Reviewed by Emma Johnston
The chance to take my daughters to the Sylvanian Families 30th Birthday Picnic was a great opportunity to introduce them the toys that I grew up playing with. It’s hard to believe that it was 30 years ago that Sylvanian Families first launched in Japan, quickly setting records by becoming the only toy ever to have won “Toy of the Year’ for 3 consecutive years (1987,88 and 89). This hugely collectable toy range uses woodland animals and houses to teach children about nature, families and love. Each character has a name, birthday and basic character profiles. The 30th birthday picnic was celebrated at Hatchlands Park, a National Trust property in East Clandon, Surrey. Although the day started off as overcast and drizzly it soon brightened up enabling us to enjoy the beautiful surroundings.
We were warmly welcomed along with hundreds of other families into the park and all given our special entrance tickets and the children received wonderful party bags to take home. They were full of exciting things, magazines, playing cards, stickers, a dress for a character, stencils to name just some items.
The lawn in front of the house was full of space hoppers which the children immediately jumped on and hopped off across the lawns, a lovely touch. There were 3 marques which housed the entertainment for the day. As we arrived at the first tent, the character show on the main stage was just starting. The 20 minute show stared Freya Chocolate Rabbit, Tiffany Silk Cat, Ralph Walnut Squirrel and Abigail Hedgehog. They sang and danced their way through several popular nursery rhymes and a rather energetic ‘Heads, shoulders, knees and toes’ rendition. This was perfect for my 2½ year old who threw herself into the songs, happily singing and dancing away! My 6 year old, less so. We returned to the main stage several more times throughout the day as there were party games to be played. The girls had fun playing pass the pass and musical chairs and bumps with many fantastic prizes for the winners, lots of Sylvanian Families goodies. The children all had the opportunity to have a cuddle and photograph taken with their favourite character.
A second marque housed a toy shop with a good variety of toys available to purchase from around £5 upwards. On display were also some sets ranging from the good old vintage sets that I grew up with right up to the latest 2015 ranges. It was great fun showing my girls some of the toys I had played with and it brought back many happy memories!
The 3rd tent housed face painting, where you could be painted to resemble your favourite character. A lovely free activity, although we returned several times throughout the day only to find that the face painter was on a break each time so we didn’t manage to partake in this. There was also colouring to be done and lovely sets of toys to play with. Both my daughters really enjoyed playing with the toys.
Later that afternoon everybody gathered on the grass sing “Happy Birthday” and the birthday cake was cut.
We also managed to squeeze in a wander around the new Sylvanian Families Nature Trail that can be found at Hatchlands Park. We followed the trail map and discovered many nature facts about the surrounding wildlife and trees and spotted the familiar Sylvanian characters Freya Chocolate Rabbit and Ralph Walnut Squirrel, who appear along the trail.
We really enjoyed the amazing wooden sculptures of Sylvanian characters that were along the woodland walk, beautifully created by local chainsaw artist, Steve Francis.
Overall a lovely family day out despite the initial drizzle and a fun trip down memory lane!!
Rating: 4/5
For more information on the Sylvanian Families toy range visit www.sylvanianfamilies.net.
