Alton Towers at Christmas, December 2025

A few days before the big day, we took a visit to Alton Towers to see it set up for the festive period. Like fireworks, visiting Alton Towers at Christmas was on my bucket list of things I’ve wanted to see. Granted, there’s no big rides on, but I just wanted to see what’s going on!

Knowing there wasn’t a great deal, we headed down a little later, but in hindsight should have gone a tad earlier. We missed the shows!

For Christmas, Alton Towers is a decorated Festive wonderland with trees and lights galore, offering festive foods and fun shows for the kids. As for rides, well, the big coasters are off. All of them. You do get access to all of CBeebies Land, Hex, Curse at Alton Manor, plus Heave Ho and Marauders Mayhem in Mutiny Bay. Dark Forest, X- Sector and Forbidden Valley are closed.

Good news though, you do get to park in Priority Parking, and it was free!

Wow, just walking in the main entrance and there were Christmas trees as far as the eye could see. From the top, all the way down to the lake there were twinkling lights, bows, decorations, giant presents and candy canes. All of this was topped off with a giant tree at the end. The area looked even better by night with the changing coloured lights illuminating the street. Even the frogs were dressed for the occasion, with Santa hats and scarves. The lamps along the street were decorated with bauble covered wreaths and the building facades were similarly lined and along the path were some giant snowflake shaped lights which looked fantastic later on.

Well, there was only one coaster running, so we took a look around Cbeebies Land for a ride on Octonauts Rollercoaster Adventure. Elliott still finds it a little fun, even though he’s been on Hagrid’s at Islands of Adventure and Stardust Racers at Epic Universe! The area had a little Christmas decoration amongst the trees, but not a great deal. We did catch sight of the bright green track of the new Bluey rollercoaster they’re due to open next year too!

One of the other open rides on the day was Hex, so, when in Rome… Its not a ride we do very often, but it is good fun. The entrance to the ride looked great with lots of festive decoration around the doorway and along the railings with wreaths and lights. Inside though there was nothing else festive. Not even some baubles on the tree monster! Wishful thinking!

A first for us, the Towers Chapel was open for guests. As the Hex exit passes by it, it was a great opportunity for us to take a look. It was great to see the stained glass window with the light shining through, along with some of the restored decoration along the ceiling and walls. Not something I ever expected to see, so a great little extra. The room also has some information boards with details of the rooms renovation.

As they do for other events, there’s a photo op area in Fountain Square with the usual leafy backdrop but with additional snowflakes and the Alton Towers at Christmas logo.

Haunted Hollow no more. The walkway towards Curse had been decorated for Christmas too. The gremlin at the start was wearing his Santa hat and holding the sign for Holly Hollow. The pathways were aligned with Christmas trees and lights, the tunnels had also been given a festive lighting makeover.

The usual talking heads were wearing party hats, the gargoyles were rechristened Howler and Stinker, dressed with antlers and a red nose, along with a big bag of presents. The singing gravestones now had giant gold baubles alongside them and the statues on the final stretch were covered with bows, baubles and Christmas puddings. They’d even added some festive gravestones with bad cracker joke epitaphs on them.

If you can imagine a haunted house attraction looking jolly and festive, the Curse at Alton Manor had it down to a tee. Outside was covered in trees, garlands and wreaths, matching the usual purple hues that Curse displays. I bet it would have looked great at night. The ride was open, so we did a few laps. Inside also had decorations in the pre-show with fairy lights around the doll house, wreaths and paper chains, and more trees and lights within the ride itself. The ride story is set at new year, but I don’t remember there being that much Christmassy decoration inside normally. It looked a lot more festive and fun. Also scary. ooooOOOooh.

Pros and cons, its a massive walk to get to Curse, and then you have to walk all the way back along the same path! Felt like a massive trek for just one ride.

Down within the courtyard was where the shows were happening. They’d all finished by 1pm so we missed “The Sprout that Saves Christmas” but the stage itself looked very festive. Note to self, get there a bit earlier if you want to see the shows.

The rest of the area was decorated with bunting and lights and always looks good when night falls. For ride availability, both Marauders Mayhem and Heave Ho were operating, so we had a few spins. Sharkbait Reef was also open, but we ducked into the arcade to raid the 2p machines as they had Five Nights at Freddy’s keyrings in them and that was the kid’s latest fad.

We left it a little late in the day to try all the foodstuffs available. They did have a few novelty food trucks about though. One truck was selling Festive Burgers or Festive Dogs (a turkey burger/hot dog with cranberry) and pigs in blankets, spicy wings, Christmas loaded fries, loaded sausage rolls and more. I wanted to try the battered mince pies (£6), but they were gone by the time we visited. Elliott really wanted a hot dog (without toppings) so he got one of the festive ones, and as it was the end of the day, the staff member piled our plate with the leftover pigs in blankets, which was a cheeky bonus treat!

Be rude not to take a peek in Towers Trading on the way out to see if there were any bargains or festive knick-knacks. They did have some Christmas ornaments, decorations and magnets available. We picked up a 4-pack of baubles that were reduced to a tenner. There was a fair bit of sale stuff being the end of the season, so a good time to find a bargain.

We enjoyed the day more than we thought we would. Without the big attractions, sometimes Towers can seem a little pointless when the kids are kinda past CBeebies level. Throw on Wicker Man for the day and put a Santa hat on Bog Bob! We had a good time seeing all of the lights and decorations and the few rides we did do were fun. Definitely should have come earlier to catch the shows, but we know for next time. It was worth the trip with our annual pass, but I’m not sure it’d be worth the £20ish per person if we had to pay, but was still a bit of fun.

For more details of the Christmas offerings at Alton Towers, visit their official site and keep an eye on their blog.