Waterford Winterval - Ireland's Christmas Festival

nkay1985

Hi all,

Thought I'd post this up here as I'm sure not all of you will have heard about this but are all Christmas lovers, so it might be of interest to you!

Yesterday saw the launch of a brand new festival in Waterford. It's called Winterval. It's basically a Christmas festival that runs from yesterday November 30th to Sunday December 23rd.

There are loads of events on around the city, the vast majority of which are free. The website linked above is the best source of information but I have a few personal highlights:

• The Hasbro Toy Museum, featuring toys from all over the world and from many decades.
• A Georgian Christmas at the Bishop's Palace, showing what Christmas would have been like in Georgian times in an authentic Georgian building.
• Gluhwein, Hot Chocolate and Movies at The Bowery where 'The Santa Clause' will be shown at 1pm, 3pm, 5pm and 7pm and 'It's a Wonderful Life' will be shown at 9pm and 11pm.
• Waterford Illuminates, a 3D audio-visual show along the lines of what was done with Buckingham Palace for the jubilee celebrations.

I did a two-hour stint volunteering in the Toy Museum yesterday and I have to say everyone loved it. There are interactive things there (Giant versions of Jenga, Guess Who, Connect 4 and Operation, Giant Chess pieces made by local people with the pieces representative of Waterford's history, a foosball table) that the kids, and adults, couldn't get enough of. These are alongside some really interesting toys from across the decades.

I then walked around one of the market areas and the places just feels so lovely. It really has me in the Christmas spirit already!

So I thought I'd put a a post up here about it in case any of you are looking for a way to pass the day or the weekend over the coming weeks. Waterford is a nice place to spend a few days anyway but this just adds something extra special.

My only involvement with Winterval is as a native of Waterford who loves Christmas who has therefore decided to volunteer at a number of events over the four weeks. As such, I have a fair bit of information about it so if anyone has any queries, throw them my way and I'll either answer them or find an answer from someone else!

Posy

Ooh, that looks lovely!
Is it near the train station?

nkay1985

Posy wrote: »

Ooh, that looks lovely!
Is it near the train station?

It really is lovely!

Yeah the train station in Waterford brings you right to the bridge, here. If you check out that Google map, across the river you'll see where Merchant's Quay turns into Meagher's Quay. That corresponds to the two Snowmen down in the bottom right hand corner of this map which is one of the entrances to the Winterval Trail. It'd take you all of 4 minutes to walk!

If that's not too clear, let me know. In summary, it's very close!

Posy

Oooh, I think I'll be checking this out at some stage.

nkay1985

Posy wrote: »

Oooh, I think I'll be checking this out at some stage.

You should. Every event is on on Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday. I'm sure lots of things are on Monday to Wednesday too but not everything.