How we celebrate Christmas in the USA. Bush Gardens Christmas town, Williamsburg, VA.

Where: Bush Gardens, Williamsburg, VA.
When: November 27 – January 3.
Admission: starting from 25$/ person, children up 3 are free, parking 14$.

While I'll admit that Busch Gardens has some kinks to works out, not getting into Christmas town is not entirely their fault if you happen to go on a crowded night. We decided to purchase a discounted Christmas Bounce Ticket assuming some nights would be busier than others as Christmas Day approached and because we have small children which sometimes limits how long we can stay.
This package include:
- Three (3) consecutive days’ admission for Colonial Williamsburg and Busch Gardens Christmas Town
- Valid November 27, 2015 through January 3, 2016. Park open from 2 p.m.
- Complimentary shuttle service around the Historic Area
- Free parking included at Busch Gardens Williamsburg
- Interpreter-led tours of Colonial Williamsburg’s Governor’s Palace and the Capitol Building
- Admission to the two Art Museums of Colonial Williamsburg.

We wanted to see Historic Williamsburg too, so it was great deal for us. If you have two kids before 6 years (like we are), you have to by just two tickets for 59$ each. We saved 118$ (Bush Gardens 35*4 for admissions+14$ for parking; 41$*2 for Williamsburg).
Tickets can be purchased online and redeemed only at the Colonial Williamsburg Regional Visitor Center, which is where your Williamsburg experience begins. It's inconvenient if you are going to Busch  Gardens first, but it worth money.

I know another way to save money if you what to attend just Bush Gardens. You have to use discount code online 10$ off per ticket.
We also prepared our children on December 12, that sometimes we don't get to do everything on our list. For example, because we saw the Miracles shows and took the ride train, we didn't have enough time for kiddie rides. My girls are only just 5 and 3. Remember it was warm weekend (around 68), kids are off school, adults take extra vacation time and no rain.

 Also, the main event is the lights which are better seen at night. I think it would stand to reason given all this information through weather channels and sites and common knowledge of how vacation schedules work around the holidays, that one has to be prepared for large crowds and delays and prepare themselves and their families. We spent forty minutes just for parking there, But they had enough free species for cars. They have good organization about transportation people from parking lot to park.
Directly opposite the entrance installed the Christmas tree. This is a great place for a Christmas photo.

That said, there are shows at 3:00, 3:30 and about every hour. Until the park gets dark, this is what you should be doing. All light's decoration in Christmas Town during the day looks ugly and boring because most if things are old.

We saw "Deck the Halls" in Germany, "Miracles" in Italy and "O' Tannenbaum" show in Germany.

The first one was in food court building,  everyone around us was eating and slurping.

The meal was heavy on kiddie favorites (chicken fingers, hot dogs, Swedish meatballs, macaroni and cheese) with a standard turkey dinner (nice, thick slices of turkey), mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, dinner rolls, corn.  It's geared for kids, and served on paper plates and plastic cups. The food was not good and expensive. Also, I recommend to take candies and snack for children from home, because park to sell one candy for for dollars. For dollars for one candy! It's awfully! Beverage Costs - our wineglass cost of $14.95 in France for a decent glass of wine seemed reasonable when we were told refills were only $7.95. However, when trying to get a refill later in Italy, we were surprised to find that the only $7.95 refills available in white were a Prosecco or Savignon Blanc, a Chardonnay was an extra $5 premium.... Only $2 less than the original glass AND wine cost! Felt that this was more "bait and switch"....not to mention the aggravation of having to tote around mugs and wine glasses all night to supposedly save a few $.

The second one was indoor without food. I liked Miracles show more. Do not pay extra (around 8$/person) for reserving seating on the performance. They had available seats on each show.

Your Christmas Town experience culminates in a multi-colored spectacular light show O' Tannenbaum. Gather with friends around our majestic 50-foot Christmas tree, sip a hot beverage and dance to the booming holiday musical score.

We didn't plan to attend special shows, we just were moving according to the park's map and go on those shows that were open at this time.

After it gets dark, however, is when you want to be taking the full lap around the park to see how each country or land is illuminated. Overall, I was impressed. The lights were beautiful, the attractions were fun, and I felt like it put us in the Christmas spirit.

It did start to get very crowded as the night went on. We left around 9:30, and were glad to be out of there as the crowds had picked up and the lines for everything were out of control. That said, 6 hours was plenty to see and do pretty much everything we wanted to.

We didn't pay extra for Santa's workshop (we visited Santa at Tysons Corner Mall, VA before), and Santa's fireside feast (it's worth 102$ per our family), but we did not regret about it because we had plenty of time to ride the rides. We didn't have huge lines for rides, so, my girls had a lot of fun.

France was my favorite part of the park. The music was quite, lights was bright and rides for little kids without crowd.

If you are going to take the hotels I recommend for you Hampton Inn and Suites Williamsburg Richmond Road, Williamsburg, VA. This hotel is clean, cheap, has great customer service, amazing complimentary breakfast, and 24 hours free tea and coffee.

All in all however, despite it taking an forty minutes to get in and hardly being able to move once inside that busy night it was a magical experience for our girls.
I'am not recommend to visit this park after December 20th before Christmas because it will be awfully crowd and you can't found free space for car. If the management decreased the 'max capacity' for Christmastown on any given night and raised the price enough to still be profitable, I think you would have guests like me excited about returning!
Even though it was packed, I highly recommend Christmas Town to people of all ages. There are wine tastings,  shopping, shows, and enough activities to keep people of all ages busy. The Christmas lights are worth seeing, especially at Pompeii.