A Miniature Winter Wonderland in Athy

Little Gift Shop on the Alps

If there was ever a time when I wanted to be a couple of millimetres tall, it was this morning. 

This morning standing outside this window display, looking in.

Bradbury’s Bakery on Leinster Street, Athy have outdone themselves yet again this year with their Christmas window.

Since it appeared over the weekend, we have been craning our necks in the car as we pass the bakery shop front on the school run each morning. 

For a change I am willing the traffic lights ahead to change, change GO to red so we can stop and have a little look.  

The entire window is a perfect winter wonderland with ski slopes complete with skiers, a miniature bakery, a gingerbread house and a Christmas gift shop.  The town’s population are making snowmen, skating on the pond and buying Christmas trees.

These little skaters actually whirl around!

I was hugely impressed with the little cart at the skating pond.  Take a look.

It is my wish come true; a little cappuccino cart.  And if I am not mistaken, he has some warm croissants piled up there too.

The boys were entranced with the Ferris wheel.  Which moves, by the way.  Round and round complete with teeny tiny passengers and flashing lights.

Moving Ferris wheel

A little train makes its way through a tunnel up on one of the slopes. 

Santa himself is flying overhead in his aeroplane. 

It is a magical scene.  No detail has been forgotten.  Even the trees are wearing their winter colours and snow coats.

Every window in every building has a flickering light.  The street lamps are lit.  Some of the houses even have porch lights.  There are even tiny holly wreaths hung up on the carousel at the Christmas carnival.

If you are of a mind to kneel down and do a bit of peeking in through the windows of the houses, you will see families inside.      

There are several types of dogs running about or just standing still, taking it all in.  Lovely Liam spotted a black lab with a red collar, like our own dog, having a sniff at the bottom of a lamp post.

And just when you think you have seen it all from the street, if you take a moment to go into the bakery, there is still more to see from the other side of the town.

Winter Wonderland

Children building snowmen and beside them two more on a moving see saw.

Frosty the Snowman

A little Christmas gift shop with a candy cane entrance and a family buying their Christmas tree.

There is so much to see, so many things to point out and after half an hour of looking at it from every angle, we kept discovering something new.

One thing that stood out for me and made the winter wonderland all the more special was the absence of road traffic. 

It was a village snow scene with a single train wending its way across the mountain but cars, trucks and lorries were noticeably absent.

The only vehicle I saw was a man pulling a sled with his child on it in front of my friend the cappuccino seller.

It is a thing of beauty.  If you are finding it hard to feel the festive spirit, you could do a lot worse than pop into Bradbury’s of Leinster Street, Athy for a coffee and a scone. 

To be eaten in the front of the shop, of course, where the hot drink will warm your hands and body and the snowy winter wonderland will surely warm your heart.

Disclosure:  I took an hour this morning to walk down Leinster Street with Lovely Liam and Smallest Boy with the express intention of showing them Bradbury’s beautiful window display.  It is my pleasure to write about it.  All opinions are my own and I have not been paid to give them.