AIBU to ask for your hilarious Santa’s grotto stories?

[Softskin88]

I’ve heard some howlers over the years.

My own is quite limited. When DD6 was two she grabbed Santa’s beard, which promptly pinged off!

I think (hope!) she’s too young to remember...

When my son was two he rejected the proferred gift from Father Christmas, preferring to play with a broken plastic cup he'd found on the ground outside.

My daughter was terrified of Father Christmas (and all men with beards) so grotto visits were not a treat for her. She liked his gifts though!

When my kids were DD(5) DS(8) I took them to the local castle where they had a Santa’s grotto set up with Santa and an elf. They did it every year. You could go get a Christmas tree and stock up on treats at the same time. It was always beautiful and quite the event.

So we have a look round the grounds and make our way to the grotto. We are greeted by a woman dressed as an elf. She was super friendly and got the kids excited. We were led through to the grotto and there was Santa. He was dressed beautifully with a big long bushy white beard. He was sat in a large wooden chair with bags of gifts around him. Positioned in front of a big fake fire. My daughter squeaked in delight and my son gasped. We all sat down. Had a friend with me with her nieces. Santa asked what they would like for Christmas. My daughter was nervous so wouldn’t go near him but my son piped up he wanted a dinosaur and a car. My daughter sheepishly whispered a doll. Her eyes were really wide with excitement. Santa passed a present over to my son and he said thankyou my daughter jumped off my knee and he went to give her the present she took it and ran away from him saying thankyou.
He turned and said “typical woman. Grabby” to who he was talking to i’m not sure. The elf smiled awkwardly. My friend and I looked at each other in shock but not quite believing it.

He looked at my friends nieces “suppose you want something to don’t ya” The elf handed them a gift each.

I said to my kids “aw Santa is just messing, your not grabby to my daughter “
To which Santa said. “No I did. Greedy women think they can just take take take”
I jumped up and said to kids it’s time to go as Santa has had too much egg nog.
I turned to my friend making sure Santa could hear saying “sounds like Santa is going through a and divorce and wants to grow up” we were laughing but couldn’t believe it. My kids were non the wiser but the elf apologised.
It was fed back to the venue and I heard Santa got his p45 shortly after that. We still laugh about it now. Was nearly 10 years ago.

Gosh! I thought there would be loads by now! Do MNers not do Santa’s Grottos any more?

Or maybe both Santa and the children are so well behaved now?

Not a grotto but a huge Santa figure at the Xmas tree shop...2017..
Ds went to hug it and the head fell off!!
Ds 3 standing crying holding a huge head while we browsed the trees!!
2018 the staff told us to be careful around the Santa as 'last year a little boy had the head fall on him'
Ds piped up it had been him - and again burst into tears!!
2019 ds gave Santa a wide berth..
Poor kid!!

I've been in the unfortunate position of running a grotto for a few years and I've lost count of the amount of parents who ask me to tell Father Christmas ahead of time the name of their Elf on the Shelf so that their kids are stunned when they see him and he knows it. It's always followed by a story of how they were forced into buying one and I must just say how sorry I feel for everyone who has been imprisoned by that smug poxy little elf!

Apparently my DH, when a toddler, went to see Father Christmas at his pre-school party and loudly announced to all the other children: "That's not Father Christmas! That's my Daddy!".

Father Christmas was well disguised but DH apparently recognised DFIL's boots! MIL was

I took DS when he was little to see the Co-Op Santa. He asked DS what he was doing at Christmas and DS said 'I'm going to see my Grandma and Grandad in Dorset'
'Ooh Dorset is lovely' said Santa 'I was stationed there when I was in the army'

It’s not that they don’t do Santa grottoes, it’s that this kind of request so often suggests a lazy journalist looking for filler.

My daughter was 3 1/2 I think, and FC asked her if she knew any Christmas songs so she started on Away in a Manger. After a couple of lines he said That's lovely, she said There's more, and finished the first vierse.

He tried again (to get rid of her obviously, looking at the queue) but she said I've not finished yet. She went on to sing four verses to the poot chap.

Some years ago a friend of mine (a struggling actor) got the job of father Christmas in a local shopping arcade. Soon after he started I was in town with a friend late in the day and we were passing the arcade when I saw a woman dressed as an elf, promoting santa's grotto. I asked if we could see santa and she looked a bit puzzled that 2 middle aged women with no children in tow would want to visit santa, but she went and checked with him and said we could go in.

Santa was delighted to see us and we had a laugh with him. I sat on his lap and did the whole 'I've been a good girl" bit, while the elf looked on uneasily.

After a couple of minutes larking about we started talking about our kids, his and mine, and then the woman in the elf costume said "Oh, do you two know each other?!" I wish I had the balls to try that with a random santa.