AIBU that visiting Santa is a total mission these days!

[thegreenlight]

Had a festive day out booked for 4 year old DS for a few weeks - sitting smug thinking it was all sorted. Read between the lines when checking recently and realised there is no meeting with Santa (despite it being £54 for 90 minutes ! Aghhh! Cue panicky trying to find a Santa 'late' in the day. Have booked a fab one but will be taking DS out of school for a day as all weekends are booked up (breaking up super late here this year) I am so stressed! If you don't book in October you don't stand a chance! Tell me it wasn't always thus!

I haven't booked anything yet either but won't be taking kids out of school for it! I'm sure we will find something and if we don't, we don't.

Where on earth are you? We just go to the local shopping centre or the school fair. It doesn't take much planning.

No guilt about taking him out - he is stupid smart and massively treading water. Will give the others a chance to catch up and it's only one day! Santa matters! It's just the hassle! Timed tickets and two hour ques! Can't it be simpler!? Even our local garden centre was booked up!

Yes I know what you mean, we booked ours in September. It's Dobbies tea with Santa though , so very popular. The grotto on its own sells out too.

Maybe it's my Santa standards then .

People book for Santa . What have you booked for £54?

I book for Father Christmas, just to try to cut down the queuing time (3 dc, all have ASD)

I cannot imagine just turning up and taking pot luck with eg shopping centre one (he shopping centre we usually go to I think you have to book anyway) - I’d lose the will to live waiting!

We booked our Santa Visit in August!! There are only a limited amount of tickets for the weekend and they always sell out within the first few days.

We are going for a late lunch with Santa and then get to go sledging etc on the indoor ski/snowboarding slopes.

What a stress! I’m sitting here trying to recall if I have ever taken any of my 3dcs to see Santa . If we did it clearly wasn’t memorable . I’ll ask the teens when they come home later if they remember.

I have very high Santa standards after having the first two Santas I took ds to get all handsy with me. Nothing spoils a Christmas memory more than knowing Santa is a perv!

Thankfully I have a great Santa booked for early December and I've just seen that a lovely cafe near me is repeating it breakfast with Santa on my birthday so I'm booking that as my gift to myself. Both Santas look like Richard Attenborough in Miracle on 34th st, so are just perfect! And a local historical site has a huge Christmas experience that only costs a few euro to attend if you don't meet Santa. So that will be lovely some evening nearer Christmas. :)

Go to a local primary school's winter fair. About 3 quid, a Santa and a present that's almost certainly a book. Job done. If your school doesn't do it another will.

No. we just go to the school fair. It's only a big deal if you are determined to make it one.

(leave some !! for everyone else)

No. we just go to the school fair. It's only a big deal if you are determined to make it one.

(leave some !! for everyone else)

Sorry - am aware that excessive use of ! Is a sign of an unbalanced mind. Have now calmed down. I work in a school so definitely wouldn't do a school. A Santa has to be convincing and enthusiastic not some poor male relative coerced into dressing in a cheap suit to awkwardly interact with children.

School fair, even.

Will give the others a chance to catch up

Unbalanced mind indeed, do you think one day will be enough for all the other children to catch up?

Probably not

Not a Terry Pratchett fan then, aintnothinbutagstring?

I am mystified by this santa industry that has sprung up involving fighting to book months ahead and spending a hundred quid. Defo school fair for us.

You work in a school, but you're taking your son out of school for the day to see Santa?

Give the other kids a chance to catch up, FFS. Listen to yourself!

It was said in a tongue in cheek way, though a child that can read and count in 2s, 5s and 10s etc in reception is surely treading water. On maternity currently so won't have the chance to take DS out again. I don't make the rules so hardly a hypocrite. Maybe if I was education minister

Won't Santa be coming to school though? At Christmas party? Or Christmas fair?
I can't conceive of paying more than a couple of quid and thinking about it further in advance than the previous day.
Sounds like you're contributing to the "industry" you're complaining out OP!

If he's not figured out that even the most convincing santa, is just someones dad in an expensive suit, then he really needs to be in school.

Last year we went to the local museum. Art and crafts, meet Santa in a lovely makeshift grotto and nice present for a few quid.

It was as probably better than meeting Santa at the winter wonderland at Keilder but obviously that's a whole days worth of entertainment too.