Center Parcs has thrown off its European origins to become a Great British tradition, and there’s no better time to visit one of the country’s four villages than the depths of winter.

Go before Christmas and you find yourself in a winter wonderland, especially at our Center Parc of choice, Whinfell Forest up near Penrith.

A two-hour drive from Bradford brought us to Whinfell early Monday afternoon, the sky already darkening with the extreme winter weather that had been threatened for the past couple of days.

Normally a snow warning brings a sinking feeling as you prepare to dig the car out and negotiate treacherous roads on the way in to work, but that’s the beauty of Center Parcs.

You arrive, unload and dump the car and that’s the last you see of it until the end of the week. You get around the vast wooded site either on foot or by bicycle, as we did, and when snow finally comes, it brings with it that sense of wonder that you’d forgotten about since childhood.

Whinfell had thrown everything at making Christmas special for those visiting in the run up to the festive season. The village centre – a collection of shops, restaurants and cafes assembled around a veritable playground of a swimming pool – is decked out with fairy lights and festive tableaux, and a host of Christmas-themed attractions are on offer.

Having collected the bikes and got rid of the car, we cosied up in our New Style Woodland Lodge, a single-storey three-bedroomed property, one of the lodges recently given a stylish overhaul by Tara Bernerd of the London design consultancy Target Living.

Gone are the slightly Seventies fixtures and fittings, to be replaced with sleek chrome, warm oranges, and a huge mural in the living area that brings the outside right indoors.

It’s tempting when you get settled in your lodge to simply throw a couple of logs on the open fire and cosy up, but there’s so much to see and do.

Center Parcs can be an expensive break if you let it; of all the attractions only the swimming is free. But the joy of the holiday is being in the great outdoors, and the sense of being hidden away from the rest of the world and its problems. You’re in a place where the joy of seeing a red squirrel scamper up a pine tree, or a flop-eared rabbit bound by your window, is unparalleled.

Charlie, five, and Alice, who turned four while we were at Center Parcs, enjoyed taking advantage of the traffic-free roads for some cycling practice, and loved exploring the woods near our lodge – one of a terrace of three, but built so it felt completely private.

On Tuesday we woke up to the first snowfall – a truly magical experience. Claire went off to the Aqua Sana spa to enjoy some much-needed “me time” with a facial, while me and the kids went to a workshop where we made Christmas stockings and cards, with lashings of PVA glue and glittery bits, which we were picking out of our hair all week.

The centrepiece of the Christmas season at Whinfell is the magical Father Christmas grotto. We took a horse-and-carriage ride around the park, which culminated at the fantastic Christmas village that had been erected in the heart of the woods.

Charlie and Alice’s faces were a picture as we, after a short wait, got to see Father Christmas himself…he patiently listened to their Christmas wish-lists, and after asserting that they had been good all year, sent them on their way with a small gift and a photo to treasure.

There’s a variety of eating options at Whinfell. You can take your own food, of course, or buy it from the reasonably-priced Parc Market mini-mart at the village centre.

We tried three of the restaurants; firstly a belt-loosening Christmas carvery at the Lakeside Inn, a traditional pub built on the shores of Whinfell’s centrepiece pond (frozen over, to the chagrin of the ducks!). A full three-course meal in front of a roaring log fire, with pudding and brandy sauce for afters made for drooping eyes…until it was time to mount those bikes for a bracing ride back to the lodge.

We also went to Huck’s, in the style of an American diner, and Bella Italia, a popular choice for family eating. None of them are rip-off prices, and the staff are generally attentive and professional, with a high standard of food.

We also took in a Christmas pantomime, Sleeping Beauty, in the Green Room venue, which was very well done, but our family pony trekking had to be cancelled because of the even heavier snowfall on the Thursday.

There’s so much to do at Center Parcs that there’s a danger you might overload yourselves with activities when you pre-book.

There is much joy to be had simply walking through the forest, or enjoying the comfort of your lodge of an evening. We had a huge amount of fun making a gigantic snowman, and after so much fresh air and running around, a good night’s sleep is guaranteed for everyone.