Paid Christmas activities - what are you doing?

[Flackattack]

I’m interested in what paid Christmas activities people are doing this year and how much they are?

I love doing lots but think we will cut down this year.
we have booked a polar express experience at £30 each and hoping for a light walk but wondering what prices will be like with everything going up.

Lapland uk which would be over £500 for a weekend in December for a family of 4 - 3 hour visit / is already sold out!

Free concerts at st bartholemew the great is always good. Just sign up on event brite. And buses through central london at dusk for the lights

I've booked Lapland UK & may do a show but that will be it.

Dobbies garden centre breakfast with Santa. £7 per adult including a full English breakfast and drink and £13 per child, including breakfast, drink and toy. That's it.

Is this good?

I booked Longleat Festival of Lights. We've been before so know it's excellent but even with a decent discount it comes in at £100 for our small family. That doesn't include the Santa train which would've been another £30-40. I couldn't justify that too.

We won't do anything else pricey as need to watch our money at the moment but lots of little or local things, seeing the Sally Army band, films and hot chocolates, garden centre trip, Christmas crafts and baking.

EsmeeMerlin do you know if The Snowman is just in London or on tour?

Haven’t even thought about Christmas activities yet. My birthday & DD’s are both in December so it’s quite an expensive month anyway. Plus DD is neurodivergent ( not officially diagnosed but we’re pretty certain she’s on the spectrum) so things like pantos or anywhere with crowds can be challenging for her. We might book a steam train experience as her half brother loves things like that. I will look into carol concerts etc.

@SunshineLollipopsAndRainbows think it’s just in London.

we are doing the Santa Sleepover at Legoland. Already paid for so not much I can do about it.

will do a local light walk, I live Kew but it’s a trek and quite expensive.

the Audley End Santa train is lovely, especially with under 4s.

in terms of affording, I save up and family members contribute instead of a gift. DS has enough toys, I’d rather we did something fun.

No idea yet.

A local manor house usually puts on great events but last year’s prices were ridiculous (ie over £100 for a family of 4, 2 of those being under 3…). So we ended up going to a museum instead which was about £20 for all 4 of us all in, and was genuinely as good.

The manor is releasing prices soon so it depends on how much they are- if they’re extortionate again then we’ll likely do the museum again.

I need to keep an eye on events, though. It seems stupid releasing the tickets in August/September as I don’t even start thinking about Christmas until late September and I know I’m quite early compared to a lot of people. Halloween hasn’t even been and gone yet!

But this thread has acted as a good reminder so I think I’ll have a quick google and see when things are going live and set a phone reminder. Thanks!

DH and I have a Christmas Market trip booked ( we booked one a couple of years ago - market , hotel , designer outlet village , taken by coach) but of course Covid cancelled this .

The trip this year was booked months ago , looking forward to doing something festive .
It's UK , not brave enough to try abroad just yet

We’re going for 2 days to Lapland, so I won’t book a single other thing. And I’m going to use the opportunity to encourage the 4 kids to only ask for 1 thing and cut way back on the number of items they get and never play with.

I agree with the PP said about finding different activities that are cheaper and different to create new memories rather than feeling you have to do the same thing every year.

We've done Dobbies santa last couple of years but by luck I saw a post on a local Facebook labe at a local deer centre and tickets were the same price as dobbies and you get entry to the deer park all day as well. For a change we've went for 23rd December when normally we do a weekend leasing up. I feel like it'll be so magical!

Yes! Me and DH went to our local National Trust one last year and it was lovely.

If you’re going without DC I’d recommend booking a later slot on a weeknight if possible. But not too late! The one we went to had already started packing away their food/drink stalls as the last few people were still arriving.

@Work2live our local one is having some adult only slots this year I believe

I just booked a West End musical but the tickets are for a few days after Christmas and will be one of their presents. They go to panto with school. We'll book onto a pub breakfast with Santa too

We’re doing a Santa Sleepover in Chessington at the start of December.
Our local pub/restaurant does an afternoon tea with Santa every year which is lovely so I booked that again this year.
DS just turned 4 so I think I might try panto next Christmas (depending if I can tolerate an hour with whichever ‘celeb’ is in it!)

My ds is 18 now.

It things we did when he was younger.

Xmas lights turn on.
Walking in local woods and hot chocolate afterwards
Panto
Local ski centre and ringo rides
Father Christmas
Garden centres as ours have reindeer
Ice skating at temporary outdoor rinks

We did polar express last year (seaton tramline) he still loved it at 17. We went as a family group and only 1 person out of the 8 of us was actually a child (they were 9)

We've always done a mixture of a big events and smaller events and we've done more some years than others.

We've booked a light show for my birthday, other than that nothing because we are spending 3 nights in Lapland and that has rinsed the Christmas budget!!!

We've also always gone to a Christ,as market and if you find one at the beginning of December you can purchase Christmas jumpers, a special decoration that comes out every year, start buying some gifts.

We've also gone to cathedrals to see their Christmas stuff when visiting cities for events.

I use to try and do 2 bigger things before Christmas (market that's free and a paid event) by doing something every other weekend and then a few things during the school holidays. You can even give the tickets as an xmas gift.

We have booked a light walk thing which I thought was reasonable at £22 for family of 4. (Plus tokens for rides when you're there).

Santa visit, not booked yet but we will go to local garden centre which does a lovely one with lights/moving scenes with elves, snow scenes, nativity etc and again reasonable only £10 per child and they get a lovely cuddly toy each at the end.

Looked into some fancier santa visits but decided not to part with the money. Some are insanely priced! (And mostly booked up now anyway!)

Loved reading what everyone’s booked, very exciting!

I’ve booked Christmas at Kew, The Fir Tree at The Globe and The Snowman at The Peacock all spread out through December and then we’re going to the Panto en masse with all my wider family on NYE. So looking forward to this years festive season 🌲

We will do the local panto. That's about it. We've done a couple of the light walks and are a bit over them. We'll just spend the rest of the time eating, drinking & being merry

DC are 8 & 4.
We've booked a Santa's Grotto - went last year & it was really nice, good value too.
We're going to try a local pantomime too - think DS might be old enough now.
Will probably do another Santa thing with other friends & got tickets to Longleat's Festival of Light after Christmas with family.
Other than that, probably free stuff like lights, etc.

I love seeing all the suggestions here!
Can I ask which travel company have people booked Lapland with?

@NoExpertinthis

I booked with Tui about a year ago. Includes all the outer winter wear, and got an all inclusive hotel. Cost about £1800 for me and my son for three nights.

Really hoping that's tongue in cheek...if that's cutting back I hate to think what you'd normally have fitted in!