We went last December and it was wonderful. For a Saturday, we paid £135 each. Then there was also a hefty booking fee of £10 for EACH ticket (so an additional £40 in booking fees), then another £5 for postage, which seemed very cheeky!!
The invite box is lovely! I popped it into the freezer for an hour so it was cold before leaving it on our doormat for DCs to find the morning before we went.
The experience on the day was wonderful. The snow covered trees and the quality of the costumes was fantastic. It actually felt much colder in “Lapland”!!
We enjoyed all of the activities and then the time in the elf village was sweet. I gave our DC £25 of Jingles each to spend in the shops…it didn’t go far 😂 They each bought a Christmas decoration each and some sweets.
We bought sausage baps from an outside stall and hot drinks as a snack. I think that came to £40ish.
We all enjoyed ice skating, which was really well run. There was no queue for skates and the rink was big and not too busy.
Father Christmas was outstanding!! We’ve seen many great Santas over the years, but this one was the REAL FC!! He was sweet, kind, funny and very natural with the info I’d provided to the elves ahead of time.
The quality of the husky toy he gave them was excellent. I love the family photo we got too (1 copy included in the price). Just be aware that you spend quite a long time chatting to Father Christmas and then there’s only time for 1 or 2 snaps 📸 at the end, so make sure everyone is looking at the camera lol.
When I collected our photo at the end shop, I was handed a bag containing another soft toy to leave out from FC on Christmas Eve. DC didn’t notice this, so the staff are well practised at being discrete. It included a cute thank you note from FC for all of DCs’ help at the toy factory. Again, the toy Teddy was very good quality.
I kept all of the little invite letters, passports, stationary from the elf post office, thank you notes etc in the original
invite box as a lovely memory.
I’m planning to book again for next December. It’s very expensive, but an excellent experience all round. There wasn’t one thing I’d change.
Hope you all have an amazing time 🌟
P.s. I forgot to add that I bought the story of FC book on eBay before we went. It sets up the story nicely about the elves and origin of Father Christmas. I’m glad I did that and we’d read it a few times in the weeks ahead of our visit.