In the Harry Potter world, Hogwarts at Christmas would be really magical especially for a love-deprived, orphan child like Harry Potter. The Warner Bros Studios, located 20 miles outside of London in Leaveden, have really gone out of their way to capture some of that magic on the tours. It’s one of the best Harry Potter experiences you can have in the UK if you are in the country in December and January.
Upon entering the studio, you are greeted by a giant tree covered in snow with presents underneath.
The first stop on the tour is the Christmas dinner for the Hogwarts students in the Great Hall of the School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. The props are the actual ones used in Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone. You can almost feel like the students are just about to enter for the feast.
Apparently in the real movie, they used real food but this scene is set with food cast in resin. It definitely looks real though!
Lining the Great Hall are eight decorated Christmas trees festooned with baubles.
The giant fireplace flickers with “real” fire.
This time-lapse video shows the Great Hall being prepared for Christmas.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TWgDz9GilIo]
The last stop on the tour is a gigantic 1:24 scale model of Hogwarts covered in snow (or salt if you want to be technical). It took 40 people to make this hyper-realistic model.
The Warner Bros Studio experience of Hogwarts at Christmas is an annual winter event. You will need to book in advance as these tours are very popular. We were only able to book an evening slot which wasn’t really great for us in terms of clashing with dinner time. On the day, however, we called the studios and got the time changed to an early afternoon slot which worked much better for us. It was also very easy for us to drive to Leavesden. Our friends, however, took a train to Watford and were taken the rest of the way by the special studio bus which was also well run.
