What have you booked for Christmas so far?

[chrissysmusts]

I'm a Christmas lover and love all things Christmas so far we have booked;

A centre parks Christmas weekend
Ice skating
The local pantomime
Christmas markets another weekend
A visit to Santa and a Santa train
A family dinner at a local hotel that does a great roast.
My workplace family Christmas celebration

What have you booked...looking for any other ideas to add in!!
I'm so excited!

@Bdelder yes some peoples lists do seem a little greedy, plus expensive and exhausting !! We just don't have the money to do all these wonderful things sadly.

Christmas lights in London and Hamleys for dd inset day.
Local panto as nephew is in it
Cowdray park Christmas light trail

Some of these lists are mental. How do people have the time & money?

Lapland uk is like £500 & when we went that was the treat, it didn't cross my mind to spend another 1k on a weekend break or £200 on the theatre.

@garlictwist I have to agree, oh to be rich.

@FourTeaFallOut

A winter light show walk thing...I'm sure there's a better name for that? A panto. And Christmas Eve bowling - not very traditional but my kids love it. There's a lot of other stuff we'll do but nothing else is booked in.

Christmas eve bowling sounds like a fun tradition.

A Santa experience that includes ice skating and panto.
Centre parcs is booked
Light trail at a NT place
Lanterns at Chester zoo.
We’ll do a few other things that don’t need booking - there’s a festive tractor parade 😂 and the garden centre, driving round looking at lights etc.
We have junior school age kids and yes the trips and activities cost way more than the presents and food.

@lollipoprainbow don’t worry, you’re not missing out. Spending time with people you love/like is more important. In my experience, the more stuff we do for free, the more fun the kids have! I would have liked to take them to see Santa though, but everything around here was booked up by August and I don’t drive.

I don’t like the greedy comments, people are spending their hard earned money doing nice things with their family and boosting the economy.

I’ve booked to go to the ballet (Nutcracker) and carol concerts x2. I think our work Christmas do will be booked soon though.

Is the Kew thing good? I thought about booking it but it was quite expensive.

Breakfast with Santa at the church. I will take him into the town for the Christmas lights.

is centre parc at Christmas very different to normal?

@TuftyMarmoset I think Kew is brilliant and we go every year. It’s just so magical. We always go on a Sunday evening and have a proper pub roast beforehand. I booked our tickets back in May though, I think you would struggle to get tickets at this point

balonsz it’s fabulous, beautiful decorated with so many Christmas activities. I went twice for a week over Christmas itself, it was great, we got snow one year.

@Bdelder

Ah I’ve found the people who booked all the Santa visits months in advance, so now my kids can’t go! There’s literally nothing left in my town now!

Don’t you feel a little greedy for booking multiple Christmas events, so other families don’t get a look in?

Where do you live that EVERYTHING is booked?

Some things haven't even gone on sale yet - obviously, the big overhyped things book up super quickly (the Santa train which we choose not to do as it would be £90 booked up in 2 hours) but I just looked around and there's plenty of light trails, grottos and events not to mention local parties with tickets left.

You either aren't looking hard enough or are pissed about 1 specific event which you should have booked earlier.

Ice skating at warwick castle
Disney on Ice
Local panto (rescheduled from last year)
Farm Santa visit

there’s a festive tractor parade

That sounds immense! We've booked a santa visit at a local charity museum, an outdoor event with reindeer, a Christmas light walk and a santa brunch. Maybe £65 for 2 adults and DS3, but that includes a meal for DS, plus whatever we eat at thd brunch.

Its a nice thing to do to get in the festive mood!

Pantomime
Santa train
Skiing holiday

Decided against the zoo light trail. Hopefully be a few parties.

We found less can be more the year DD was in a choir and we seemed to have to be somewhere every through days, plus a ton of work events, my choir stuff...

@Chippymunks how would you rate it compared to lapland uk? will do either or next yr? thanks

@TuftyMarmoset I did Kew a few yrs ago. I think it's nice & worth one visit but wouldn't rush to go back.

Winter Wonderland. Not ice skating as DS2 needs to be 16 to skate by himself.

balonsz I loved, loved, loved Lapland UK, I did it twice. Both fab, both different, obviously one is a holiday and one a day out. Center Parcs is a lot more money if you want to do all the activities.

we've done lapland uk but not CP at xmas so maybe well do that next yr. I'm saving for real lapland & ice igloos though

@Louise5754

Mine are 9 and 11 so no more breakfast with Santa or grottos. Quite relieved really but that's selfish.

DS 10 still believes. We'll have a talk in the summer holidays before he goes to secondary school.

@sanityisamyth

Oh and a Christmas themed escape room

What are you escaping from? Enraged elves? Rabid reindeer?

Thanks @DentalWorries and @balonsz, there are actually still tickets available for January which I find the most depressing month so have just booked for then so we have something to look forward to