Winter Wonderland with Goats offers animals, holiday festivities

Despite the cold weather on Sunday, people of all ages roamed the paths of Spring Haven Farm. Some sat by a firepit with warm drinks in hand. Others hand-fed chickens and bunnies that poked their heads through their enclosures. Around them, a dog, a few cats and guinea fowl roamed freely among the land. 

However, tucked away in the back corner is the farm’s star animal: goats. Over 20 goats were enclosed in the wide pen, with elementary-aged children running alongside them. 

These goats are part of Spring Haven Farm’s Winter Wonderland with Goats experience, which the farm will host five days a week until the end of the year.

Despite its name, the experience has more to offer than just the goats. Visitors can also feed chickens, bunnies and the many other animals that Spring Haven has scattered around their farm. To feed the animals, visitors can purchase bags of carrots and grains that the farm sells for a dollar each.

There are also plenty of non-animal related activities for visitors to enjoy. They can sit around a fire pit with a cup of hot cocoa, request a ride on a tractor or take photos at a festive photo station. 

For Cullen Crihfield, the co-owner of Spring Haven Farm, his favorite part about the event is the Craft Barn, where younger visitors can make many different types of Christmas ornaments. 

“We have selfie ones where you can take a picture and put it inside a little snow globe, or we have paintable animals that the kids can decorate, and it's always fun to see how inventive they can be,” he said.

Although the farm has only been open to the public since 2016, Crihfield said it has been in the family since the early 2000s. His mother, a horseback riding instructor who wanted a place to board horses and give lessons, was the reason the Crihfields bought their current property.

However, once their mother made a career change to emergency medicine, Crihfield and his father Andrew Crihfield took over the property. Although the two tried growing vegetables to sell at the local farmers’ market, it wasn’t enough to sustain the business.

The solution lay in the many animals they had on their farm.

“We're a no-kill property,” he said. “All of our chickens stay here and live their whole lives. All of our goats are pet goats, so they're not very good for making money unless you have people come out and see them.”

Since then, the farm has held many goat-related events like goat yoga, pumpkin carving with goats and movie nights with goats.

“Goats are definitely the star of the show,” Stella Berzsenyi, the farm’s event coordinator, said. “They have the most personality and they're the only animal on the farm that we let people go into their pen with.”

The farm’s Winter Wonderland event started in 2018 to offer a Christmas-themed event for customers.

This year, Spring Haven Farm added some new features that will enhance their usual Winter Wonderland experience. New animals like alpacas and emus were added to the farm, and a handful of new pastures were built to spread the animals out.

Megan Bracy, a Raleigh resident who visited the farm on Sunday, said she noticed that it seemed to have finished all their projects since the last time they had visited.

Bracy’s 6-year-old daughter and her friends played in the goat enclosure as part of her daughter’s birthday party. 

However, it wasn’t the first time they had been to the farm. Bracy said they were given a Zen Goat Day as a gift, where they got to spend quality time with baby goats. Since then, they’ve visited the farm a few more times.

“It's really fun, better than a petting zoo,” she said.

Shudy Du, a UNC senior, also visited the farm on Sunday with her friend. The two were searching for things to do in the area and found the farm online.

“I like how free-reign it is both for the animals and for us,” Du said. We can just go around on [our] own time and pet the animals.”

The farm will also be hosting Santa on Dec. 8 for visitors to take photos with him — something they’re doing for the first time this year. Visitors can also eat pizzas and sandwiches from the food truck “A Little Salt & Pepper,” which will be on the farm during the weekends.

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