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Season of Joy Special Event
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Kerney-cation attended the opening weekend for the Season of Joy event at Sawmill Creek. Cedar Point Resorts spared no expense in decorating the entire resort with Christmas Lights, Trees, and Wreaths. The special event runs during the Holiday Season, starting on Weekends on November 18th until December 16th, then runs daily until December 31st. The event ends with a New Year’s Eve party on the 31st in the Convention Center.
The Season of Joy hosts a list of activities for guests to enjoy during their stay at Sawmill Creek in addition to all of the Holiday décor. The activities include bow-making, wreath decorating, Carolers, and more!
Should you go?
Kerney-cation could not experience every activity since there was so much to see! The overall flow of the event has you start with staff-led activities during the day, starting in the Harvest Buffet area. The activities then shift to Mulligan’s Pub mid-afternoon with some mixology and trivia. Lastly, the activities and entertainment finish in the Rotunda and main resort building.
The activities seem to be geared toward the adult crowd overall. I would not consider this event a “kid-first” event. It seems that the target audience is an older crowd without young kids. Don’t get me wrong, they include children and families with some activities, but it feels like an afterthought.
We look forward to experiencing the “Castaway Christmas” which runs side-by-side with the Season of Joy event. We would have chosen this event, but we only discovered this event through browsing Castaway Bay’s website and not through any marketing pushed by Cedar Point. I wish they would market Castaway Bay’s event at the same level as Sawmill Creek.
Nonetheless, most of the events were kid friendly and accepting of kids overall, but I would not recommend this event for families with small children under the age of 7. Our kids were often bored, and we found that a large portion of the events had alcoholic beverages involved, so we did get some looks from other guests when we brought them along.
Harvest Daytime Activities
One of our favorite daytime activities was the Bow Making. This is a 30-minute activity led by the staff on creating a few different bows. It was also nice to keep the bows we made during class. The Wreath Making and ugly sweater activities did not allow you to keep your decoration. For the wreath making, you get a wreath to decorate, but return it after class.
We did not experience the ugly sweater decorating class. Still, we heard from other guests that they all shared in decorating one sweater, which takes away from the activity, in our opinion. Check out Shana’s featured Instagram story for some missed events!
We also did not experience the painting with a twist event since our kids had to nap. Alcoholic beverages were offered, and the class looked like fun. We recommend checking this event out if you can squeeze it into your schedule.
Merry Mulligan’s Pub Activities
We were able to make it to the “Naughty and Nice” mixology class, but it did not feel like a mixology class at all. I think the event planners were not expecting more than 5-10 people to attend this class, and there were about 30 people when we arrived. The mixology class description states you can make a naughty or nice (non-alcoholic) drink. No nice drink was offered, and it’s also worth mentioning that the kitchen is closed, and only a “limited” Bar Snacks menu is available. Plan on eating at the Miller’s Table or elsewhere for Dinner.
The class ended up being everyone watching the bartender batch make drinks off the holiday menu. You didn’t get to make your drink or learn how to do it other than the bartender announcing the composition of the “White Christmas” cocktail. I also would not consider the mixology class to be kid friendly. I recommend skipping this one if possible.
We heard good things about the Trivia called “Santa’s Helpers” and “A Sawmill Carol”, but we didn’t have time to experience it since we had to hunt down some food options instead.
Evening Entertainment
The evening entertainment is the best reason to stay at Sawmill Creek during the Season of Joy event. We loved the Mistletones, Carolers, Move night, A Merry Little Christmas Walk, and the nighttime sing-along activity. The Sing along is the most kid-friendly activity, and Delaney and Tucker were terrific with our kids. They get everyone involved in singing and pass around a Mic for the kids to sing along too! Highly recommend this activity if you have children with you.
The roaming Carolers were also very good. They sang a song just for our kids, which they loved! They are very friendly and great singers as well!
For Movie night, they showed “It’s a Wonderful Life” on Friday night and “National Lampoons Christmas Vacation” on Saturday Night. We were hoping for something a little more kid-friendly, but the kids could stick it out for about 20 minutes. They also had a Hot Cocoa Bar and Popcorn for the movies too!
A Merry Little Christmas Walk was very cool. It’s little, but full of decorations and lights for photo opportunities. They had a hot cocoa bar here as well, in addition to two outdoor firepits to stay warm!
Lastly, the piano player/singer combo was amazing. The kids were off to bed after that, but we did catch a glimpse of the Elf off-the-shelf tour comedy show, and people were laughing and seemed to enjoy it!
Conclusion
Is it worth staying at Sawmill Creek for the Season of Joy? I think it depends on you! If you are looking for a holiday pick-me-up for you and your significant other, I highly recommend staying one night. We stayed two, but it felt like it could all be done in one day if you didn’t have kids with you.
For families, I recommend checking out Castaway Christmas instead! It runs at the same time and is right down the street. It’s more family-friendly and has a waterpark for everyone to enjoy!
We also felt like it didn’t plan for higher capacity. I think the resort was planning on a minor engagement overall, so I recommend getting to all the events at least 15 minutes early to get a good seat! Most of the events were packed on Saturdays. Friday and Sunday are likely to have smaller crowds.
Everyone seems to follow the same path of starting at Harvest, heading to Mulligan’s, then back to the resort, so it doesn’t do a great job of spreading people out until the evening with the Movie and sing-along upstairs in the Huron Room and the adult activities in the Rotunda.
Also, be sure to check out the holiday drink menu. All the adult beverages were delicious!
Feel free to comment if you attended and what you thought of it!
