After having an awful weekend we decided to treat Bryson with his first trip of 2016 to see Santa! We took him to Springtime Nurseries two years ago when he was SUPER small & we decided this year it would be so magical to take him again.
Springtime Nurseries is a Garden Centre in Crews Hill that has one amazing Santa Grotto!

At just £8(on the day) for children & £2 for accompanying adults I found the price extremely cheap for what you actually end up getting. For the above price you will get a lovely 6 minute train ride to Santa’s Grotto, a visit with santa & a superb choice of presents! This is a huge change from 2 years ago when you were just given a present without a choice.

Parking is free but extremely sparse, however, you don’t need to worry too much as the many businesses on Crews Hill all have carparks so park in one of those if you can’t find space.
To get to Santa’s grotto you need to walk through the entire garden centre, this is very sweet as you get to walk past all the Christmas decorations BUT, unfortunately, you also can see toys depending on the way you walk through. Very distracting, even for me as an adult.

Once you reach the winter wonderland area you’re semi safe from most bits & bobs up for sale. We went on the first Monday of opening so you have to bare in mind that not all of the huts with extra bits & pieces were open.

However this Personalised Christmas Decoration stall was open, as B has an unusual name we can NEVER find anything pre-made thats personalised so we decided to have a Pirate Ship Christmas tree decoration made for him. It cost £6.99 & we did it before we went on our Santa’s grotto train trip.
I’ll mention now that whilst we do really like the decoration it wasn’t quite what we were expecting, the writing is quite small & written on in pen. If you wish to see ours please drop me an email & I’ll send it over.
The decoration was ready by the time we’d finished the train ride so I highly recommend following our idea if you wish to have one made.

As we went on a term time Monday there was no queue for the Santa’s express to Santa’s grotto so we were able to jump right on. You may or may not be aware that B’s dad was involved in an accident so he wasn’t as agile as normal on his feet. I would say the entire place is very accessible for those who have difficulties moving or those in wheelchairs.
We had to wait a few minutes for the train to fill up a little more but it wasn’t long before we were off!!
We thoroughly enjoyed our trip to Santa’s Grotto, the trip is around 7 to 8 minutes long & you can watch it here on our Youtube channel:

This was a comfortable journey for both of us, I suffer with back issues & found the trip smooth!
It’s lovely to see the effort they have gone to by making so many different Christmas scenes, it really got me in the Christmassy mood.

Once we arrived at Santa’s Grotto B ran in front of everyone to secure first place in the queue, it was so embarrassing!
We were shown right into Santa & B lost his bottle & ran straight out of the room Santa was in. We managed to get him in but he just stayed attached to his dad with his face hidden from Santa, I don’t get why as he’s met Santa ALOT!

The Santa was amazing with B, he tried to calm him down & reassure him that everything was ”ok” & that he had real hands under his gloves hehe!!!
B slightly warmed to him & told him that he wanted PAW PATROL! Nothing in particular just PAW PATROL.
He chatted to B a lot & I never felt rushed, quite the opposite. We’d already decided before going in to have a family picture taken, an elf came in & took a few images for us which were to be collected once we’d finished our chat with santa & after we’d chosen a present!
Santa then popped a ‘golden ticket’ on B’s lanyard that he’d been given at the beginning of the train ride. The ticket would ensure B got the choice of any toy he wanted from Santa’s secret toyshop.

Off we went to the ‘secret toy shop’ we were greeted by an amazing sight, 2 years ago Santa awarded you your treat himself this year however you were given a huge choice! A whole room full of fantastic toys!

We took two trips around the room before B settled on a puzzle, well a 4 in 1 puzzle. I am exceptionally happy with it, especially when we found out it was worth £6.99!
There were plenty of toys for all ages, I was so shocked at the change from 2 years ago. We left with our toy & the elf popped a hole in our ticket so we couldn’t use it again.

We collected our decoration & headed out to look at the rest of the shop. When B is older we will try the ice rink but right now he is too young & not willing.
B loves Christmas lights so before we left we took him to see their set up. It was gorgeous but B was getting tired so only I got to thoroughly enjoy it.

We had a thoroughly lovely time at Springtime Nurseries, it was definitely a fabulous beginning to our Christmas celebrations.
I highly recommend it & I can’t wait to experience it again next year.

Love
Little B & Me
x