West Valley Wonderland at State Farm Stadium!

 

I am always on the look out for fun new pop-up events in Arizona that are family friendly & will get us out of the house for a bit, so I was happy to receive an invite to check out a new holiday pop-up event called the West Valley Wonderland. West Valley Wonderland took place over the weekend at State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona. If you've been following me for a while you might have seen the announcement I put up for the event back in October. This is the events first year, but I hope they come back again next year. 

This was a holiday shopping market mixed with a small holiday event for families. There are a few dozen shops selling a range of products from treats & food to clothing, books, toys and more. Along side the shops there were also a few local companies such as the Boys & Girls club of America promoting what their programs have to offer. 

Shopping wasn't the only thing found at the West Valley Wonderland, there were bounce houses for the kids, free pictures with Santa, bumper boats on ice, a mechanical reindeer, a human claw machine, photo opportunity areas set up, craft spots for small children and live entertainment. Some of the activities such as the bounce houses were free, while others like the bumper cars & human claw machine were $10 per play. The human claw machine had a bit full of large Squishmallows and players were allowed to grab any one they wanted when lowered down into the pit. 

On your way into the event they had a caroling group performing & a red carpet which had a light tunnel surrounding it that led you into the entrance where there was falling "snow" (bubbles). We thought it was a lovely, we enjoyed browsing the shops & actually ended up buying a few more things than we thought we were going to. I thought there was a decent assortment of products to browse, 80% of the shops were handmade sellers and others were an assortment of larger companies/resellers. All of the vendors were friendly & seemed to be enjoying the market. 

Between browsing the vendors & stopping for a little bit to watch the performers we were at the event for just under two hours. Parking was included in the price & even though there was a decent amount of people when we arrived it didn't take very long to get past security, get scanned in & walk down to the area where the event was held. I hope this is an event that continues to come back during the holidays & even possibly for two weekends instead of one each year, I think it is a fun way for families to get a bit of holiday shopping done together while having a good time. 

Here is a look at most of what we purchased while we were at the event, minus a piece of art & a cup of churros! 

Disclaimer- The Encore Agency provided four tickets for this event, for this review free of charge no other compensation was provided. However, no product compensation will influence the outcome of any review. My honest opinions are used in all reviews, they are solely my own & they may vary from others. My reviews are posted for readers in order to provide an informed decision before purchase.