To say this was an unsatisfactory meet Santa gift?

[TellerTuesday]

Curious to hear other people's opinions.

The experience cost £87.63 for one child and one accompanying adult.

Can't fault the Santa experience and the stately home walk round I was more than happy with that but I don't think the gift was commensurate with the cost and calibre of the outing.

I have emailed the company as I honestly think it's just a peg doll and a box of grass moss but interested to hear if others would agree with me.

In her holiday cottages she offers hen keeping lessons for £40 an hour

Ha. What a shill.

If people want to pay, then fine, it's their money. However, people who rip others off like this (and the ludicrous 'gifts') are pretty tacky.

And eco money grabs are utterly tone deaf, to be honest.

I love the way the toys are tested on Dads....

Our luxury Forest Craft Boxes are filled to the brim with natural materials and parcels of vintage haberdashery, so that you can discover the joy of making keepsakes with natural fabrics, retro ribbons and buttons. Choose from peg doll Vikings, a pine cone hedgehog, a mossy frog and many more imaginative projects. Tested on four year olds and dads for stress free play. A joy to give and receive.

Surely though you paid for your child to have a great santa experience. So not a crappy fake shopping centre santa, but one that looked and felt real.

I did this once for my dc as generally for us santa is ellusive and not to be queued up for in a supermarket or shopping centre. I paid around £50 and we did just the once, and it was a great experience as he looked and acted like the real deal, and it all felt like the 'real santa'. The gift didn't even enter my head, as thats not what its about.
My dc got a bauble for the tree. But they didn't expect anything. (as gifts are for santa bringing on xmas day surely).
If you're focusing it all on the gift and not them actually seeing a santa who looks real, then you're missing the point a bit I think.

But the description of the event she booked said they would get "gorgeous, sustainable, eco friendly and very magical gifts"

I wouldn't have expected a box of moss and a peg from that description.

I defended this company upthread but I've changed my mind on having a closer look. Didn't realise it was just one 'vintage button' and a few sequins without glue, crayons etc. Pure profiteering.

A crappy peg doll is neither gorgeous nor magical

Ah yes, we're all meant to smile knowingly because men are rubbish at girly things like crafts.

Limiting ideas about gender roles don't seem very on brand for a forest school with a Montessori philosophy.

I used to love making peg dolls but the point was you would use your prettiest scraps of fabric, lace, ribbon etc. Not sodding hessian.
Also anyone who has done crafts with a child knows that sequins are only good when there are shit loads of them, not a carefully counted out tasteful few.

This sort of thing is absolutely about the parent and not the child. And yes - scraps of old fabric, a chance to create something with different colours and textures, bits of ribbon and so on - completely different experience for the child. It isn't about the child enjoying it - it's about the parents cooing about Kraft-brown anything + moss.

A peg and a square of hessian, accompanied by mimsy claptrap about the environment and charging £15 for it is a cynical eco-shill.

Tacky, grabby and inauthentic.

Where do I sign up?
Steve Carrell started my fire! 🔥 🔥 🔥

This sort of thing is absolutely about the parent and not the child.

Yes - it's the toy equivalent of nothing but a shriveled orange in their stocking and then, when they're upset not to have got anything exciting, a lecture about how grateful I'd have been 'in my day' to receive something as wonderful as that.

I can't believe they gave you a cardboard box with a faceless peg and some grass! Sorry OP, but the picture did make me laugh. Magical eco gift indeed! I can just see the kids faces.

I think you should leave them a very specific review. Include the photo.

A peg and a square of hessian, accompanied by mimsy claptrap about the environment and charging £15 for it is a cynical eco-shill.

Yep.

The only grabby and greedy people here are the people marketing this as a magical gift.

I was just about to ask if it was CH. We went to look at the decorations last week, but I've stopped booking in to see Father Christmas there as the prices were just eye watering.

That present is not great. You're right to complain.

🤣🤣🤣

I only got part way through the thread (I will read properly) and had to go namechange (for obvious reasons):

I know the owner of this 'company'. I live locally. And it doesn't surprise me one bit. She is incredibly cheeky with her constantly pushing of cheap tat. Every local event, she'll be there flogging 'magical' craft experiences that you'd be embarrassed to put on for free in a drafty church hall at toddler group.

She also runs a B&B, which, granted, looks as if it's been nicely done up ... but the website gives the impression it's near gorgeous north yorkshire wilderness with 'hiking'. Only, there's literally no such thing within walking distance! I've been going through the village before and been stopped by bemused tourists asking where the hiking trail is.

I really don't know how she gets away with it.

NINETY QUID? Oh you've been had mate. I would be putting this gift across every social media i had and tagging them all over the place.

Almost as bad as Zoella's advent calendar!

They have tried and tested their gifts during the last year with many families, different ages of children and have been through a really thorough research and development process...

Which is no better than that classic risible defence of bad food and drink usually expressed as 'You are the only one to complain. All the regulars absolutely love it'.

CFs the lot of 'em.

We also had extortionately expensive mulled wine and hot chocolates, which all in came to about £30. Kids had eyed up marshmallows for toasting, but at £2 each (for one!!!!) they were denied those.

But I seem to recall a recent visit to Harewood wasn't dissimilar price wise.

A cheap day/couple of hours out, it is not.

This is spot on.

Also (to be all tediously eco), this isn't eco at all, is it? You could have done something really cute with little scraps of fabric that'd otherwise get wasted (in fact it's making me want to get out my big box of patchwork-making scraps and let DD make an angel with all my lovely bits of Liberty stuff that are too tiny to use).

Or if you really wanted to be smugly earth-mama, she's got the chickens; she couldn't rise to feathers for angel wings? (IME small children adore feathers, especially if they're dubiously clean. It's probably against bird flu regs.)

Presumably not actual, live huskies?

I'd rather have no gift at all for my child than that. It's a bit of an insult after shelling out.

This^^
birth control included in the price

Looks like marijuana. Not suitable for a child though.

Churchill was born in Blenheim Palace though. Have they moved the bed to Castle Howard???