales, concerts, Victorian teas, cooking demonstrations that you'll need to check the website for dates and fees since they change every year.

Our outing was nice.  There was a bit of a crowd, not too crazy, and it took a while to get to the reindeer.  You have to bring your own camera.  They don't take any pictures - they just provide the photo ops.  There was a gentleman at the reindeer who offered to take pictures with your camera if you wanted everyone in the shot.

While we had to wait quite a while to see the reindeer, we practically walked right up to Mrs. Claus.  Then we waited again to view the toy train exhibit.  We decided to skip the Kids Only Holiday Shop.  My son already did that at school, with less expensive options but the sample prices outside didn't look so bad.  I believe everything is under $10 in there.


The train display impressed the boys.  It's not the Choo Choo Barn, but it had a similar wow factor.  It was hard to see the details in the middle of the wide display, but I'm sure taller folks could see a lot more.  I think the boys could have spent a lot more time looking at it but there was quite a line so we had to keep moving. It's probably not so busy on weekends when Mrs. Claus and the reindeer aren't there.

 

I completely forgot about the Festival of Trees this visit. The boys played at the playground for a while and we went home.  We spent  at total of $1(on a raffle ticket to win a train).  There are opportunities to make donations. They lost my donation when they were out of reindeer food.  We got there pretty early - the boys were disappointed.

They also sell chocolate bars, chocolate lollipops, hot cocoa, water and possibly other refreshments.

It was very enjoyable for a low-cost event.

Please add your comments regarding this activity or let me know if you have any questions about it that I might be able to answer.

Wildwood Park - Harrisburg, PA

Website: Wildwood Park
Season: All Year Round (For operating hours see here.)
Cost: FREE!
Approximate Length of Visit: At least an hour for the Nature Center to really experience it all and you can spend as long as you'd like on the nature trail.
Recommended ages: All ages but probably best for young school age on up but there are some things the really young kids would enjoy.

I don't have any good pictures of this park since I was on a field trip responsible for keeping track of three kindergartners who always seemed to be going in three different directions.

I believe that I visited the nature trail once before when I first moved to the Harrisburg area but this was the first time I experienced the Nature Center. The kids really enjoyed it but we were rushed for time. I'll take my son back someday so we can get the full experience.

The Nature Center has a bird-watching area and several educational displays for children. They really do try to make it fun for kids with an area that they can crawl under/through, microscopes, telephones, and other interactive displays. There's an area where they can enjoy nature-themed books and another area where they can do crafts (coloring sheets and basic things like that). They can get a 'stamp' on a card at each station they visit.

There's also a small gift shop but it didn't seem like an appropriate time for me to shop. I really wanted to though. I love gift shops.

Outside there's a lovely nature trail where if you're lucky, you might be able to spot some of the wildlife that you've learned about inside the Nature Center.



This is a really nice free activity that I'm ashamed to only be learning about now.

Please add your comments regarding this activity or let me know if you have any questions about it that I might be able to answer.