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?

Unfortunately your response is part of the problem: 'that's too expensive, how can anyone afford it, it's not worth that money'... 'we will go anyway'. Businesses just want to make money and if people are willing to pay high prices, even when it's clearly not worth it, then they're not going to charge less are they.

As a side note those light shows are also underwhelming, never worth the money, and your small baby will either sleep through it or not care in the slightest.

I think lots of us have been sucked into doing nice experiences for small children who really don’t give a shite which is why you get some of the comments that sound a bit kill joy esque saying your baby won’t care. It’s still a nice thing to do if you enjoy it your baby won’t be that bothered. I remember spending £60-70 quid on a particular venue and my 1yos favourite thing was a bit of tatty string she’d found on the floor.

The secret to Christmas is buying things throughout the year. We bought our panto tickets in January nearly a year advance and the best Santas will go on sale soon. By the time we actually get to December, you then won’t have as much to pay for.

Not a Christmas event, but I help organise a local event that can take up to 1000 -1250 people (been going for 10+ years). It is entirely volunteer run, we try to cover costs via local business sponsorship, so that entrance is profit that we then distribute to local charities. Each year the hoops we have to jump through get bigger and bigger (paying for official traffic management, having anti-terrorism training, year on year increased medical cover requirements...), and the amounts we distribute to charities are going down. We'll need to increase our ticket prices next year to make it worth our while, and we're not even having to pay for salaries!

Doing 'nice' stuff has become harder and harder.

I agree op. And I know what you mean about those that can afford them - just means the wealthy who get to experience the perceived 'nice' things in life and it doesn't seem fair. As parents we want to give our children nice experiences and it seems like these things (of which there are many) will do just that but I have found in my experience that expectation outways the reality which is often disappointing.

Also the reality is is that most of the time your DC won't actually give two hoots about it, will be over-stimulated to the point of meltdown, and you will be super pissed off because it cost you an arm and a leg.

Doing cheaper more personal things is probably the way forward imho.

You've not had baby yet - you're yet to discover all this for yourself ❤️

It isn't so much "who can afford them" more what fool is willing be parted with their hard earned cash. If you want to spend such an amount wouldn't it be better to take the children to the pantomine.

Post covid and cost of living - days out and experiences have just got more and more expensive.

Costed up some nearish trips pre covid looked post covid couldn't afford them.

I wouldn't bother with a young baby - though panto with toddler and young kids was good - got cheaper lap seat - but so expensive went to Butlins on holiday so they saw them there.

We would have loved to do theater more - but too expensive - though did Globe on trip to holiday in London and loved they all loved that -£5 a head compared to £100. There's been a few trips nearby we've written off - as train fares also gone up and attraction and food - just beyond us.

You have to look at way to doing things cheaper or finding alternatives.

Is that Waddesdon? I used to love their Xmas lights and market but it’s same old each year and getting more expensive. And as a NT member you pay still, albeit reduced ticket price. I’m not bothering this year.

It's the same here, I was looking at about £70 for a family of 3 to do a Christmas light walk. It's longer than a mile, I think and you get a drink and a Christmas pie as well as parking thrown in but still.

I do agree soon these things will only be for those who are slightly more well off because lord knows I won't be blowing £70 on looking at some lights that close to Christmas. Rather save it to buy presents for the kids or go towards Christmas dinner. To be honest, £70 would fill up my car with petrol one and a bit times.

I agree it's sad. We're not at the point in our life where we have that sort of disposable income so I guess it's simply aimed at those that do?

It’s even more expensive here which is why we’ve never done it. We’re happy to pay that amount for other Christmas experiences, but not for a light trail.

We do our own light trail - driving around streets in the local area that are full of lights on the houses, while listening to Christmas music and drinking hot chocolate. It’s a yearly tradition which we really enjoy.

It’s the same for many experiences/ days out though.

DH organises a trip - the cost of coaches few year back went though the roof - IL said similar with their walking group - they used to get coaches and go further afield - they said last tip it's likely to fold at Christmas a combination of rising costs and fewer young people joining.

Oh but a little thing I did last christmas was go with dd to all the local garden centres, which had amazing light displays for free (well, to buy but free to look at!). Some of it was dark as well so it was pretty magical. One near us even had a little made up grotto to take photos for free, which was lovely.

Little hot chocolate at the cafe and it was quite a nice budget version for about £50 less than the one you're looking at!!

We're not going this year, it's getting silly cost wise - I think the organisers have also got lazy, The National Trust Ignite was just poor - so we've not repeated that. The Wisley one was nice first time, but the second time it was virtually the same show, so got stale fast. We majorly got caught out with their cafe - that was eye-wateringly expensive.

I love Christmas and I probably overspend on it, but that's ridiculous. I'd never pay that, but if they can get enough mugs to do so, without false advertising, then good luck to them.

I agree about going to garden centre light displays and looking at light displays outside private houses. Our local paper publishes the addresses of the houses with amazing light displays. We drive round whilst playing carols in the car.

Wait till the children are older and the Christmas Lapland costs - we never did it and the kids never mentioned it!

We used to go to see Santa at harrods it was free - booking was £10 which you could then spend on the day. We used to go into London wander around looking at lights seeing Santa and somewhere for food. Then it changed to being only if your certain membership and out of our reach - the children never really missed it or mentioned it. We found other things as a family we could afford. We still wandered around London looking at the lights and having a nice dinner :)

We as adult put the expectation on ourselves that we must do this or that - I wouldn’t do it to your family find things that work for you and you want to do as a family and don’t look at others social media.

Like other posters, we used to walk round the streets after dark, in the week before Christmas and look at the lighted Christmas trees and so on. This was long before the mega lightfests started. Magical.

You might be surprised by how low the profit margin are by the time they have paid for insurance, staffing costs, commercial electricity rates and fresh decor.

Thats cheap for that sort of thing.

National Trust place - £26 per adult and children (3 - 16) £18 each. Family ticket for 4 (2 kids) £83.

Plus £8 for parking (unless you are a member then, lucky you, you get it for free).

Seriously though, look around theres similar events and council led stuff which is much cheaper or even free.

There is nothing council led where we are. Councils have severely cut back on what they do.

Oh and OP a tip for you is to take your little ones to garden centres at Christmas. They get lights, decorations etc and is toddler heaven. Lots will also have a Santa grotto. Even now my eldest is 8 the Christmas trip to a garden centre to see the lights and pick a tree decoration is one of the highlights of the year.

I really don't see that - appreciate it depends where you live but everywhere I go whether that's eating out, shopping, events or things like the op is describing are absolutely heaving and booked up as soon as they are released, even with the year on year price increases. A lot of people are still willing to pay money for leisure activities .

It does sounds pricey. I suppose you just need to decide if you are willing to pay that or not. As a parent of one it really annoys me that 'family' tickets are always for 2 or more children. I know so many families with one child. Surely they could at least do a small discount for us.

We are constantly told that families are all living in poverty yet there are more and more events like these every year. Companies charge what the market will bear so clearly there are enough people who can afford to pay.
I never went to a single Christmas event as a child partly because my family couldn’t afford it (although we never thought we were poor) but mainly because 90% of these things didn’t exist.

Honestly you just have to be creative and manage the expectations of your DC. Mine have been to grottos in the local market, church hall, forest park, NT place - so a real range. I would save the really expensive things until they can remember it as a big treat, and truly engage! And even then you have to factor in that they will be cranky and tired, and the place will be filled with other people and their buggies, and pushy parents and their DC.

Have your own lights, go to Blackpool, look at lights in shops, count the Christmas trees in windows as you drive around. Look out for cultural trails in city centres even when it's not Christmas. There's loads to do if you look.

Christmas is as magical as YOU make it, which isn't based at all on what you spend.

Of course there has to be a maximum capacity!

For safety and also because everyone would be moaning it was too crowded