 Last week, we took a trip to Disneyland Paris. Baby Gamer has been wanting to go for months, she loves watching the parades and the shows on YouTube and was excited to finally get to see their happiest place on earth for herself. Watching her reaction to the park was incredibly heartwarming, especially when she met her favourite princesses, or saw a beloved character during a parade. Seeing this place through the eyes of a child really helps to make Disneyland magical. It's not always easy as adults to embrace this kind of fantasy, but for our little daughter, this stuff is all so real that it's hard not to get caught up in her excitement. This idea of reality vs fantasy is at the heart of the Disneyland experience, and to a certain extent, it's something that all of us have to explore within ourselves as we get older. At what point do we lay down the passions of our childhood and stop believing wholeheartedly in our favourite myths? Childhood nostalgia is big business at present. Companies have a vested interest in keeping their customers wrapped up in the hype surrounding their brands, and this can make things feel more than a little shallow over time. We've all seen the corporate tie-ins that break immersion. When something you care about gets twisted and corrupted for the sake of selling cheap merchandise, it can be hard to maintain optimism. One of the many big name brands that currently falls under the Disney umbrella is Star Wars. In the time since the House of Mouse purchased George Lucas' Media Empire, the world has seen four new Star Wars movies of varying quality, and a pair of video games that failed to do justice to the source material. In the wake of this rapid-fire barrage of Star Wars ephemera, it can be easy to feel despondent or to lose interest in the galaxy far, far away. It's possible to get tired of this stuff, no matter how important Star Wars might have been to you as a child. If you find yourself in this situation, know that the Star Wars rides at Disneyland are the perfect antidote to apathy. Star Tours is an incredible experience. You whizz around in a little shaking box wearing 3D glasses, as tie-fighters and X-wings zoom past overhead. Then, there's Hyperspace Mountain, a retooling of a ride that already existed at Disneyland, but which now sells the experience of following the Millennium Falcon through space. What's really impressive is just how well these rides do at making the Star Wars universe feel real and palpable. There's something in the stripped-back, simplified experience that makes it so much easier to embrace the essence of the rides. Star Tours doesn't sell a big, complex, character-driven narrative. Instead, it communicates the feeling of Star Wars so that any passenger on the ride can imagine themselves as the hero of their very own space opera. Maybe sometimes. That's what we need in life. Perhaps, instead of trying to reach for more mature, grown-up experiences, we just need to be reminded of what it feels like to be a child. Nostalgia is a challenging concept. It's easy to get so wrapped up in trying to emulate your childhood that you lose sight of the bigger picture. Ultimately, you're not the same person you were when you were a child, and it can be hard to get back to your earlier mindset in order to really enjoy something you used to love. There's also a danger that you may feel that the things of your past aren't as important as they used to be. You may, for whatever reason, feel like, in order to be a grown-up, you need to cast aside the trappings of your youth. This, likely, is at the heart of the gritty reboot trend that we see in films and games. People want to relive their childhood fantasies, but they also demand that these stories grow up with them. Hence, we get grumpy, angry fiction that often loses sight of what made these fantasy worlds so appealing to us in the first place. Disneyland almost feels like a detox for this kind of unhelpful view on adulthood. The park is unashamedly earnest, in spite of the large price tags that are attached to all the food and souvenirs. It's hard to stay cynical when wandering around in the park, especially if there's a small child with you who is wholeheartedly embracing the fantasy that's provided to her. It's possible to argue that the whole experience is manufactured and fake, but it's very real for the children who choose to embrace it, no matter how old they might be. There's something wonderfully refreshing about being able to see the world through the eyes of a child. This isn't about revisiting nostalgia so much as it is embracing the essence of childhood innocence. Disneyland is far from the only place that you can get this experience, but the trip was certainly worthwhile for all of us. There is nothing in all the world that's better than watching a little girl get a hug from her favourite princess. Or, feeling like a true space hero after twisting and turning on a Star Wars roller coaster. Obviously, mileage can vary, but if there's a moral to our experience at Disneyland, it's that if you can find something that brings you genuine joy, you should hold on to it. The world is a much nicer place if you let yourself have some fun. Oh, and if there's a second moral, it's that the It's a Small World ride is utterly terrifying.