A visit to Santa’s Grotto at Dobbies Garden Centre

This year I took Ryan to his second Santa’s Grotto, which was Santa’s Grotto at Dobbies Garden Centre. Last year we went to Santa’s Grotto at Smith’s Garden Centre.

Once we arrived it took some time to find where the Grotto was, because the Garden Centre was quite large, and there were many different sections to it.

However, after following some signage, we finally made it to the Grotto, which was located near the restaurant, towards the back of the Garden Centre.

Once we reached the Grotto’s entrance, we waited in line with a few other people, the people behind us happened to be Ryan’s teacher from last year, and her son.

After about a 15 minute wait, Snowflake the Elf came out and read out three children’s names, Ryan’s name was included, and then all children and their parents were asked to come into the Grotto together.

Before we entered Santa’s Grotto, Snowflake told the children that they could only enter if they believed in the magic of Christmas, which I thought was a weird thing to say to 4-6 year olds. They had to cheer if they believed in the magic.

Once finally inside, it was very beautiful. It was filled with Christmas trees, sparkling lights, some plush reindeer, moving squirrels, and a couple of activities for the children to do together.

The first activity was helping Snowflake put some presents back in Santa’s sleigh, which they all did.

Once done they had to follow Snowflake to his best friend, Frosty the Snowman, who had fallen down and the children had to put him back together, and put a scarf on him.

There wasn’t enough room for all three children to do this together, so only two of the children could really do it, which was a shame.

Once Frosty was sorted, we all walked towards Santa, where each child had to take turns to answer some of his questions.

Santa was really good with the children, he asked them questions and waited for their responses.

Ryan was first, and Santa asked him what list Ryan thought he was on. Ryan hesitantly said the good list.

Santa then asked Ryan what was on the top of his Christmas list, Ryan said a laptop, the other mums laughed.

Santa very convincingly told Ryan that the Elf’s weren’t that great with technology, so they would try their best to get it to him, but there was no guarantee.

We then had Ryan’s photo taken, which cost £8 to buy, then we walked out of the Grotto whilst the other children spoke to Santa.

Overall I wasn’t very impressed with the Santa’s Grotto at Dobbies Garden Centre.

The main thing I didn’t like was going into the Grotto with other children, because not all children got to do all the activities due to lack of space, and also because they were shy around children they didn’t know.

Also, other mums and children could hear your conversation with Santa, so it wasn’t a very personal experience.

Because of these reasons, as well as the time it took to get there, this isn’t a Santa’s Grotto that we’ll go back to.

Santa’s Grotto at Dobbies Garden Centre is located at Aylesbury Road, Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire HP22 6BD. For more information on Santa’s Grotto at Dobbies Garden Centre please visit their website.

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What’s your favourite Santa’s Grotto?