Six Flags Magic Mountain Holiday in the Park Preview

[fatdaddy]

Holiday in the Park...AT SIX FLAGS MAGIC MOUNTAIN! Awesome! It's been quite awhile since SFMM had a real full blown holiday event. Well, here it is, a truly epic holiday celebration that rivals it's competitors with lights, music, carolers, characters, holiday food, snow, decorations, entertainment, oh and...SANTA!!! Four holiday themed areas will dip you in Christmas and coat you with cheer, or nuts, probably cheer. Thousands of lights in Rockin' Universe (DC Universe) programmed along with a musical score that will have you amazed and entertained! Live entertainment at Snowy Nights (Full Throttle Plaza) with music, dancers and snow! Looney Tunes characters, carolers, a 30 foot water tree, and lots of lights in Holiday Square (Six Flags Plaza)! And finally a Winter Wonderland, complete with snow, Santa and Mrs. Claus. We only got a preview, but I know I'll be bringing my kids back for Holiday in the Park. Okay, photo time...

 

What's this thing called again?

Glasses that make lights turn into Santa! Spent all day wearing them while i looked at the sun...I'm joking, really.

Tree of Heros, also look for photo ops with the Justice League.

ALL of the lights in DC Universe are programmable multi-color LED's capable of creating flashing, moving, twinkling, picture...whatever effects!

There will be light shows throughout the night during HIP. Three seperate shows, this one was awesome, totally worth seeing them all.

All sorts of effects. You may have to watch several times to see it all.

Outside Full Throttle.

Lots of live entertainment on the Full Throttle stage and some snow.

Winter Wonderland, not sure where the sign went, I liked it!

Snow leapard.

Owl.

Polar bear almost looks like it's drinking a Coke, but polar bears don't drink Coke do they?

Yes it does snow here during Holiday in the Park.

Lots of stuff going on near Katy's Kettle. Look for Santa, Mrs. Claus and her elves.

Santa!

Carolers with a contemporary feel, definatly worth checking out.

So many lights!

Water "tree" changes color, kinda cool.

Very festive, wheres the eggnog!

 

Holiday food includes everything from tamales, to chocolate peppermint funnel cake. Seriously, there's a turkey dog topped with stuffing and cranberry sauce, tamales, eggnog ice cream, hot apple cider, cranberry wing sauce, holiday beers...the list goes on. Crafts for the kids, pictures with Santa...bring your family, friends, strangers...looks like a fun time. Holiday in the Park starts 5:00 pm, November 28 and runs through January 4, check the SFMM website for offical dates. And, yeah it looks pretty awesome, thanks to Six Flags Magic Mountain for the preview, I will be back for for the full blown event.

Edited December 15, 2014 by fatdaddy

[thrillseeker4552]

Wow, I am very impressed! Six Flags Magic Mountain is the last park that I would expect to pull off an event like this. Guess I'm wrong (in a good way!).

[Manic Monte]

That looks really awesome!

[805Andrew]

I'm glad Six Flags is finally doing a holiday event, and realizing the market potential of holiday events. It looks like they went all out with the lights. If they did this event in their Northeast parks, the snow part would be really easy: just summon Mother Nature.

[dylanreich]

I've got to say, WOW! Very impressive for SFMM. The great pictures didn't hurt! Looking forward to checking it out soon!

[TM3988]

I'm glad Six Flags is finally doing a holiday event, and realizing the market potential of holiday events. It looks like they went all out with the lights. If they did this event in their Northeast parks, the snow part would be really easy: just summon Mother Nature.

 

I know SFDK has been doing Holiday in the Park for years. This is just the first year SFMM decided to participate. Haven't other Six Flags parks across the nation been doing Holiday in the Park in past years as well?

[SingleRiderCam]

That looks WAY better than I was expecting the event to look like. This looks great, especially on Six Flags Magic Mountain's standards.

[Jew]

Looks decent for SFMM's first go around. I'll probably check it out at some point.

[dylanreich]

I'm glad Six Flags is finally doing a holiday event, and realizing the market potential of holiday events. It looks like they went all out with the lights. If they did this event in their Northeast parks, the snow part would be really easy: just summon Mother Nature.

 

I know SFDK has been doing Holiday in the Park for years. This is just the first year SFMM decided to participate. Haven't other Six Flags parks across the nation been doing Holiday in the Park in past years as well?

I believe so. I'm not too sure SFMM should get all the credit though, I'm sure corporate had serious oversight.

[alexinla]

This looks awsome!

[rcdude]

When I first heard about this event, I thought it would be fun to visit just to see how well the park did, but I never thought of visiting as a priority. I think I've changed my mind. Great pictures! Hopefully the displays are just as impressive in person.

[fatdaddy]

I'm in just to try the holiday food. Seems like they are really going all out for this, hope it lives up to expectations when it's open to the public.

[Comeagain?]

That looks pretty good

 

Is anyone feeling slightly better about the prospect of a screampunk (re)theme?

[Fire2box]

Kinda makes me want to go there for holiday in the park.

[SFMMGeek27]

Ill be there Sunday night to see if this event actually lives up to its potential.

[dippindotsguy8]

I might try to get up there now. Looks like they really put some effort into it. Good for them!

[fatdaddy]

So far I've heard a lot of positive reactions, checking it out Sunday for myself.

[tarheel1231]

I refuse to believe this! Six Flags Magic Mountain could never do something as impressive as this! Lol

 

In all seriousness, it looks pretty good. I wonder if the show at SFOG is just as good.

[coasternut]

I was at the park again yesterday. I don't have any pictures - sorry. Good ones have already been posted. I originally posted this on the MM thread, and didn't realize it had it's own thread.

I stayed until after sunset to see the Holiday in the Park setup. It's very nice for their first year of doing this. Big light show in the DC Universe area. The lights change colors with the holiday music. On the path up to Katy's Kettle (on the way to Tatsu) is their winter wonderland. The trees are decorated with lights, snow, Coke polar bears, and a very festive mood. Santa's workshop is up near the Tatsu entrance for the kiddies. The main plaza is very nice. The fountain has changed with nice LED lighting. They even changed the YOLO video to show winter scenes. Nice decorations in YOLO plaza complete with a DJ, percussionist (same good guy from the summer), dancers, snow, lights and decorations. Again for their first effort for this, it turned out nice.

[bizzaro#1]

Look amazing :Thomas:

[WFChris]

I went on Friday night and I have to say that it was pretty well done. Keep in mind that there are only 4 'zones' where lights are set up, the rest of the park is normal.

 

As far as how neat it was, I would look at it in the same way you look at haunts. Take what Knotts and USH do, compare that to what SFMM does, and it's pretty much the same thing for the holidays. I thought it was 'cute,' and there is a ton of room for expansion. They did choose the best parts of the park to set up in, and the rest of the crowd seemed to be pretty into it as well.

 

On a day with 5-15 minute lines for most attractions, Full Throttle and Tatsu mantained 1 hour + lines throughout the night, partially in my opinion because those parts of the park were fun to be in. Batman was even rockin a 20 minute wait in the evening when it was a walk-on during the day. All in all I enjoyed it and see it as a wonderful perk to the already incredible value of the Gold Pass I picked up last month.

[fatdaddy]

Well, I promised my kids a visit to Holiday in the Park Sunday and IT RAINED! I decided to go anyway, hoping the rain would stop and the park would remain open. The real reason I wanted to go was to give the food a try, I can see Christmas lights in my front yard, but I ain't cooking. Driving over was pretty bad, car sliding all over the road at times, but the worst seemed to be over by time we got to the park. We decided to start with Winter Wonderland (and Santa) and work our way across the park to Rockin' Universe. Park was pretty dead, but we tried to make the best of it. My main complaint was some of the holiday food was either sold out, or the locations that sold them were just closed. Now, I know things sell out, but keep in mind I have kids and have done ALL of the Christmas celebrations at the theme parks in Southern California, and even some of the parks in Northern California. Point is, I'm juding this against all those other parks and I really can't remember ever running into closed food locations and sold out holiday items. I mean, I came to spend money and um, yeah I couldn't. Also, If I go to an event that last 'til 8 pm, I want to be able to buy the event food until, oh I don't know, maybe 8 pm? Okay, let's get started...

 

Carolers were pretty awesome. Would have listened more, but there was food to taste.

Okay, I actually wasn't looking to eat a real meal, but since I'm here to sample holiday food I ordered one. Looks like you can use your dinning pass too.

Holy crap, I wasn't ready for this much ham! Really great for the price, and tasted awesome. If you order this you better be hungry. Did I mention it also came with pie?

Kids meal, it came with pudding and fruit snacks too.

Cyber Cafe had some holiday options.

Raspberry gingerbread cheesecake was pretty awesome, and I don't normally like cheesecake.

Kevin approves of the rice krispy treats...wait, where did Kevin come from?! Oh and check out the sign for the Holiday mugs with free refills behind him.

Did not try the parfait, but maybe next time. Prices were really good too.

Deep fried Oreos!

Holiday hot dog just didn't do it for me.

If you like the wings, the chili cranberry sauce was pretty good. Reminded me of Mexican chili candy, sweet with a little heat.

Looked better than it was, maybe I just got a bad dog. But, the bun was dry, or overtoasted, the "stuffing" was more like bread crumbs, the cranberry was good, and so was the dog, but I was expecting better. It wasn't cheap either, for being a hot dog. Disappointed.

Best deal in the park if you ask me. Even better than the fair, and priced really well. These are not to be missed.

Oreos get a thumbs up from Kevin! Shut up Kevin!

Full Throttle sports bar.

Two holiday beers, Punkin' Weizen and Shockolate Wheat.

It was like almost 20 bucks for two beers, but it was good, it was cold and I'd probably buy it again.

I'd already eaten way too much, or I might have given the MVP meal a try, but maybe next time. So full of ham!

Okay, so you have this big light show, and you sell this stuff at the food location by said light show, but said food location is closed...?!!? Yeah, maybe the place closest to the light show should be open...maybe...probably...

I see you popcorn, but there's nobody there to sell you to me, or anybody else watching the lights. I bet the price of running all these lights could be offset by selling some snacks...maybe...probably...

One lap around the park, by time I get here...sold out. Were they good? I dunno...I DIDN'T GET ANY! Had money in hand, and you know, I bet they could offset the price of running all these holiday lights by selling holiday food, if only there was some food.

Singing one of them Frozen songs with snow blowing...my kids approve!

Yeah snow!

Funnel cake sundae, for 14 bucks it better be good.

You can kill a Peep in your hot chocolate. Die snowman, die!

Okay, not a fan fo the chocolate whatever funnel cake, but my kids (and Kevin) liked it. I probably would have went more for the regular funnel cake with some chocolate sauce and the peppermint, but chocolate funnel cake...not my thing.

So much to choose from!

 

Okay so there you go, food tasted, some good, some bad. Prices, some good, some bad. But in any case, lot's of options and I would dare say go and try some of the food for yourself, enjoy the lights, the snow and the music. Really nice event for their first year, hope to make it back and try the things I "missed".

Edited December 3, 2014 by fatdaddy

[DBJ]

Thanks for the reviews and the pics. Love the food reviews too! It looks a like a good first effort for the park to do something for the Christmas season.

[WFChris]

I had no idea they were even offering holiday food in the park. I totally would have tried some of it if I had known.

 

Perhaps they should have had some more noticeable signage in the themed areas to get you to go buy some.

[Jew]

Props to SFMM for using a local craft brew (wolf creek). I can forgive them for having fake craft brew (shock top) because of that!