Last Friday, we had our annual Santa visit, which also turned out to be N’s first of many – I hope! There are two great Santa nearby, but we decided to visit the one at Silica Lodge Garden Centre as we enjoyed it last year, and it looked much more magical this year. I’m not sure who was more excited, to be honest! J wasn’t too fussed last year as he wasn’t aware of who Santa was, but he is a lot more so this year and kept saying, “Going Santa’s house” before we went.

The garden centre also had reindeer there until Christmas, so it was a great chance for J to see Rudolph in real life. Though they also had donkeys and pygmy goats there, which he was mesmerised by, he loves watching animals.

I’m glad we chose to go on a weekday rather than a weekend as we could go in pretty much straight away, and there was no queue. The visit to Santa starts with an enchanted train ride through a magical winter wonderland, past deer, Eskimos, polar bears, Santa himself, and the elves, and we even encountered some snow!

J didn’t want to go near Santa initially – I think he was surprised at seeing him in the flesh! – but he eventually spoke to him after some encouragement from me. He told him he wanted dinosaurs for Christmas and that Noah just wanted a present, so bless him. Once we saw Santa, we visited Santa’s toy shop, where the boys could choose their present. there was a great selection, and J chose a clockwork train set, whilst we chose ‘my first camera’ for N.

Before leaving, we visited the animals again and took some photos of Santa’s sleigh, of which J decided he wanted to try to steal a ‘present’! We put it back, of course…

£6.50, I think it is a reasonable price as J loved it and wanted to go on the train ride again. I’m just wondering if they can beat it again next year!

Disclosure
I paid for this myself and wasn’t asked to write this review; I just wanted to share our experience!