Bronte Creek Homestead Christmas

On December 3rd I took my daughter Hannah and her adorable friend Kate to Bronte Creek Provincial Park where we were treated to their special Homestead Christmas experience!  This weekend event throughout December sells out each year, so we were glad we booked early and scored our spots back in October.  (Moms: mark that down in your calendar now to make sure you get a spot in 2012!)

We got a taste of what Christmas was like back at the turn of the century – and no, young-people-reading-this, not when 1999 turned into 2000...I’m talking about the other turn of the century, when 1899 became 1900! 

Bronte Creek is a special place for my family, since my mom actually lived in the farmhouse there when she was a kid, not too many years before it became a provincial park.  My grandparents and great grandparents were farmers there, and built the Spruce Lane Farmhouse you can now tour when you visit.  I bet my mother never imagined thousands of people would one day be traipsing through her old bedroom and peeking around!  How crazy is that?

The kids got to do a bunch of Christmas crafts, dress up in old-fashioned dresses, learn about the history of the park, and meet Santa too!  They even got to taste Mrs. Claus’ famous cookie recipe and drink some warm apple cider. 

Homestead Christmas is a great tradition to enjoy with your family, but no matter what time of year, Bronte Creek is a great park to explore.  It’s open all winter long and those chilly winter weekends are a great time to hike the trails, skate at the giant ice rink, or play in the Children’s Barn!  In many ways winter is the best time to go there, since it’s a little less busy than the summer, and parking spaces are aplenty while pesky lineups are not!  

So the next wintery morning you wake up cringing because you’re thinking to yourself that you have totally run out of ideas of what to do with your kids, or yourself for that matter, grab your scarf and mittens and head over to my mom’s old place (also known more commonly as Bronte Creek Park). Trust me, you’ll have a wintery Burlington blast!

Victoria Hughes, Guest Blogger

Victoria Hughes is a local entrepreneur, social media specialist and website & blog author. Born in Burlington and living in the GTA her whole life, her professional career has taken her through the diverse worlds of leadership consulting, fashion retail management, fine dining, communications technology and online travel. After launching her own business in 2008, she began authoring the daily Girl It Up! fashion and discount blog, tweets on topics of the day @vbhughes and recently spearheaded a site full of guidelines and resources to keep youth safe & smart as they explore the ever-changing world of social media: safesocialmedia.ca . Her greatest loves are travel, shoes, laughter and family.