Christmas at Universal Studios

“Maybe Christmas, he thought, doesn’t come from a store. Maybe Christmas, perhaps, means a little bit more.” -The Grinch

We had the honor of being invited to visit Universal Studios to experience all of their holiday festivities. It was our first time taking the kids and the first time for my husband and I to see the park at Christmas time. We were all very excited, especially to see Grinchmas, since we are all huge fans of the movie The Grinch. So here is our visit during Christmas at Universal Studios…

We started our day just getting to know the park a bit. Walking around enjoying the Christmas decorations, running into lots of characters and riding a few rides.

Check out all the holiday fun @UniStudios this Christmas! #universalstudios #grinchmas #hosted Click To Tweet

Some of the rides that the kids loved were: Kung Fu Panda, Despicable Me Minion Mayhem, Silly Swirly Fun Ride and the world famous studio tour.

Then we headed to Grinchmas for all the Christmas fun! You can meet lots of adorable characters; Max the dog, the Mayor and other Who-villes.

You can head to the Who-Ville Post Office to write a letter to the Grinch and send it. At certain times Cindy-Lou Who is waiting for you there and you can take photos with her.

There is also an opportunity to meet the Grinch himself, but I will warn you that the line was very long (we waited just over 60 minutes). But he really was so wonderful and fun to meet in real life. I suggest one parent going to wait in line while the other takes the kids to do something else.

There are shows that perform throughout the day that you don’t want to miss. We loved watching Martha May and The Who-Dolls (which you can briefly meet after). The Wholiday Singers and the Wholiday Tree Lighting. The shows do get very busy, so I suggest getting there early to get a good seat, especially for the tree lighting, which happens every half hour starting at 5:30pm till park closing.

We also made our way over to The World of Harry Potter, which also had some holiday activities. The Frog Choir is out singing Christmas carols, special HOT butterbeer and other holiday treats. As well as some collectible Christmas merchandise.

Our daughter’s favorite ride of the day was inside the World of Harry Potter called Flight of Hippogriff (must be 39″ tall to ride). My husband and I also tried Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey (must be 48″ to ride). This was a super cool, fully immersive ride, but if you tend to get motion sickness this is not the ride for you!:)

If you stay until the evening you can also catch snow fall inside the World of Harry Potter and a projection show on the castle themed to Harry Potter music. The shows are every half hour starting around 5:40pm. This show is VERY POPULAR so plan on some big crowds. We were actually not able to see it due to the popularity, but some of my other blogger friends posted videos and it was absolutely gorgeous. The pictures below are from Universal and I can see why everyone wanted to see it!;)

I had a few people ask me what age I thought would be good to take your kids to Universal Studios for the Christmas season. In my opinion, I was pleasantly surprised at how much our kids could do even at their ages (which is 4 and 6). Before, I thought of Universal Studios being more of a teen/adult theme park, but we definitely had a great time. I don’t think it’s perfect for babies or young toddlers, but maybe age 3 and older would be more ideal. Especially if they have seen the Grinch movie and love all the characters!

Have you ever gone to Universal Studios? What about at Christmas time? If you are looking for tips for Super Nintendo World inside Universal Studios, make sure to read THIS POST!!!