Father Christmas Visits are so expensive

[Jumpers4goalposts]

AIBU that a trip to visit the big man in red is getting so expensive. As a family we like an experience visit get us in the festive mood. But looking now (rather late) to book something for DD7 and everything is so expensive and I have a huge fear that it will be rubbish.

So AIBU it’s once a year and you get what you pay for, or
YANBU it’s so expensive what happened to the magic?

also any recommendations for a fab Santa visit which is more of an experience rather than a 2minute chat and a box of chocolates. We’ve done LaplandUK (amazing but sold out), longleat, polar express and Celtic manor which we really enjoyed. Also have done Chessington which we didn’t like so much.

Just don't bother?

None of my DC have ever been to see Santa, and tbh I think Christmases have been all the more magical for it! Santa is a one-night-only thing for this family.

You could spend the money on something like the ballet (one of my DD's loved it when granny took her to see the Nutcracker when she was about 7) if you really want a special festive outing!

What about Christmas Light instead of Santa given they are now 7?

Looking at where you've been previously and the area you are covering. How about Windsor Illuminations in the great park. It's lovely and christmassy

DS saw him 4 times last year and I didnt pay specifically to see him.

1. At nursery so included in regular cost
2. At a playgroup, again included in the £2 session cost
3. At a light event (TBF we had to buy tickets for this but would have done anyway)
4. On his "sleigh" around our local village (tractor)

I think DS is too old this year, and he's 6. We might go and see some lights somewhere. Or you can do Longleat without the Santa train?

Sorry I totally read DD2 not 7

Clearwell Caves - really special

Another vote for Windsor Park Illuminated

He seemed to turn up for free on the regular when they were little at nursery or wherever, then after than they see him each year for £1 at the school Christmas fair including a gift. And they absolutely do that here until age 11 when they leave the primary. The gift is usually a book and they are wrapped en masse by PTA volunteers, I’ve helped several times.

Then he turns up at the village fair driving around on his sleigh and throws sweets. The kids drape themselves in fairy lights and get very excited to be out after dark. Do you have any community events like this? Christmas lights switch ons, Christmas fairs, church events, that kind of thing? We all got very excited for Christingle when I was a kid, walking through the streets as a procession holding our oranges with candles and fidgeting until the end of the service when we were allowed to eat the few dolly mix attached to it with toothpicks. I’m not remotely religious now but like a Carol service, and our town does a non religious one as a Christmas singalong and someone sells mulled wine and it all gets quite merry.

Can you look on local pages and noticeboards, parish councils, local pubs, historic houses etc for community based events rather than at businesses for ticketed type visits? I’d suggest it’s often nicer, definitely cheaper and the DC like going along to things with their friends too.

Agree. Why travel miles and fork out £££? Look out for local school church and comminity events and relax

Santa visit at our local garden centre is about £10.

Paying for visits to Lapland UK, and all the rest of the marketing nonsense about breakfasts and "experiences" and train rides and the rest of the shite is hardly essential.

YANBU. I spent a fortune on a Father Christmas ‘experience’ when DC was 2. Absolute waste of money. The following year we happened to see a Father Christmas at a local school Christmas fete for very little (can’t remember the exact amount). After that I didn’t bother with the expensive events and just scouted out local fetes ect.

Mine are far too old for it now but the one they remember most fondly was a cheap £8 visit at a local outdoor and tent store. Whilst waiting, I had to fill in a card with details of their interests and hobbies and friends or siblings or pets names so that when it is their turn with him, he magically knew everything about them.

That and when all the local farmers decorate their tractors in lights and do a procession!

Mine are too old now but hever castle and the bluebell railway were the best ones we did. The crap school fair ones were not a hit.

It's a £2 donation where we live. Cheaper alternatives to the fancy stuff can be found.

He does have to come from the North Pole!

We're doing Lapland UK this year and yes, it's really bloody expensive. I don't think it's necessary to do every year. My two will be meeting the big man for the first time and they're 6 and 8.

It’s a lovely tradition, but the costs have got out of hand. Even garden centres are charging exorbitant amounts.☹️

We've booked Stockeld Park this year, we haven't been to the Santa experience but we've been over the summer and it was fantastic, we didn't even get to see it all in a day as there's so much to do. The Christmas experience looks really good, with a Santas grotto and a lights trail etc. I think there's even a show but we haven't booked that part. Not the cheapest at £107 for 2 adults and 1 child admittedly, but it's only once a year and the memories will last forever won't they. DD is only 3 so want to make the most of these things while she's small!

Our nearest National Trust property doesn't charge to see Santa, maybe others are the same? They don't guarantee you'll see him and there's no toy but our most magical Santa visit was walking round the beautifully decorated house and then turning a corner to find him resting by a real open fire. He looked like a proper Victorian postcard of Santa. He chatted to my daughter and I took a photo of them together by the fireplace. It was a hundred times better than the ones I've paid for in shopping centres and places like that. They say which days Santa will be on the property on their website/app and you can then spot him pottering about.

National Trust is part of membership and our local one is lovely

Surely half the fun of it is finding one that's really bad and then doing a sad face in the local paper while you moan about paying £500 to see some drunken elves and Santa having a smoke behind the grotto

The memories will last forever

They really won't. Half the reason we have Christmas memories is that things happen repetitively every year - the Coke ad on TV, local Rotary driving a Santa float down the street, Salvation Army band outside WHSmiths.

These are the sort of things that are out of the ordinary and when you see them, feel all Christmassy because they remind you every year.

I went with my parents to Hamleys on a special trip every year as a child. Can't remember a thing about them except they happened and apparently I loved it.

This!

Chances are pretty low that a 3 year old will actually remember any of it. I spent the best part of a year living somewhere very famous and memorable when I was 3, but do I remember any of it? Do I heck. My one and only memory of all the stuff we did and saw is of the ice cube machine in the hotel my grandparents stayed in when they flew out to visit us. That's literally it.

Doing the same thing every year however - that builds layers of memories and IMO that's where the magic comes into it.

As a child the real Santa was the one in the Selfridges grotto accompanied by Uncle Holly. Any other Santas confused me so my parents told me the others were just 'helpers' and the Selfridges' Santa was the real one. My own children knew that the Santa at the infants' school Christmas Fayre was the real one and all the ones at other venues were just Santa's helpers. Cheap, easy but still memorable.