How much would you pay to see Father Christmas?

[EnglishRose1320]

I'm part of a local community centre and we are hoping to raise some funds this Christmas. One idea is to have a grotto, lots of the usual local places that normally run one don't have the staffing this year. So locally I think there would be demand.
We want it to be a reasonable cost for families, considering the cost of living atm, but obviously enough to cover our costs and make a little profit.
We were thinking around £5 per child, with food and drinks available to purchase as extras.
The £5 would include, an entry room that had some Christmas games/colouring and a make a reindeer food making station, followed by going in to the grotto to see Father Christmas- with a small but decent age appropriate gift.
Does that sound reasonable?

I think most parents would want the present to be of equivalent value to the entry fee.

Sounds great to me, I disagree with pp about the present's value, if you're giving a reasonable amount of time in both rooms, then as long as the gift is ok, even just giving out little sweet cones, I'd be thrilled, not sure about other parents though.

Yes if I pay £5 I would expect the gift to be £5, but you should be able to buy wholesale so you make some profit.

however, if you are a local community centre I imagine you target audience may not be the well off parents who would usually pay for for a garden centre Santa (similar price range) and your clientele maybe families who are much more reliant on welfare? Do correct me if I’m wrong though. But for them, when fuel is rising extortionately, even £5 per child may seem like an awful lot that they just can’t afford. I’d rather pay just £2 and have a cheap book from the works.

I think that sounds more than reasonable! £5 for that seems a bargain to me.
I wouldn't expect the value of the gift to match the entry fee because you know you are paying for an experience, and in your case, you know you are contributing to fund raising. For £5, I'd be happy with small chocolate/sweets gift.

Hmm interesting thoughts. I was thinking along the lines of gifts that cost around £2 but bought bulk/in sales so worth around £3/4 ish. Obviously the reindeer food making and activities will have a slight cost as well.

For context, locally the next city over does a Father Christmas with no activities beforehand, just a grotto for £8

The garden centres/days out type places do them for between £10-£18 depending on the level of interaction and activities.

Gifts at all are significantly below the value of entry.

We were also thinking of doing a saving for families, so something like £5 for the first child and then 50p/£1 off for each further child.

I think we could make it work for £4 a child, but much lower and we would probably have to switch to gifts like sweets/Christmas pencil etc....

I’d be well happy with £5 and for a charity event wouldn’t expect value to be same as entry.

I’d also prefer maybe a bag of chocolate coins sort of present rather than plastic stuff but one of my sons fav toys is a plastic digger from Santa. 🤷🏼‍♀️

The golf club up from us did big selection boxes last year and reindeer food (which was will birdseed & hedgehog pellets) and it was £10 each.

I will say though as a not popular covid dodger we won’t be doing indoor grottos again this year and am always on the look out for outdoor Santa 🤣.

My sister used to run grottos and they mainly used selection boxes/sweets as presents.

Hope you raise lots of funds.

Yes, trying to avoid too much plastic. Selection boxes for the older children is tempting.

We have quite a big toddler group that use the building and I know a lot of those parents aren't keen on sweets/chocolates for young children. So I might go down the book route for them.

Good points about covid. We were planning to keep doors and windows open and have the garden decorated outside so people can wait out there if they prefer. Hoping one of our volunteers who is handy with tools can make a reindeer hoopla game and a snowman bowling pins for outside.

Reindeer food wise was planning on birdied with some food dyed oats- safer than glitter for animals.

I've just paid £7 for a 3 year old and £3.50 for a baby at our local garden centre, but they do decent gifts. Last year DS got a box of farm dominos

£5 is very reasonable.

Could you incorporate professional photos of the kids with santa and charge extra for that? I know many would just take a pic on their phone, but some do like a professional photo memory- usually with the year on a stand behind them. I have no idea how popular it would be though?

I did think about photos. I don't think we have anyone that could offer them at a professional level and I know that most professional photographers insist that no other photos are taken. I feel parents would feel pressured to buy the photos and I don't want to make it too expensive.

A lot of the local families that usually go to the garden centre near us will pay £10+ for the visit plus money for taxis/buses etc... because a lot of them don't drive and they struggle to pay this but feel they need to give their children the magical experience. So trying to give them that, without too much cost.

£5 is fine and I wouldn't expect the gift to match the fee. I don't think you need anymore activities either.

Yes far character than many we’ve been too. I disagree with the present matching ticket price. You are paying for the whole experience, the staff, the scenery, the activities before the grotto. In fact we pay £3 per person to visit a local grotto after Christmas just to do a walk through of the grotto without a Santa visit or present.

Yeah I wouldn’t expect the gift to be of the same value as entry fee. Happy to pay for the experience.

I have never known anyone who expected a gift to match the entry price. No one expects these companies to run these events at a loss surely.

I think £5 sounds perfect OP. I think as well sometimes of there is too much going on it gets overwhelming and takes it away from the main event...Father Christmas.

We are paying £19.00 per person. You make reindeer food before hand, a tiny ride in a "train" think a 2min cart thing, then Father Christmas

Really pleased to see most people don't expect the gift to be worth the same as the entrance price. Even with bulk buying, I don't think we could make that financially viable.

Good point about it not being too overwhelming. I want it to be really well done, so would rather do slightly less at a high quality than try and pack too much in.

Also trying to work out if we could offer a SEN friendly afternoon, but don't want to get it wrong.

Something like a book and a small selection box/chocolate coins would probably be better than a cheap toy that will break easily. The cost would be less than £2 per child.

www.myfamilyourneeds.co.uk/support-parent/autism-friendly-grottos-rolling-nationwide/
work with your local SEND parent cater forum to see how to make it accessible. They will be able to advise you on getting the details right.

For the toddlers a book would work if you want to avoid chocolate. The works do a ten picture books for £10 bundle which is pretty good value.

Have a look at Rex London for inexpensive gifts especially from their sale section.

www.rexlondon.com/clearance?ll=menutopnav

if you are a charity or raising funds for a charity then ask if your local rotary club is doing a gift collection for charities. They usually collect gifts donations from the public to distribute to charities and hospitals etc.

We rarely book these as we just go to the free one.

However £5 doesnt seem too much though however Im not remotely interested in 'reindeer' food or crap like that as its usually enviromentally awful (im not sprinkling glitter and sequins on my lawn and I dont need to attract xmas day vermin) and bad enough the school keep doing it (how am I even supose to dispose of such a mix???).

I would like a 'decent' gift, I have done paid meal one where the kids just got a small creme egg type thing or just a sticker which is crap where as we have done free shopping center ones and got a decent books or small teddies etc...

I agree for £5 I would want something 'decent' not just sweets, stickers or 'party bag' rubbish etc... I understand you have to pay for the santa but I would still expect maybe £3-£5 rrp value, I agree buying in bulk will help you get more rrp expensive stuff cheap.

The free one we saw last year had lady elves who entertained waiting kids, a lot of santas for hire seem to do that.

As for my younger kids the would prefer a soft play type thing to raindeer food etc... crafts can be quite specific they wouldnt be suitible for my 1 year old or interesting to my 14 year old.

I just had a look at the one we usually visit - it’s £2.50 and the kids get a book each. But you have 10minute inside the grotto and the Santa always performs 2-3 magic tricks. He’s absolutely wonderful.
for £5 please make sure your santas beard is at least real 😉

Can't believe people expect the gift to match the entry fee.

How embarrassing..

I would pay about £7 for a gift worth about £5. I'd rather pay slightly more and get a better quality present. Have been stung before with cheap grottos where the toy breaks within a day.

Last year went to a grotto on a farm and the kids all got little beanie farm animals. Ours has lasted well.

However, most important thing is the quality of the Santa. I took DS to a grotto once where Santa was about 18 years old and rake thin. You need someone who can look/act the part and keep the illusion alive.

I think £5 is a bargain and wouldn't expect the gift to be the same cost. For £5 entry I'd only really expect the gift to be a couple of pound. You're paying for the whole experience.

For an event like this I’d happily pay £5 and be happy with a selection box. If I want a more expensive present I’d pay for a more professional experience.

The best gifts my DDs have got have been soft toys, we still have most. One in particular is an all time favourite, my dd got it about 6 years ago, it’s a little puppy.

They have a few soft toys they stuffed themselves as part of the Santa experience. After they stuffed the toy the toy was given to Santa to gift to the child.

As for photos, I hate having to pay for photos, I’d rather take my own. If your target demographic is low income families I definitely wouldn’t arrange a professional photographer unless they are happy to do it for free.