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Christmas

From present ideas to party food, find all your Christmas inspiration here.

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Original poster

Hamleys Santa Glasgow - worth it?

10 replies

Alidoll · 28/09/2013 11:34

DD is nearly 4 and the last 2 years have taken her to Bo'Ness for the Santa train (£10.50 for adult AND children) which she's enjoyed. Fancy doing something a bit different this year and just had an email about Hamleys Santa breakfast / lunch etc. Costs £25 for an hour but does include food and a present from the big man himself. Wondering if its any good and worth the money (as only one adult can attend at any time so DH would likely end up in MCDs with a coffee lol!).

Or is there any other Santa grottoes in the central belt (Fife area / Edinburgh best) that has a decent present and costs max £25?

Yes, it's only sept but these places seem to get booked mega early!

Thanks

OP posts:

mrscumberbatch · 28/09/2013 12:30

I like the Clyde Valley setup. It's a train setup again and has reindeer etc.

Never done Hamleys Santa but if it was good I'd consider

mrscumberbatch · 28/09/2013 12:30

Excuse the complete overuse of the word 'setup'.

I am not quite here today

lumpybumpylooloo · 28/09/2013 14:45

We did the Hamleys lunch with Santa 2 years ago (our sons were 5 and 3 at the time). They really enjoyed it but I'm not sure if I felt it was really worth the money.

Basically, the children get taken to the party room/ grotto by the elves and do some 'Simon says....' type games for a few minutes then lunch was served (Christmas tree pizza, tomato pasta, garlic bread and a Christmas tree cookie).

Then they sang Jingle Bells and Santa arrived. Santa also did some little games with the whole group before having a little 1-1 interaction with each child. In the meantime, all the other children could write a letter to Santa which they then got to post down the chimney.

The gift bag was fantastic. It included a teddy bear, giant chocolate coin, colouring/ sticker book, a packet of colouring pencils and a wee pocket money game. I would say that the gift bag is the reason for the high price as it does include a lot.

So, all in all, it was a nice experience, which my sons enjoyed but not really sure it was worth £50 in total for an hours entertainment. Btw, we found that they weren't overly strict about limiting it to one adult per child and several other parents popped in and out throughout the session.

Enjoy it if you do decide to go!!

Belugagrad · 28/09/2013 15:05

London is alot more expensive- wonder if they are very different? £25 seems ok ish- £45 for London is too rich for my blood even with a good gift bag.

lumpybumpylooloo · 28/09/2013 15:11

I meant to add, we're considering doing 'Santa on the Slopes' at Xscape this year. Not sure of cost but I think the children are taken into the Snow Zone and get the chance to do some sledging etc in the real snow before going to visit Santa in his wee chalet grotto on the ski slope. Think that sounds quite fun although I don't think any details have been released about that yet.

Original poster

Alidoll · 28/09/2013 19:35

Thanks. Have booked for the 15th and will give it a go as means we can have a wee wander round the shops afterwards for last minute chrimbo shopping perhaps..just hope the weather is ok for getting through as coming from Fife.

Agree £45 is well steep for an hour!! The Bo'ness train is over £30 for the 3 of us so don't mind paying £25 if its indoors and madam gets something to eat and a nice present. The Santa train present last year was broken (cheap wooden jigsaw) which was replaced but that one was also poor quality and not worth it.

Used to go to Glasgow to see santa when I was a munchkin (my gran lived through there and would take me while my parents would do some shopping) so nice to go back again..

(Misty eyed nostalgia strikes again lol!!)

OP posts:

makemineapinot · 28/09/2013 22:05

Lumpy - we did that a few years ago and it wasn't great! The offer said unlimited sledging for 30 mins but they were told they could only sledge down once!! I complained and they got the 30 mins sledging but it took the shine off it. Present from Santa was a really cheap Xscape water bottle !

TeamSwitzerland · 28/09/2013 22:12

Hi there, this sounds lovely! I have two girls does that mean its £25 each or would that be for the hour for both? Seems quite a lot of money. Tbh but does sound exciting x

lumpybumpylooloo · 29/09/2013 13:32

Thanks for letting me know Makemineapinot, we'll give that a miss then. Doesn't sound as 'magical' as I hoped it would be!
TeamSwitzerland, it's £25 for each child so pretty steep for an hour. But it is nice and the children get a really good gift bag.

TeamSwitzerland · 29/09/2013 19:28

Thanks, might be a bit expensive for us lol x

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