Review: Phantom Peak’s Wintermas (2025)
- Immersive Rumours
- 3 days ago
- 6 min read
Phantom Peak caps off the year with another set of exceptionally fun festive trails in their top-tier Christmas offering, Wintermas.
Photo: Alistair Veryard
Hot on the heels of its recent Halloween season, Phantom Peak returns with its annual festive offering, Wintermas. Running until 18th January 2026, this Christmas edition of the open-world immersive experience brings with it 11 new story trails, a festive retheme to the town, and the latest developments in its three-year-long overarching storyline, which is close to reaching a climax with the much-teased 'Great Undoing' now on the horizon.
As an experience, Phantom Peak continues to offer excellent value for money, endless opportunities for engaging and fun interactions with the show's cast, and some of the sharpest and funniest writing available in any production, anywhere in the country. With Wintermas, the show's creative team have delivered another stellar collection of trails that are up there with some of the best they've ever produced.
Photo: Alistair Veryard
Regular visitors to the mining town will be familiar with the show's tried-and-tested formula, which has been continually tweaked and refined with each passing season. Four times a year, there's a town-wide retheme, accompanied by a fresh batch of story trails that deepen the town's already dense lore. Through these trails, guests explore the 30,000 sq ft town, interact with Phantom Peak's 15+ residents, engage with the numerous pieces of off-kilter tech, and solve puzzles over the show's 4-hour duration. While the focus of each storyline differs wildly from trail to trail, they're all packed full of humour and lead you down a rabbit hole far more bizarre, irreverent and offbeat than the starting point ever suggested.
For those keen to collect all of this season's individual trail cards, which are given to guests upon completion of each storyline, it'll take at least 3 visits. That's without giving yourself time to sink your teeth into the various other distractions on offer around town, which this season include a trio of carnival games, fully functional in-world arcade machines, communal competitions, the ever-popular competitive sport of Platyhooks, and, of course, a visit to Father Platmas' Grotto (which is an additional upcharge).
Photo: Alistair Veryard
Picking up the ongoing storyline from Phantom Peak's Hallowed Peak season, this year's Wintermas finds the town reeling from Mayor Pocket's recent removal from office after failing to capture several fugitives wanted by JONACO - the all-knowing corporation that oversees Phantom Peak. At the top of the Most Wanted list was the sausage-fingered Dr Furbish, the town's previous Mayor. Previously thought to have died years earlier in a blimp crash, Furbish is in fact alive and well, living in puppet form and currently taking part in a reality dating series on the Moon (stay with us here…). For Wintermas, JONACO's Head of Marketing, Lovehart, has assumed the role of Temporary Mayor, and as usual, demi-god Father Platmas has returned to town, ready to wreak havoc and decree who's made it onto the Naughty and Nice lists.
Those already feeling overwhelmed at the mention of well-established lore, backstories and power struggles can rest assured that, despite already having 160+ trails under their belt, Phantom Peak goes out of its way to ensure that newcomers to the town can follow what's going on. Besides needing to become familiar with which townsfolk are which and where to find them within the town (both of which are covered by the Town Noticeboards and physical Town Maps), progressing through the trails is a surprisingly intuitive process that offers little in the way of true obstacles.
Photo: Alistair Veryard
While Wintermas should be the happiest time of year in Phantom Peak, many of the townsfolk once again find themselves with major problems that can only be solved by the town's tourists. For General Store owner Datchery, the proposed construction of a railway station in Phantom Peak by Ebenezer Scrooge-like railway tycoon Myne Bland is threatening to see their store knocked down. JonaPost worker Littlefield isn't having a much better time, with an ever-growing backlog of correspondence passing their desk and the recurring issue of mail mysteriously transforming upon delivery. For Pergiate, the town's resident administrator, their issues are of the familial kind, as they scramble to keep their overbearing parents away from their new partner.
Capitalism and consumerism also play a part in this year's Wintermas, with each townsfolk ready to write a cheque when needed to get things done. 'Coffee is for Closers', which focuses on Loveharts' attempt to hold onto their job as Head of Marketing for JONACO, sees guests trying to sell plastic figurines to the townsfolk and gives them a chance to unleash their inner Jordan Belfort in an attempt to secure the largest order possible.
Photo: Alistair Veryard
Although Phantom Peak's core mechanics have largely remained the same since its first season back in 2022, the overall experience remains hugely engaging and entertaining thanks to the ever-changing selection of trails that come with each new season. Working through the trails on offer this season, guests will find themselves shapeshifting constantly, stepping into the shoes of everything from temporary postal workers and journalists to undercover railway workers and toy experts at a moment's notice in order to progress through the variety of stories on offer.
We can say with some certainty that Phantom Peak is the only immersive show to ever exist that has asked its guests to roleplay as plumbers to save a half-man, half-fish trapped in a pipe, and that's only one of the many bizarre situations guests may find themselves in this Wintermas season.
Photo: Alistair Veryard
Each of the trails on offer this Wintermas moves at a brisk pace, taking anywhere from 45 minutes to an hour to complete (depending on how quickly groups want to work through them) and provides plenty of chances to interact with Phantom Peak's townsfolk, who are the backbone of the experience. With a cast fully committed to improvising and responding to whatever tourists are asking them, every interaction with the town's residents has the potential to be the highlight of a visit. As with so many immersive experiences, the more you put into it, the more you'll get out of it, so don't shy away from interacting with the show's cast whenever you get a chance, even if they're not directly tied into the trail you're working through.
Outside of the trails, the show's closing ceremony features the traditional group sing-along of the Wintermas carol 'Platypus In The Snow' and a showdown between Mayor Pocket and Father Platmas. While earlier seasons of Phantom Peak would often tie up a lot of loose threads from its story trails during the closing ceremony, recent seasons have moved away from this in favour of large-scale dance numbers performed by the townsfolk. This Wintermas, this final performance sees Father Platmas possess all of the townsfolk to ridicule Pocket and give a final judgement on which list both the townsfolk and tourists are on. A final Wintermas wish is granted, with the arrival of snow in the Town Square, which closes out the 4-hour-long experience.
Photo: Alistair Veryard
As part of Phantom Peak's ongoing, multi-season storyline, there are several nods to The Great Undoing - an event that's been teased for well over a year and will usher in the end of Phantom Peak's time in their Canada Water venue sometime in 2026.
While details of where the show will be moving to remain under wraps for now, Phantom Peak's producers are clearly confident that there's still a lot of story left to uncover in the mining town, and their upcoming change of venue has allowed the show's storyline to carry far greater stakes for both the town and those who inhabit it.
With Wintermas, Phantom Peak has delivered another outstanding season. Through its open-world, free-roaming design and unique story structure, which lets guests work at their own pace without fear of missing out on anything, the show's creators have landed upon a winning formula that season after season produces some of the most engaging, rewarding, and hilarious encounters available in the immersive world.
★★★★★
Phantom Peak's Wintermas runs until 18th January 2026 in Canada Water. To find out more and to book tickets, visit phantompeak.com
For more reviews of immersive experiences like Phantom Peak's Wintermas, check out our recent Reviews.