When did it become so difficult to see bloody Fathee Christmas

[Hunlife]

I’ve just gone online to see where we can visit Father Christmas and you have to pre book tickets for everything. All the sessions at the weekend have sold out (DDs in school so it’s got to be a weekend really). It’s the 25th November and already sold out FFS!

What happened to the good old days of rocking up to a garden centre and queueing for half an hour?

Whereabouts are you roughly OP? I know a few places in the East Midlands where you don't need to book on line?

I have wondered this
Why is everything so damn early these days

Hertfordshire Girlicorne. Close to London but to be honest we only wanted to go somewhere a bit more local rather than traipse into town.

Come along to my local shopping centre OP. The 'grotto' is now just a flimsy arch you walk through and you get to chat to Santa and receive your present with everyone watching. I was in last week and "Happy New Year" was blaring in one of the shops

I booked a slot for DS to see our (admittedly amazing) local garden centre Father Christmas on the runway before our plane took off to bring us back from Spain. In September. It sells out super quickly and it's become our tradition.

It's absolute madness really.

Sounds like our local shopping centre anneofavonlee

The popular events near us sell out quickly. I booked at the end of October but the 20-24th dates were already sold out.

There's a chain of garden centres in our county that don't do pre-booking.

Maybe look for a local National Trust property, most of them around our way have a Santa's Grotto.

Or English Heritage.

I booked this morning at a garden centre. Plenty of places but that's up north.

It's going to be ace. She gets to build a Bear to keep, a gift from santa and on the booking form it asked questions so Santa can personalise the visit and the kids really feel like Santa knows them. It was ace last year. Can't wait, she'll be chuffed to bits.

We had to book our local garden centre in September. Even then the weekends had gone.

Otter Nurseries is legendary around here though, they make a massive effort and it takes a while to enjoy the Christmas displays before you get to Father Christmas

If you call him a ' fat hee' he may be very upset and offended

I tried to book Harrods for my niece, it's always hard to get but have managed a few times. Only to find out it's now 'by invitation only'

I don't know which bit of Hertfordshire you're in but burston garden centre in st albans still has spaces. Just down the road from there is ayletts which always has an amazing christmas display and yummy food. Then next door is maidenhead aquatics where you can feed the fish and has a small play frame and cafe so you can make a few hours of it!

The world's gone crazy. It's the same with everything - concerts/theatre. If you're not buying tickets as they go on sale

Depending on which side of Herts you are OP Willows Farm is awesome but in the last 2 years has become ££££

Willows farm also still have spaces.

Try nearby primary schools - they will have one for winter fairs.

I agree! Plus some of the Santa’s I saw last year were terrible! Santa is an old man with a tummy & a beard right?! I saw some 30 year old slim men with the fakest bright white beards. It’s not the same!!

Not sure where in herts you are but the grotto in Stevenage shopping centre is queue rather than book I think

www.knebworthhouse.com/Knebworth_House_Events/sunday-lunch-santa/ Not cheap, but good availability.

Agree. As for NT properties well yes they have one but the local one has been sold out since August.

A local garden centre had a Santa Grotto last year and won’t do it again, because they said it was utter chaos.

To get a good time slot I've usually booked Sept time. This year we are doing Lapland UK so I booked in July. Crazy I know!

Thanks everyone. Just has a look at Willows Farm as we’re not too far from St Albans but my God the prices! £20 for adults and £30 for children so £100 for a family of four!!

I might just bite the bullet and head to Winter Wonderland. DD1’s birthday is in a couple of weeks so will be a nice day out for that. The Snowman experience looks lovely too and is £40 for the four of us.

Mine just saw him at the village hall Christmas fair as usual. I don't get all this competitive Christmassing of booking hugely expensive "experiences" months in advance, having elves, Christmas eve boxes that contain more than my kids stockings do. It's just weird.