Sweet Treats & Character Meets at Hersheypark Christmas Candylane!
After a long and busy spooky season, our channel finally (formally) started moving into the holiday season - and we could think of no better way to kick start the holidays than to pay a visit to our home park for Hersheypark’s 2023 Christmas Candylane event! The holiday offerings at Hersheypark include seasonal snacks, ride overlays, Santa’s reindeer, festive shows, and 5 million twinkling lights on display. The only downside for our visit this year was that we came too early to see Treeville, which would open on December 1st, 2023. We missed seeing all the themed trees and taking a nice gentle stroll through the Boardwalk area, but we still had a very busy day!
Our first stop of the day was Milton’s Ice Cream Parlor to kick off our seasonal snack crawl with the Milton’s Holiday Sandwich. This “holiday leftovers” sandwich featured roasted turkey, gravy, stuffing, and cranberry siracha sauce. We thought this was delicious, but wished there was a bit more cranberry siracha sauce; this was the standout ingredient that set it apart from similar sandwiches on the menu. Next, we wandered around the Hersheypark Supply Co. to look at holiday merchandise and treats at the Sweeterie, and then made our way into the park. After a quick stop in the Christmas Memories store in the park, we made our way to the old carousel which served as a Santa meet and greet last year. This year, Santa had to make room for Mrs. Claus and her dancing elves. That’s right, in addition to meeting Santa at Hersheypark, you can also meet Mrs. Claus and join her for a fun-filled dance party several times during the day. We really enjoyed this new show and meeting Mrs. Claus and all the delightful elves that make Christmas at Hersheypark very special.
But we weren’t done saying hello to characters yet, as our next stop was the Music Box Theater to greet some Hersheypark mascots in their festive attire. This is a great opportunity to step out of the cold and get a fun picture. After greeting Hershey and Reese, there were still MORE friends to meet. We headed straight for Santa’s Stables to meet the reindeer - all nine of them! Yes, they do have Rudolph at Hersheypark, but his nose only glows when his services are required. This is a special tradition for many families who visit Christmas Candylane and one we look forward to every year. The reindeer handlers are standing by to answer any of your burning questions, and photos or videos are both allowed and encouraged. After all the meeting and greeting, it was time for another snack!
The next thing on our list was Berk’s Holiday Hotdog. This was a 12” beef frank with roasted turkey, gravy, stuffing and cranberry aioli. If those ingredients sounded familiar to you, it’s because they are the same combinants that comprise the Holiday Sandwich - the difference being that your base is a hot dog instead of sandwich bread. Tim actually liked this snack better, because it had more of the cranberry aioli siracha! It was really tasty, but a bit unwieldy and very messy. A visit to Hersheypark is not complete without a stop at the East Coast Mini Donuts food truck, which often has seasonal flavors as well. We decided to try the hot cocoa seasonal donuts, accompanied by a free refill of Hershey’s hot cocoa as part of our King Size passholder perks. The donuts were deliciously warm, but the cocoa flavor was really subtle. If you want bigger flavor, check out the peppermint bark, sugar cookie, or apple pie mini donuts.
As the sunlight began to fade, we made our way to Kissing Tower Hill to prepare for a twilight ride on the Twin Turnpike Classic Cars and the Kissing Tower. The Kissing Tower is a must-do during Christmas Candylane for the perfect view of all 5 million lights on display. If your timing is lucky, you can even see the NOEL light show pop off across the park in the Hollow. As night fell, we wrapped up our holiday snack crawl with a visit to the Overlook café for the Turkey Gobbler pizza. Unfortunately, this was the most disappointing item of our crawl; however, our final snack redeemed the crawl in a hurry. The delicious Caramel Apple Pie King Size Shake from Simply Chocolate was a 10/10 dessert! We were expecting a vanilla shake with some apple garnishes but we were blown away that the shake actually tasted like apple pie. This was one of our favorite King Size shakes we have ever tried, and would love to see it return for Fall or Winter 2024.
After sharing the gigantic shake, we made our way to the Hollow for an up-close viewing of NOEL. This light show features more than 250,00 lights synchronized to your favorite holiday music and takes place every 30 minutes after 5:00PM. If the line isn’t too long and you can time it right, the Skyview gondolas make for a great vantage point. This year, we opted to go to the bridge by Sooperdooperlooper to watch it across Spring Creek. We wrapped up our festive and fun night with a ride on Laff Trakk as the wait was significantly shorter than earlier that day. This was our first time visiting Christmas Candylane on a Sunday - and it really did make a huge difference in crowd levels and in what we were able to accomplish, especially before the sun set. We had a fantastic day and really felt like we got into the holiday spirit in a hurry, thanks to our friends at Hershey. And - if you’re so inclined - you can check out our Christmas Candylane vlog below to get into the spirit with us!
