Christmas arrives early in the capital

The countdown to Christmas started this week when the build of bmibaby Cardiff Winter Wonderland began on Monday 19 October.

Now in its ninth year it takes a team of 31 people, 25 days to put together Cardiff’s top Christmas attraction and with nearly half a million skaters having taken to the ice to date and the cast of Merlin ready to switch on the Christmas Lights on November 12 it is important that the team do everything on time and the man to oversee that job is Production Manager Matthew Faulkner.

Matthew says “This is my fifth year of overseeing the build of the open air ice skating rink and each year I enjoy watching the transformation take place from building site to Winter Wonderland.”

Turning the site into a winter wonderland is no easy task and it involves 5,000m of pipework to create the 40m by 22m wide rink, which holds the equivalent of 7 million ice cubes!

And if you thought putting your Christmas decorations up was difficult, spare a thought for the bmibaby Cardiff Winter Wonderland team who have to install 250 sets of Christmas lights , 100 Christmas trees, 200 meters of Christmas garland and 2,000 baubles!

Executive Member for Sport, Leisure and Culture, Cllr Nigel Howells, said: “Christmas wouldn’t be Christmas in Cardiff without bmibaby Cardiff Winter Wonderland. This seasonal delight offers everyone a great festive fun day out and I would like to thank Matthew and his team for all their hard work.”

bmibaby Cardiff Winter Wonderland is open from 12 November until 3 January offering 400 hours of skating over 52 days. For more information on bmibaby Cardiff Winter Wonderland including tickets, news, session details and entertainment listings visit www.bmibabycardiffwinterwonderland.com