Anyone been to see Santa at Harrods ?

[mumto2andnomore]

Just booked my tickets for November but wondered if anyone has been and is it very busy ? I have booked for a Saturday, is it worth going ?

I went a few years ago on a Tuesday and it was so quiet I was glad I'd gone. Saturday will be busy, but worth it for the experience I think. Just be prepared to queue and maybe have another adult with you for that loo run when it is nearly your turn- lol.

Is booking a new option? I took dd twice, and we simply turned up and waited in endless queues. Maybe booking has been introduced to help with crowd control.

We go every year. With the old system of just turning up, the queues were really bad - particularly at the weekend you could wait for hours. They put on entertainment like mini pantomines while you were waiting and brought around baskets of biscuits and bottles of water (free).

With the new system they started last year of issuing timed tickets, you don't wait long. They have a certain number of tickets issued per half hour slot so the very longest you will wait is half an hour, but we certainly did not wait that long last year.

It really is worth going. It is the best grotto in London and is totally free. Every child gets a badge with the year on it (we have a collection of them now) and a book from Father Christmas (a picture book - always a relaly nice well known one) with the yera and harrods groto printed on the inside.

They don't rush you through - and the Santas are really good too. They take your picture if you want and you can purchase it after but there is no pressure to.

Booking is a must now unfortunately. No ticket - no entry.

We went last year and it was really good. I went with friends and we had 6 children between us and Father Christmas spent time talking to them all. He was a real Santa - looked exactly like you see on Christmas cards - unlike the poor attempts in some places. We queued for about 10 mins max and the queue was decorated with the Sleeping Beauty story which kept the children occupied.

I'm annoyed now as I meant to book again for this year and I forgot until I read this post. All the good slots are full - I'm not sure how Christmassy I could feel on Nov 3rd!

Definitely worth going!

We went last year.
It was lovely.
Ordered the free tickets via their website.
Queued for five minutes - it was a Thursday afternoon.
Spent ages with Santa.
Well worth it.

EEEEEEEEK! I have just seen that they are booked out and it's only September (if only I had seen this yesterday when I saw Al-Fayed wandering around the shop). Any other good Santas in london?

Eek from me too - meant to book before we went on hols. Went last year and planned to go again this year.

Have booked after seeing a thread on here a couple of weeks ago. DD and I will be going on a morning in December

Maybe if we all nag Harrods they might find another Santa (of course, it's not really another Santa - there is only one - they just make him work extra shifts). I have even looked on e-bay to see if anyone was selling spare tickets!

They now have a waiting list. E-mail them via the "contact us" on the website. We're number 469!

Georgiemum, they aleady have found another Santa - in fact, I think there are about half-a-dozen of them at Harrods! But they manage the queues well so obviously little people don't realise what is going on behind all the doors.

Will my 9yo know it's not the real Father Christmas?