To think I need a bank loan to visit Santa

Garage grotto is will be an experience and memory you’ll get far more mileage out of! Particularly if something doesn’t go quite right. E.g Santa suit being that little bit too tight and ripped when DH sat in The chair/ DC said “hello daddy” instead of “hello Santa” 😂

my grandad did something similar when we were growing up and we always still have a giggle about how sweaty he got in the suit/ the hat kept falling off every time he moved/ how the fake beard kept going up his nose and made him sneeze loads 😅😅

knowing that you’re not spending tons of money on an “experience” will reduce the pressure for it to be AMAZING

Spot on, exactly. It doesn’t need to be this crazy expensive, it shouldn’t be this crazy expensive. I agree so many things to do, cheaply so, but which have a genuine festive feel to them. The Christmas Carol concerts, at the local church, buying a hot chocolate at the local Christmas market, making some of your own Christmas decorations and so much more, and it doesn’t have to cost an arm and a leg. But some people are convinced that’s it’s about the material things, and that by spending so much of your money, often money that you don’t have, on your kids, on your loved ones, that you are showing them love. But what is loving about getting into debt, just for one single day? And not to mention , how it creates the expectation, from the children to get more, and more expensive things, every subsequent year.

That is possibly the most lurid and un-Christmassy recipe suggestion I have ever seen! Amusing though.

I have to say I agree with this, and I absolutely LOVE Christmas so this really isn’t me hating on Christmas, we have always had big family christmases and do lots of Christmassy things throughout December, but none of us ever spend above what we can afford and wouldn’t even consider going into debt for Christmas.

A few years ago I was working in a role part of which involved supporting people with debt and I remember so many women who were calling up with maxed out Very & Argos store cards as well as £1000’s on credit cards which they said had been used for Christmas presents for kids etc.

And on top of that there’s now the pressure to do the expensive Christmas activities beforehand which can easily be £200+ for a family of 4. It’s crazy money that people feel they have to spend even when they can’t afford it.

There are so many ways to have a magical Christmas time without breaking the bank. We attend a carol service at Church, we have always gone to a garden centre to look at all the decs and picked out a new family bauble (since we were babies and now husband and I are doing the same with our baby), get wrapped up and walk round the streets to see all the lights, make biscuits & cakes, family christmas movie night etc… but none of those things make a fab Insta pic!

But this is why, so often Christmas is a con. People getting into debt, trying to create a “perfect” Christmas, spending hundreds if not thousands of pounds, for what is essentially one day, spending a tonne in the build up to “big day”, because it feels all “Christmassy”, or whatever. I think the pressure is greatest on parents. I personally know some lovely mums, who regularly spend over a thousand pounds, per child, on Christmas presents, and are still paying for the previous Christmases, because they put it all on their credit cards. For the most part, I think Christmas is an over hyped, expensive illusion.

The thing that started to irritate me was the fact that so many of the Santa visits were marketed at the whole family. We went to a lovely set-up in a local garden centre, complete with reindeer and a Christmas trail with very elaborate displays. But most of the time we were queuing and, because it was 'fun for the whole family', we had to pay for everyone, as opposed to simply paying for the DCs' presents. It was all very pretty but absolutely extortionate. Not to mention the fact that letting me loose in a so-called garden centre, complete with teapots, yarn and preserved ginger is a very costly business🤣

When we were kids we were taken to the local church and usually recognised who was playing Santa. We got a plastic jewellery set or a bow and arrow and they were in bits by the time we got home, flimsy tat that they were. I don't feel I missed out.

There are a few opportunities where I live to visit Santa as part of various Christmas fairs and they are usually very reasonable. We mostly took our DC to those when they were small. In saying that, it was usually only the eldest as DS2 hated Santa visits.

If you’re anywhere near Lincolnshire, Baytree’s Garden Centre do a Santa Grotto every year.

You go through a winter wonderland, ride a train in a circle for a couple of minutes, go through Santas Grotto and then meet Santa and get a gift. You can even see real life reindeer and pay a few pence to feed them carrots

link

I never went to visit Father Christmas as a child. I knew the opportunity existed and knew they were fake years before I stopped believing in him, so didn’t see the point. Clearly my parents’ approach as they were very abstemious. My kids went to the charity fundraiser one in our village. My husband even volunteered to be Father Christmas one year. You need somewhere low-key like that.

Are there any town halls or community centres in towns surrounding you? Ours does Santa at the town hall every year and it's a £1 donation to visit.

I quite fancied the panto, but it’s £50 a ticket.

Gets quite expensive for a family!

Our local library does one and its £2 and it is magical, they make such a huge effort. Garden centres also do it and they are reasonable too. Where roughly are you? I'm in Hampshire so could share lots of local ones if you're based near here.

I agree the prices are getting a bit out of hand!

We did one last year with 3yo which was at a local attraction and the cost was £10 per child on top of the normal day entrance fee. This got a visit to the grotto, a craft session to make a keepsake bauble, and a story session with the elves which was really lovely and I thought it was pretty reasonable considering all the normal stuff was still open and available and it was a full day out.

Admittedly, this year I have booked a “Dinner with Santa” event in a ‘nice’ place for the weekend before Christmas for DH, 4yo and I which has cost quite a bit. But DH isn’t here for Christmas this year as he leaves to go back to work on the 23rd for 3 weeks and I’m working 6days a week in Dec until then so its our only Christmas Day out this year 🎄

My child never wanted to go so we didn't bother

Yes, check charities.

One near us does a children’s Christmas party- Punch and Judy, face painting, disco, bit of food and Santa’s grotto all included- approximately £5 a ticket.

Its all about the 'Making memories' hype which is a big thing atm. Everything is a memory, right back to when my boys were small, over 30 years back, it consisted of queuing up in a church hall, and going into a pretty tinsel and light strewn grotto, telling Santa what they would like for Christmas and then a photo and present with Santa and an Elf, a present on the way out, which often consisted of a book or colouring book and pencils.
That was a big day in their calendar and they were so happy with it, it was magical.
And yes I would fall into all the rip offs nowadays if they were still small, not wanting them to miss out.
Oh and just a quickie, please avoid all the ones that involve reindeer, apparently it really stresses them out and makes them quite ill, being transported about and stood in small, and often concrete enclosures, with noise all around them. It is actual cruelty. There is lots online about it.

We also do the Christmas fayres to see Santa as it's usually very cheap. We also did a "stories with Santa" thing last year for a tenner which included some nibbles, a decent present and a good chat with Santa.

Our town also puts on a Santa tour every Christmas eve, every street in the town is visited by Santa on his sleigh and given sweets (Santa is on a trailer pulled by a transit van 😂) it's fantastic for the kids

YANBU.

But we found a lovely one last year run by a children's charity which had a lovely little elf trail followed be a Santa visit. We were the only ones in there for our visit and the kids got to choose a tree decoration from his tree for their gift.

It was perfect.

And then outside the exit, we got fleeced by the pester power for £5 gold coins in a pouch next to the 'gram photo backdrop.

Not quite perfect!

There will be a free or low price one.

Fayre!!
Christmas Fayre, Eater Fayre, Delicious Fayre
Love this nod to 1847 at every opportunity.

Agree, and crazily enough, near me, places get booked up in summer 😶

I didn't want to join in with this circus so haven't ever paid this. Though in my case, it's the massive queues and crowds that put me off. I think I'll pay a fortune for a stressful experience.

When my daughter started primary school I found out that there's a v cheap Santa's grotto at their Christmas fayre. So we did that instead.

I agree, it's become so much more complicated and expensive. We were gifted one this year, it's about 140 for four of us, but as it's dd first Christmas that she's aware of these things we decided to make a big deal of it.

YY, look more locally. Our cricket club is doing one for £2.

Ds school have a santa grotto at the end of November it's £5 for the whole family and we get a printed photo a few days later.

The problem is that everyone has much more choice these days so competition is fierce. 20 years ago you went to your shopping centre because that's what you knew was there. Within 30 minutes radius of my house there are about 10 Santa events and they all post on their websites and Facebook so everyone knows about them all.
It is also expensive to run the event. I am running a Santa event this year and a good gift costs me £3-4 to buy. The Santa costs £80-120 to hire depending if you use an agency or are lucky enough to find someone else. So it's costing as an organiser £5-6 per child if you fill all your slots. More if you don't because the cost of Santa remains the same.
I run a children's play area and we are charging an extra £5 on top of entry to see Santa so we aren't actually making any more than we normally would when you consider the costs.

[spoiler] the one in the garden centre in Lincolnshire isn't the REAL Father Christmas, just one of his side kicks sent out to make kids happy.
No one has ever seen the real one.