To think I need a bank loan to visit Santa

[Outandabout43]

Looking for places to take DD to see santa this year and my God why is it so expensive?

What happened to the little grotto at the local shopping centre for a small price, you see santa, get a present, all good.

Now it's all this santa experience, breakfast with santa, dinner with santa, winter wonderland malarkey... I just want to go to a bleeding grotto, tell santa what you want, get a cheap gift, jobs a good en

Thinking of setting myself up a grotto in the garage and dressing DH up. Could probably make a small fortune

But this is why, so often Christmas is a con. People getting into debt, trying to create a “perfect” Christmas, spending hundreds if not thousands of pounds, for what is essentially one day, spending a tonne in the build up to “big day”, because it feels all “Christmassy”, or whatever. I think the pressure is greatest on parents. I personally know some lovely mums, who regularly spend over a thousand pounds, per child, on Christmas presents, and are still paying for the previous Christmases, because they put it all on their credit cards. For the most part, I think Christmas is an over hyped, expensive illusion.

I have to say I agree with this, and I absolutely LOVE Christmas so this really isn’t me hating on Christmas, we have always had big family christmases and do lots of Christmassy things throughout December, but none of us ever spend above what we can afford and wouldn’t even consider going into debt for Christmas.

A few years ago I was working in a role part of which involved supporting people with debt and I remember so many women who were calling up with maxed out Very & Argos store cards as well as £1000’s on credit cards which they said had been used for Christmas presents for kids etc.

And on top of that there’s now the pressure to do the expensive Christmas activities beforehand which can easily be £200+ for a family of 4. It’s crazy money that people feel they have to spend even when they can’t afford it.

There are so many ways to have a magical Christmas time without breaking the bank. We attend a carol service at Church, we have always gone to a garden centre to look at all the decs and picked out a new family bauble (since we were babies and now husband and I are doing the same with our baby), get wrapped up and walk round the streets to see all the lights, make biscuits & cakes, family christmas movie night etc… but none of those things make a fab Insta pic!

That is possibly the most lurid and un-Christmassy recipe suggestion I have ever seen! Amusing though.

Spot on, exactly. It doesn’t need to be this crazy expensive, it shouldn’t be this crazy expensive. I agree so many things to do, cheaply so, but which have a genuine festive feel to them. The Christmas Carol concerts, at the local church, buying a hot chocolate at the local Christmas market, making some of your own Christmas decorations and so much more, and it doesn’t have to cost an arm and a leg. But some people are convinced that’s it’s about the material things, and that by spending so much of your money, often money that you don’t have, on your kids, on your loved ones, that you are showing them love. But what is loving about getting into debt, just for one single day? And not to mention , how it creates the expectation, from the children to get more, and more expensive things, every subsequent year.

Garage grotto is will be an experience and memory you’ll get far more mileage out of! Particularly if something doesn’t go quite right. E.g Santa suit being that little bit too tight and ripped when DH sat in The chair/ DC said “hello daddy” instead of “hello Santa” 😂

my grandad did something similar when we were growing up and we always still have a giggle about how sweaty he got in the suit/ the hat kept falling off every time he moved/ how the fake beard kept going up his nose and made him sneeze loads 😅😅

knowing that you’re not spending tons of money on an “experience” will reduce the pressure for it to be AMAZING

You are not wrong! For me to take my 3 kids locally, I would also need to pay 2x adult tickets to enter the area. I put it in the basket and for an area which is free to enter outside of Christmas - £167 for the 5 of us.

Oh! And the local free park will be £136 for the 5 of us to go see the Christmas lights strung from the free to view trees.

So, my husband is a portly bear of a man - Where can I order him a Santa suit from?

I've been organising our local Christmas Fair for the last ten years and we always have a Santa's Grotto. We only charge £3.50 and the kids have about 10 minutes with Santa and a gift. Last year we had a Narnia theme and this year it's Polar Express. They can also take their 'golden ticket' over to our little local museum afterwards and get a free hot chocolate! There's a 'Christmas Village' about an hour away from us and the cost per child is £29 and for a family of two adults and two children it comes to £140!!

I guess it's all down to how important it is to show off your 'making memories' photos on social media!!

My DDs saw him in IKEA last year for free! Not helpful if you're not near an ikea, however.

Abu.

santa lives in Santaland near the North Pole and is VERY BUSY until Xmas day. No need to pay out for anything.

very soon someone at school will say ‘Santa doesn’t exist’. Take the opportunity with both hands. As my child said so why do adults lie about this?

Think about it, it is pretty sick (bad not good) and up there with the other big Xmas lie (sorry to all Christian’s). Well not really.

We have taken DD the last couple of years to a local wildlife park. You pay the normal price to get in but they have a Santa's grotto you can queue up for (15 min queue maybe?) which is free and provides a basic gift (think stationery, colouring book etc). We get to see all the animals which she loves, and it's not so busy as it's not a typical winter destination. Also it's never sold out so you can pick an day when it's dry and just turn up.

I’d come!

Yeah, I've seen quite a few people raving about the Polar Express Tramline, but then others who say they've been on it but found it to be overpriced and underwhelming. We've enjoyed Sail With Santa the past couple of years, but looking for something different this year.
xx

Exactly this!
My children never thought that the shopping centre one was real but the magic and anticipation was definitely there on Christmas Eve

There are always some cheap/free ones in our area, run by community organisations or the council. My dcs end up visiting quite a few! We usually do a bigger paid one too, I figure they'll get bored/too cool for it all too soon so we may as well enjoy it while we can.

Brewers Fayre pubs do a breakfast with Santa in December for £9.99 for each DC and they get a chocolate gift.

I agree that the prices are ridiculous for some of these events, I take my children to the Christmas light switch on at Bournville, there are little market stalls and crafts plus a free santa visit, as long as they see him they don't care where we go.

They do exist - usually at school Christmas Fairs. Our town has a Christmas Shopping Evening and we have a reasonably priced Father Christmas and Mrs Christmas (who were in the pub last night 😂). Some garden centres have them too. The bigger towns near me have the Shopping Centre grottos.

School Christmas fair and garden centres two good options for cut priced santa. All these commercial grottos are shit. There ones at a family run farm or petting zoo are sometimes nicer.

Do you have any garden centres nearby? Lots do small grottos.

Oh my gosh, it’s my first year as a mum and DD is just a baby and I looked at going to something and the prices are eye wateringly expensive! I literally just want a photo of her being held by Father Christmas 🙈

The best ever Father Christmas we took the boys to see, was on the Cutty Sark in London. It didn't cost a fortune (helpful, because we had three of them to pay for), and they got to meet FC in a cabin on the ship.

Looking at the sort of prices places charge now, we'd have struggled to pay for three of them.

Yeah, this exactly. Everyone on social media needs to see you've done the best things, or the most things, that you have the child with the most presents and the biggest smile.

Christmas was SO simple when I was younger, and it was magical and amazing. I used to love the Christmas holidays, but now it feels like kids are just rushing between this, that and the other, so they can't really just relax and look forward to Christmas Day!

Santa (aka local fireman) is in our town hall for 2 weekends running, suggested donation £3, proceeds split between firefighters charity and rotary!

I think our village hall has recently gone up to about £2.

You need Christmas craft fairs and the like who have a Santa rather than Santa experience things.

Absolutely! Even my local shopping centre grotto charges a small fortune. Couldn’t believe it - and why is my ticket more than DS? Am I seeing Santa?!