For the last escapade of the year, I organised an outing with the family. I had thought that after our annual Christmas / New Year’s lunch gathering, the younger squad could go on for a while while older relatives caught a break from us. For a few years, the town of Torrejón de Ardoz has been organising a bigger and bigger “Christmas park” called Magical Christmas Park Parque Mágicas Navidades. During the last decade, the display has grown to be a massive event which runs throughout December to after Epiphany day. It has become so popular that they started charging people from outside town for entry.

The park is huge by any standard. This year there is a small amusement area with winter-themed rides, an ice-skating rink, a Christmas market, a small house for Father Christmas / the Three Wise Men (depending on the date), and several displays: the “Ice Festival”, the “Frozen Mountain” and the “Asian Lantern Festival”. There are smaller decorations sprinkled all over the park

Unless you are a local, entrance is 6€ / person. Once inside, you can buy tickets for the rides and the Ice Festival, but if you get your tickets in advance, it’s a tiny bit cheaper. In our case, I bought an entrance + Ice Festival combo that was 16€ – buying tickets inside would have been 11 €, so we saved one whole euro!

We reached the station by 19:45, and it took just a few minutes to reach the park entrance and go in. We found ourselves in a path with some food stalls, the Christmas house (sold out when I bought the tickets), some light sculptures and a few meninas. I noticed similar statues when I was in Madrid back in December, but I did not pay much attention to them. It turns out that they are part of an art project by artist Antonio Azzato collaborating with other creators and some of the city’s schools, and a pretty big deal – a modern art project. The word menina refers to a young girl from a noble family who enters the court to serve the queen or her children. Probably painter Diego Velazquez’s depiction of them is the most famous, and is the inspiration for Azzato’s figures.

Since we had a timeslot to enter the Ice Festival at 20:30, we decided to find that first to make sure we did not miss our entry; once we located it, we would see what to do. On our way, we crossed a literal starry field – sorry, starry forest Bosque de Estrellas. We walked by a giant snowman, a huge teddy bear, Cinderella’s carriage and Father Christmas’ sleigh, all made of lights. Then, we found the Magical Gate Puerta Mágica – this is a huge structure made of thousands of small light bulbs that looks a bit like the façade of a gothic cathedral. Every hour o’clock there is a show, and we had a three-song disco show that we stayed for, as I had just spotted the destination.

After the show, we headed off to the Ice Festival, a giant tent kept at -6 ºC – we were let in early, it was barely 20:15, so I’m thinking timing is… a suggestion. During the first week of the festival, ten two-person teams compete to build an ice sculpture from 25 ice blocks, according to the theme of the contest. This year, the topic was “freezing up the world”, so each piece tried to represent a city or area. Unfortunately, after almost a month of competition, some pieces were damaged or… slightly melted. Such as the… let’s say the “leaning tower of Paris” a.k.a. the Eiffel Tower. In all seriousness though, there was Las Vegas, Rio, Kyoto, New York, Kuala Lumpur… Did I mention the below-zero temperature? I think I lost sensitivity on my right pinky, and by the time we were out some of my fingertips were actually blue…

Next, we decided to see the Asian Lantern Festival Festival de las Linternas Asiáticas – a number of figures made out of fabric with light inside, similar to Brilla Zoo, and just as Christmassy, I guess. We actually started on the Second Space, which was dedicated mostly to dinosaurs. There was also a dragon (as 2024 is the Chinese year of the Dragon), some contemporary animals – elephants, flamingoes, lions, red pandas… oh, and lots of Venus flytraps.

Our following spot was the “Way to Bethlehem” Camino de Belén, which recreates the Biblical story of the Nativity, from Joseph and Mary heading off to the census, to the stable and the adoration by the Three Wise Men. It is described as the largest Nativity in Spain – the figures were actual-size, but not too well made, and the whole thing was a bit creepy. Furthermore, they had the same two songs on a never-ending loop.

Afterwards, we decided to “climb” the Ice Mountain Montaña Helada, which has a ton of light-reindeers and some white sculptures of creatures of Scandinavian mythology – I think. There were faeries, elves, a winged lion, dragons, horses, a pegasus, trolls… and two very non-mythological polar bears. There was finally a sculpture of a reindeer standing on a sleigh. I’ve recently learnt that a reindeer that keeps its antlers in winter is a pregnant female, so there’s a lot to say about Father Christmas’ sleigh… There is also a light Christmas tree Árbol de Luz in amongst all the reindeer, and you get a glimpse at the ice rink Pista de Hielo, designed by former figure skater Javier Fernández.

There was a bit of a photocall area and we fooled around there for a few minutes. Next, we went back towards the Asian Lantern Festival Festival de las Linternas Asiáticas, to see the First Space, which we walked backwards, apparently. It was mostly about bugs and creepy-crawlers – even bigger than the Naturaleza Encendida ones. There were ladybugs, a praying mantis, butterflies, bees, a scorpion for some reason, flowers and… pandas. Because something is not Asian if there is not a panda?

Once we were out of the area, there were some pink and purple flying penguins which gave way to a small garden with a lot of laser lights and other standing penguins, reading “Merry Christmas” in several languages. We headed back towards the train station then, passing by the Christmas market Mercado Navideño and Christmas Village, though it was hard to know when one ended and the other began. We did not go into any of the rides, not even the carousel, because they were extremely expensive… Neither did we try any food, but I am willing to be the prices were on the same range.

We walked out of the park, and we saw a train leave as we were approaching the station. We settled to wait for the next one, which – surprise, surprise – was delayed, so although we were at the station before 23:00, we did not make it home until almost half past midnight, despite the ride being just under 35 minutes. However, I think I’m going to start the family tradition of a mini-adventure after the yearly big-family meet-up, we had a lot of fun.