Right before Thanksgiving, Don and I headed over to Hersheypark for the opening weekend of Christmas Candylane!

Hersheypark kindly provided us with tickets for our visit, but all opinions are my own!

First things first - I went to Hersheypark a lot when I was younger. Comet was my first ever rollercoaster, and will always be my favorite! I loved the arcade games, stopping by Chocolate World, and riding anything that I was actually tall enough to ride. Though I don’t live too far from the parks, my visits were typically in the summer. Pennsylvania can get pretty chilly in the winter, and while I remember everything about our wonderful stays at Hershey Lodge during the holiday season, it’s been quite some time since I’ve seen the parks at this time of year. So you can imagine my excitement when I was able to revisit the actual theme park all dressed up for my favorite holiday!

Before walking through the entrance gates, I stopped to see how I measured up, since it’d been a while. Maybe it was just the boots, but I’m finally a Jolly Rancher - a.k.a., I can ride everything in the park!

The very first thing we did after entering the park was head over to Simply Chocolate to try some of the seasonal treats from the Hot Chocolate Bar! I chose the Reese’s Extreme hot chocolate (peanut butter hot chocolate topped with chocolate whipped cream, peanut butter sauce, Reese’s Pieces, and a peanut butter cookie bar for dipping), while Don opted for the Peppermint hot chocolate (peppermint hot vanilla topped with whipped cream, hot fudge, crushed peppermint, Candy Cane Kisses, and a sugar cookie bar for dipping). Each cup of cocoa is available for $5.99.

They were both absolutely DELICIOUS. Cocoa is one of my favorite treats this time of year, and there’s nothing better (or sweeter) than having a cup full of fresh Hershey’s chocolate!

In total, there are 5 different specialty hot chocolates to try - and I can’t wait to go back to try them all!

• Simply Hot Chocolate (hot chocolate topped with whipped cream, hot fudge, white and chocolate chips, and a double chocolate cookie bar)

• Reese’s Extreme (if you’re a Reese’s lover like me, be sure to get this one!)

• Toasted Marshmallow (toasted marshmallow hot chocolate topped with marshmallow whipped cream, hot fudge, marshmallows, and a graham cookie)

• Peppermint (Don really loved it!)

• Caramel (caramel hot vanilla with whipped cream, caramel syrup, Heath bits, Caramello, and a toffee cookie bar)

Of course, no trip to Hersheypark is complete without picking up some fresh chocolate. We usually go to Chocolate World and pick up a few things, but this time around, we opted to head to an in-park gift shop and treat ourselves to a 14oz. Hershey’s Kiss!

After grabbing our GIGANTIC Kiss and finishing up our cocoa, we made our way to the Kissing Tower to get the best view in the park! Once the park lights up for the night, be sure to head back up to the Tower to get a great view through the Hershey’s Kisses shaped windows!

Several rides and coasters are still open throughout the holiday season, including sooper dooper Looper, Wave Swinger, Pirate, Laff Trakk, Hershey Triple Tower, and more! We went back and forth between a few rides, and then spent most of our night warming up in the Overlook Arcade. After a few competitive rounds of Skee Ball and arcade hoops - all of which I lost - we tackled the infamous claw machine, and Don won me the cutest seasonal narwhal! By the time we finished celebrating our claw machine victory, it was time to watch the park light up for the night!

At 5pm every night (and every half hour after that), the NOEL light show begins in “The Hollow,” featuring over 200,000 lights choreographed to your favorite Christmas songs. You can get a great view of the show by hopping on SkyView, or standing right by the Kissmass Tree! In addition to the NOEL show, be sure to walk around the rest of the park to marvel at the rest of the beautifully lit trees, shrubs, and displays!

We ended our night by driving through Hershey Sweet Lights. Tickets for Sweet Lights are available for separate purchase, or can be bought in combination with your Christmas Candylane ticket for a discounted rate.

Sweet Lights consists of nearly 600 animated light displays, spread out across 2 miles of forest. When you pull up to the entrance, the attendant will tell you to tune in to a particular radio station, as many of the displays are coordinated to the songs playing on the station! You’ll drive past displays like Santa’s Reindeer, all 12 Days of Christmas, and through lands like “The Enchanted Forest,” and “Your Favorite Tales,” all while listening to the sounds of the season!

Christmas Candylane is open on select days now through January 1st, 2019. Plan your Hersheypark visit soon, and be sure to soak up all the Christmas magic this year!

Thanks for having us, Hersheypark!

Merrily,

Maya