Christmas days out to avoid!

[Outspokenhippo]

Just wanted to give anyone who is interested a heads up about a place to avoid for a Christmas Day out. Last year we went to the Four Kingdoms and I honestly could have wept. It was awful. Think Nessa’s (Gavin and Stacey) Christmas grotto and you’re not far off. The place is filthy. I spent a considerable amount of time filling out profiles for each of us, with information to be used for said visit. Hardly any of it was used. IT COST A FORTUNE. I’m talking over £400 for 3 kids and 2 adults. I thought maybe a post about places to avoid would be helpful. This year we are doing the polar express at Churnet, if that’s crap I’m quitting Christmas for good. 🎅🏽

Last year we went to both Cambridge and Ely Christmas markets, daytime only. Ely was lovely. Cambridge not so much.

avoid bath Christmas market, it’s too popular! It’s not bad per se but too busy, overpriced tat, you can’t park or even get in and out of the city (we live nearby and need to drive to things!)

I've never been what do they sell?

I've been to Longleat at least twice I think.

I've found it to be a good day out safaari park / lights show ,play area , singing Xmas tree and also the house was decorated .
So quite a few different experiences in one
The Santa train there was wondeful and we have also done lap land UK

Newcastle Christmas market, I saw nothing but food stalls and rides.

Cambridge botanic garden christmas lights avoid - we booked, travelled over an hour, parked at great expense then there was a piece of paper on the door saying closed - no email, nothing on the website. Offered us a day time visit instead!!! NO THANKS. No appreciation of how upset DC might be or of travel costs etc. Would advise not booking unless you live very close

Ditto Manchester. In fact you could probably add any big city Christmas market to the list!

I feel like my issue with a lot of Christmas days out near where I live are that you have to preorder tickets months in advance for activities that are mainly outdoors. It doesn’t really matter what the activity is, if it’s cold and raining (as it often is in December) it’s going to be miserable. I remember trying to convince two very young children around a Christmas light display in -4 temperatures, both of them crying because their hands were cold despite wearing gloves and as many layers as I could physically fit on their little bodies… never again

I was about to warn about Birmingham German market too. Of course this is a big city but still a naff market. Incredibly overpriced and the same things being sold on multiple stalls. Luckily I didn't go out of my way to visit it's my DD's home town. Thirty minuets from me.

I came on to say this! Absolute overhyped rubbish. All the stands sell the same tat. The only good thing is some of the food.

We did Legoland at Christmas a few years ago and it was great! I think we went at a good age with the kids and they had more things/rides open than they have in the last couple of years.

We have been to Longleat lanterns a few times too but agree that can be hit or miss. I normally enjoy it but my husband usually gets fed up and the kids get cold. It also always rains when we go too which I think also makes it a miserable experience.

We haven't properly been to a Christmas market but did happen to be in Birmingham when theirs was on and we quickly rushed on through. Far too busy and stalls selling tat or overpriced food.

I live very close and would second this. They tend to cancel for weather at short notice but it’s really inconsistent. Friends booked tickets for us a couple of years ago and the day before there was a storm so they closed it (fair enough). The next day was still wild but they let it go ahead so we had to go to avoid losing the money. Wandering around a dark garden full of huge puddles trying to watch the fallen branches no one had cleared in the freezing cold was not fun. You can see a good deal of the lights from the road outside so save your money and go sit in a nice warm pub instead.

Ditto what someone said upthread about the market. It’s sprung up in the last few years but isn’t up to much. Couple of huts selling the usual overpriced tat. There was one stall one year selling lovely little music boxes with minutiae scenes in. I say selling but she wasn’t actually doing much of that trying to charge £100 plus each! Overhead someone saying they were quite pricey. She got very defensive and said a lot of work went into them. Sure it did but it’s a bit pointless if no one can afford them!

I think the problem is everything is samey. No inspiration. You've been to one Christmas German market you've been to all of them. 🥱

Christmas markets were good when stall holders came over from Germany and were selling decent stuff that you couldn't get elsewhere. Thank you Brexit for replacing them with overpriced Temu tat

I would agree with York Christmas market. It is so busy now it’s hellish trying to get about and parking is horrendous. Same with many popular markets in nice places, I think Lincoln Christmas market actually stopped running because the crowds became unmanageable.

Tat and alcohol is it. There’s rather a good one near me and i think the secret of its success is less tat than alcohol and the booze tent is at one side so easy to avoid. I go once a year and spend very carefully as the best stalls are artisan food but it tends to be cheaper if you make a note of the seller and buy from their website.

Bath is the same! If you get there first thing in the morning it's ok fir about half an hour and then THE CROWDS!!

We did the Northern lights trail at Heaton Park, Manchester. It was literally just walkin through the woodland area with different shaped or coloured lights stuck in the ground. Very few lights to make you think "wow".
We did a similar one at Blakemere Village in Cheshire which was a trail, but also had characters you could interact with like the Grinch, and of course Santa at the end. Much better!

Agree that the thought of Christmas Markets is far nicer than the reality .

DD,DH and I went to Bruge and Amsterdam a couple of years back . Bruge is a town that lends itself to Christmas , the chocolate shops, the town square , horse drawn trap, lights .
Amsterdam market was nice enough - we found two .
They were both bloody freezing but dry when we went .
We bought waffles from a stall and I got a decoration but nothing out of this world.

I am Christmas Marketed Out now .
We're going to Leeds later this year , probably not the right time for the markets but if they're on, I'll have a look.

Winter fucking Wonderland.

Bath Christmas market

Bristol Christmas Market
Bath Christmas Market.

Both known as "50 Sheds of Shite" in the Toasty household.
(We live between the two places).

Coolings (a chain of Garden Centres in South London) was so over hyped and expensive for what it was. Long queues outside freezing our butts off to be led through a series of sheds with - honestly, not fun- 'activities' before being allowed in to see Santa in another shed. Each activity shed was pretty stark - for instance find the magic key behind whichever of the ten doors it was hidden behind, but a kid from another family in your group found it thirty seconds in so now you have to wait your allotted 5 minutes until they can usher everyone around on the conveyor belt. There was just lots of waiting by a door guarded by an elf who kept peeking behind a curtain to check when it was 'clear'.

Maybe that would all have been ok if it wasn't the least magical Santa imaginable when we got there. No small talk or story telling, right into the pictures because that's where the money is, and also I suspect because they were running late and rushing. Santa became just another tick box conveyor belt stop. Pictures were very clearly taken in a shed and the staging looks awful- at least partly because the space they used was tiny. Santa didn't even give them a toy- they needed to pick this themselves off a shelf in the next shed- relegating Santa to something akin to a photo prop.

I was most mad at myself because the shopping centre Santa would have been about a quarter of the price and a much better and warmer experience, with a proper slot to talk with and joke with Santa. My kids still remember which gifts came personally handed from Santa and treasure them. I let myself be led by the adverts promising a magical christmas experience but more complicated is not more magical! It's definitely back to the shopping centre again for us this year. People try and over engineer it but you just need a good Santa, a good grotto and time to talk.

We did Churnet a few years ago with a big family group - it was ok actually especially for the younger ones - Santa was lovely. I’m sure MIL paid a fortune for it - not sure it was quite worth it but fine for a day out.

Now DS is older I’ve stopped booking things really. Especially after a particularly disastrous ‘winter lights’ thing in the pissing rain where a few fairy lights had been flung into trees. I see there are a lot of so called entertainment companies popping up - they seem to throw these events together and then when it’s a disaster do a run with the money and can’t be contacted again. I tend to stick to theatre shows etc.

We went to see Santa in our local crap rundown shopping centre in south east London and it was actually great. Reasonable price, short waiting time, you got a lift to the North Pole and from a small child point of view it was actually believable- engaged performers, nice decor. I was so relieved I hadn’t paid for some hyped up grotto at great expense.

i do think most ‘light trails’ are one of the biggest money grabbing operations out there. We did Chelsea Gardens ones a couple of years back and it was in its first or second year so not too expensive really compared to some of the others (Kew 😅) but it was nothing spectacular and didn’t take long to get around. We saw far better lights and Christmas displays in the shop windows on the walk from Victoria to it, for free.

The safety issue at Lincoln was it became very popular and so too many people in too small a space. I went about 25 years ago and didn’t return, it was incredibly difficult to actually get near the stalls. Year on year it got busier and busier and they tried different ways of corralling the crowds, introduced one-way systems etc. Ultimately it became a victim of its own success.

Too many people mainly it got massive and reports of people being crushed etc