To be shocked by the cost of this?

[squashedsandwich]

It’s £20.95 per adult to walk around our Christmas light trail this year. Tickets have just been released. It does look fantastic, but it’s only a mile long.

It’s £15.95 for a 3-15 year old, and free for under 2s.

They’re doing family tickets, 2 adults and 2 kids for £60.

I think it’s sad that at some point soon these activities are reserved for only those who can afford them. Maybe that has always been the case and I have been living under a rock but as someone who is pregnant with their first, I can’t see how families aren’t bankrupt over the school holidays and festive periods just simply from doing these kinds of activities! As with anything, the more DC you have the more it bumps the price up. I know you can intersperse them with free things to do, but I’m sure lots of families at Christmas will feel compelled to pay over the odds just to make it a nice and magical time.

We will likely go. It will be nice for baby’s first Christmas. £40 for us and an under 2 would be affordable right now but I can imagine when you have two in primary the cost must get crazy.

AIBU thinking these companies are taking the mick?

This is a really bizarre take. OP has said she finds it getting increasingly expensive as now many people won’t be able to go and that’s a shame. She isn’t saying everyone has a right to go, simply that it’s getting pricier, which it is. There are a lot of things in life you are not entitled to, but that doesn’t mean you can’t be surprised at the price of something.

Everyone saying things like 'that's just how businesses work' or 'more and more people are finding they can't afford them' with a shrug, as if the continuing enshittification of life for increasing numbers of people is just an inevitable fact of life that those families just have to get used to, but they're OK thanks very much (and actually quite like it when the plebs can't afford to get in).

Do you not see the writing on the wall yet? Do you not look at the increasing wealth gap and the pooling of money in fewer and fewer hands and realise that at some point it will be coming for you, or if you're old, then for your children and grandchildren. That there will soon be a small class of people who can afford every luxury and a massive underclass who can barely afford to scrape by?

Time to take your heads out of the sand.

But this is just the nature of capitalism. No business is set up for the consumer, it's set up for the business owner (they're the one doing all the work!) and everything is worth what people are willing to pay.

If they've priced it too high, people won't go. It sounds like you are planning to go though, even though you're in the "too expensive" camp, so why would they price it cheaper?!

It's still free to drive/walk through town and look at the lights. Kids are perfectly happy with this - it's just the parents with access to Instagram who get FOMO about those big walk-through type events. Ps you can shell out for these "experiences", and still feel miserable that "everyone else" is guzzling the expensive food/drink once you're in there!

I would only pay that amount if you view it as something you and your partner would enjoy in the run up to Christmas. Baby will get nothing from it, they’ll like lights but you can get the same thing stood in front of your own Christmas tree.

There have always been things we couldn’t afford when I was a kid but one of my favourite things is when my mum would me to the chippy, we’d walk down the street with all the lights on, get our tea and walk back. To create nice memories it doesn’t need to be expensive.

Your maternity leave will be spent going to places and paying a tenner for you to get in and you’ll wonder how expensive it is for you but at least it gets you out of the house. At the end of maternity leave you’ll have a list of places you like - some will be cheap, some will slightly more expensive but do good coffee, some will be quite expensive but they’re easy and have good food. You’ll get a membership to one of these places and they’ll do a Christmas themed thing, which might be an additional cost (but reduced from the entry on the door) and you’ll go there. Your child won’t care and you’ll be happy that it’s easy to navigate with a pram/got good baby change facilities/got good food/got nice parking/spaces to sit down.

It depends on where it is and what it is.
so there’s one at RHS place near to me.
they limit number of attendees so everyone can see
they spend an absolute fortune on bespoke lighting
they have to pay for electrical cabling spread across the gardens, and for the energy they use
they have to pay staff overtime for evening work and weekend work- or hire in temporary workers
then they have to make a profit that makes it all worthwhile as a find raiser. Theyre a charity so the profit goes back to the gardens development and other rhs work.

not a cheap thing for them to put on and still make a profit.

if it’s too much walk around your most lit up local road. Or seek out the odd communities that coordinate residents outside lighting. We had one nearby when my kids were little. There was a charity collection box each year. But a whole road lit up on an agree theme (and always white lights) each year. Kids loved it and quite enough to walk down one road and back agian.

We are a family of 4 and we love to do the Blenheim Palace light trail at Christmas but at nearly £100 for us (including parking) its just not something I can justify doing anymore :(

We have a village advent calendar. Every evening, a different house decorates a window, reads a Christmas text and provides hot drinks and Christmas biscuits. There’s a money box for donations. It’s organised by the church (majority of people involved are not Churchgoers) and the clubs in the village with big thermal drinks dispensers lend these to the 24 families hosting. School, kindergarten and local admin buildings also do an evening.

Beginning of December, the local farmers do tours of the local villages with their tractors decorated with strings of lights, carpentered Christmas models and the driver/s dressed all Christmassy. It was a spontaneous initiative during COVID which has grown. They leave a donation box at the village supermarket and donate anything beyond their actual costs.

The vicar dresses up as St Nicholas for the Kindergarten kids while the local bank sponsors colouring pencils for the school kids’ Nicholas Day presents and leave them in their shoes outside the classroom (kids wear slippers at school).

It’s a German village of 3,000 people and I think if you have community you don’t need expensive events.

However, community is difficult to have beyond a certain population density and with lots of population movement. I suspect that’s where expensive events have found their niche.

YABU OP these things are expensive to put up and very labour intensive. Especially with all the H&S requirements. It's not just a bunch of fairy lights on trees.

There are plenty of nicely decorated town centres, Christmas markets etc you can go to (you don't have to spend at markets expect for a drink).

It's not a case of previously free/cheap things becoming a profit machine. Expectations, and so cost has increased.

Just looked and it's £25 per adult, £18 for 3-18 plus £8 car park. We went last year and took DD, her DH and DGS. Once you factor in drinks and food it's a very expensive few hours but it was absolutely magical.

We have all of this in mine/neighbouring towns.
However, we also have the expensive stuff.
It doesn't have to be one or the other.

Nobody 'needs' any of these events. Expensive or otherwise. But there's a market for it, it provides people with much needed employment.

Just because some people can't afford it, doesn't mean it shouldn't exist.

I think it’s sad that at some point soon these activities are reserved for only those who can afford them.

Erm... so do you think we should make taxpayers pay for them? How do you think business works?

You don't have to spend any money on increasingly expensive extras like this just because they exist.

Underfunded services is a serious issue, but it's a different issue.

Also OP feeling compelled is your own problem. Kids always want a load of things. There will always be better off people. You can't give hem everything they want.
Unlike food and electricity you are not compelled to do anything.

@TooTiredOfThisShit exactly.
These things just didn't exist before. And they're not necessary in any way.

Sounds a lot - how many rollercoasters are there? 😂

Just swerve it - baby will be thoroughly entertained looking at the lights on your own tree.

When they are old enough, probably age three or four, take them to see Father Christmas at the local school bazaar for a couple of quid or so. When they are older take them ice skating.

We have always both worked and been on good salaries but it doesn't mean we want to be ripped off by some tacky Winter Wonderland.

I used to come through town most days with my then little one at Christmas time and they were always thrilled to look out of the bus window and see the streets lit up and the big Christmas tree in the square. There was a huge lit up sign saying "Seasons Greetings" that they especially liked and looked out for, all for free.

Going to see Taylor Swift isn't essential l... but thousands of people happily paid hundreds (including hotels, transport etc)
Holidays in AI esorts aren't essential... but people pay thousands for them
Fancy restaurants. The opera. Tickets for the Euros. People spend recklessly everyday, poorer people don't have the same opportunities but its all luxury stuff.

Expensive Christmas events are just luxuries.P

It wouldn't be Christmas without a story in the Daily Express about the latest Christmas Experience rip-off, usually involving a sad reindeer, grumpy elves, lots of mud, and seriously overpriced food. But seriously, if this is being offered by a private company, it has to make a profit just like any other business. These events are so weather-dependent, at the worst time of year, I would be amazed if there's much profit in them at all.

I agree, but now I have an ASD kid who get the screaming heebie jeebies if we go anywhere near places like this. He only likes free places like nature reserves, so that solves a whole raft of problems.

I can’t get worked up about this OP, sorry. You make the holiday period what you will. We go up to the local church for the nativity service, then walk home admiring the trees and decorations. We make decorations for xmas jumper day with mugs of hot chocolate etc. Total cost - about £5.

I think it’s absolutely fine for people to, for example, visit Lapland or pay ££££ to meet Santa, but I don’t feel the need and don’t see any of these things as necessary (or even desirable, but that’s another issue).

You've been living under a rock OP. When my dc were younger I used to see this type of thing advertised, along with Santa grottos, Santa trains, winter land experiences etc but it was never something that we could afford.

Exactly. You just have to choose what you do according to your interests and budget and do cheaper things the rest of the time. Plus look for offers - there's often ways of making it cheaper than full price.

Loads of ways to do Christmassy things without spending any money or a lot less money at least.

But the reality is that, a lot of the time, if this sort of thing was free, or very cheap, too many people would go and it would be too crowded to be enjoyable, or it would be actually dangerous and people would get crushed. So numbers have to be limited and putting a limit on numbers is another reason that the cost per ticket increases - because the event needs to bring in a certain amount, and that certain amount is paid for by a smaller number of ticket holders.

Totally unreasonable even thinking about Christmas at this time of year.

Secondly, you have fallen for the social media hype and nonsense which says that magical = spending money on these sorts of attractions. I bet your own childhood memories have lots of magical moments and none of them involve your parents dropping £££££ for you to shuffle along a path with thousands of other people looking at lights.

To add it was never an issue. It just wasn't in our remit. But we would walk around the estates that had lots of Christmas lights, attend the crib service at the cathedral that always had lovely decorations, attend carol concert in the local community hall, visit the local garden centre to see all the Christmas displays and make Christmas decorations for £1 a child in the local museum.

@RationalityIsHard - for a lot of us it came years ago, we're just not shocked that "expensive things cost lots". It's not that everything is much more shit (although there's a strong case to be made for that), it's people expecting to be able to do more than one big ticket event in the season and bitching that it's so pricey.

If you view these things as a "do once in your child's childhood" type thing, so what if one year you save up £100 for an event - that's your choice and good on you. The rest of us give it a swerve because we have other finacial priorities. Seeing a massive light display is a luxury item; there's no way around that.

It's like people moaning about the cost of visiting the zoo - it costs loads to run a safe and ethical zoo so the prices reflect that. This means it's a very rare treat for most people. That's ok, we've no god-given right to stare at the lions.

YANBU