This year Birmingham Botanical Gardens have teamed up with Xtra Humongous to create their Halloween event: Dr Nerium’s Garden of Ghouls.  We are regulars at the gardens as we are members, but obviously our visits normally take place during daylight, so it was strange to be in the gardens at night.  In some ways it’s easy for the garden to feel a bit spooky at night as there are always strange noises and our senses are heightened in the dark.   From Friday 26th October until Sunday 4th November 2018 Dr Nerium’s Garden of Ghouls is open for those that want to take a scaremaze trail around the gardens.

We were invited to the preview night and got to encounter Dr.Nerium (on the left) and his ghouls before we set out on our walk around the scaremaze.  The background story is that in the early nineteenth century, Dr. Nerium started carrying out experiments  that led to the creation of some weird, wonderful and unique creatures.  It all started when he brought back his first carnivorous flowers from the base of the Peruvian Andes.  Attempts at cross breeding with other findings led to fantastical creatures that can only be described as unique.  It’s these creatures that you encounter as you walk around the grounds.

It’s very atmospheric and the actors are well rehearsed – we particularly liked the one of the witches and a ‘zombie’ that had a lot to say to us.  The costumes and the props are great and really help bring the experience to life.  I did find the story a bit hard to follow at times, but it’s easy to treat it as a series of tableaus and still get a lot of enjoyment out of it.  We attended the more scary session which starts at 7pm.  Essentially before that it’s the same experience, but the actors have a bit more leeway later to add to the intensity of the experience. H is 11 and we took his friend who is 12 with us and both boys enjoyed the event and didn’t get more than pleasantly scared.   I think it’s best to judge based on your knowledge of your child and how they react to scary things when making a decision about whether to go and which session to pick.

Our evening was very entertaining and H said he enjoyed it and would recommend it, so Dr.Nerium’s Garden of Ghouls got a rather hard to obtain pre-teen seal of approval.  I would happily go again and would enjoy going with adult friends too.  From today (Friday 28th October) there will be an entertainment area to go to if you make it out of the scaremaze or you can hedge your bets and wander around before you go in.  There will be street food traders, bars, performers, music and circus themed entertainment.

H has a two week half term, so I am looking for plenty of things to do and he does enjoy Halloween themed activities.  We popped along to our local Ascarium (The National Sea Life Centre, Birmingham).  Sea Life have a spooky adventure for visitors this half term. As you walk through the Ascarium, you can help the sea witch unlock her treasure chest..  In amongst the fishes, the sea horses and jelly fish, there are a number of magic ingredients that you need to find to help the sea witch cast a magic spell to unlock the treasure chest.

As you can see there are lots of Ascariums around the country so there will probably be one near you that you can visit to join in the fun.

As well as looking out for the various ingredients that the witch needs to cook up a spell in her cauldron, we spent some time exploring the seas and learning about the various scary animals of the deep (as well as some of the less scary ones).  We always enjoy watching the jellyfish as they are almost hypnotic.   We spent a while octopus hunting – they seem to like to hide away in nooks and crannies.  A visit to the 4D cinema is a must for us (the films change regularly) and we loved the bubbles coming our way during the film currently showing.  The gift shop is somewhere where we like to browse and H is always interested to see what new toys are available with a marine theme.

There’s also an opportunity to have a meet and greet with the sea witch.  As you can see she’s not at all scary and you can have your picture taken with her as a souvenir of your day at the Sea Life Centre.

Disclosure: This post is in association with Sea Life.

At the weekend we went to the Magical Lantern Festival that this year is being held in Kings Heath Park in Birmingham.  It’s timed entry and you can park in a nearby school car park, so it doesn’t get too difficult logistically.  If you are on public transport the number 11 bus goes right past and that goes just about everywhere in Birmingham, plus there are buses from the city centre going up nearby Kings Heath high street.  The timed entry means that the lantern trail isn’t overcrowded and you can get to fully enjoy the lights.

The boys (H and his cousin) had a lot of fun picking out the lights as we turned the corners of the route through the park.  There were some lights that you could get a little closer to and take some pictures like this one, but you aren’t supposed to touch any of the light installations. The Magical Lantern Festival is open until 1st January 2018.  There’s loads to see including a representation of Birmingham’s Central Library building.   I think my favourite were the flamingos, but the polar bears came a close second.

Around the trail there are various stopping off points where you can get something to eat or drink, or maybe go on a fairground ride or two (mostly geared to little ones). There was also a Santa’s Grotto (for which there’s an extra charge) and you can either book in advance or queue up on the night.

At the end there’s a tent where you can go to eat your food if you have purchased from one of the stalls.  This was great for us as we hadn’t eaten before we went, so we were able to get some food and sit down to eat it inside (there are outside benches too, but it was a bit damp).