Last week we visited Lapland UK, and it was magical! I thought I would write a post to share our Lapland UK review because I’ve had quite a few questions over on Instagram already. It is probably the most expensive Santa experience you’ll ever do, so I totally understand that people want to know if it’s worth the money. I hope this helps.
Lapland UK review…
Lapland UK
Not to be confused with Lapland in Finland, Lapland UK is based in Ascot. It is described as a secret immersive experience based on the original Father Christmas myth. Children receive an invitation in the post from Father Christmas, and I have to say the invitations are very well done. Something that can definitely be kept and enjoyed for years to come.
Lapland UK is far more than just a Santa’s Grotto, as you travel through the enchanted forest taking part in various activities before finally meeting Father Christmas himself. The whole experience lasts around four hours.
Arrival
You’re greeted as you arrive and told which direction to head in to find car parking. The car park was very busy and it took us quite a while to find a free space, so please bear that in mind and allow extra time.
You then head to what is essentially a waiting area which includes a shop, toilets and food stalls. When it’s time for you to enter there will be announcement and you head through the big door to check in.
When you check in your little ones will be given a passport each, which will be stamped as they make their way through the enchanted forest.
The Toy Factory
In the toy factory the kids help the elves make snow leopards for Father Christmas. The children do have to hand these back but grown up are secretly given them on the way out. The idea is your children open these on Christmas morning, and I’m almost crying just thinking about that because what a cute idea! I can’t wait to see their faces when they open them. So make sure you take a bag with you to pop the snow leopards in so little ones don’t see. With our children being a bit older I didn’t think we’d get away with this but we just about managed it.
Mother Christmas’ Kitchen
Next you’ll visit Mother Christmas and her elves in her kitchen. Here the children got to decorate Father Christmas’ favourite treat, gingerbread! After this Mother Christmas’ reads the children a story, which was lovely. Children do get to take their gingerbread man with them, I think all hell would break loose if they didn’t!
The Elven Village
We arrived in the Eleven Village at around 6pm, and our Santa slot was 7pm – 7:30pm. So we only had around an hour in the Elven Village, which is your free time to do what you want. First of all we had to eat as it was tea time, this took up a lot of our time so I would avoid eating there if you can. Food is also quite pricey.
We then went ice skating which the kids absolutely loved but I found it quite overwhelming as it was so busy. I had read that you should take spare socks with you for this as the ice skates get wet, but we didn’t find it to be too bad. Still worth bearing in mind though, just in case.
The elves had told us to visit the Elf Post Office to write a letter to Father Christmas but we had to skip this part as we just didn’t have enough time. This is one of the main negatives for me, I felt rushed especially during this part of the experience.
The huskies came out at 7pm, so we got to meet them and have photos taken with them. A definite highlight for my daughter. We then rushed off for our Father Christmas time slot. The entrance for this is not very obvious, there are no signs so it’s easy to miss. I don’t know if this is done intentionally or not but I thought it was a bit odd. Once you continue on your journey to meet Father Christmas, you cannot go back to the Elven Village, so make sure you have finished here before you leave.
Lapland UK review.
Father Christmas
Our Father Christmas time slot was 7pm – 7:30pm and we thought that if we headed straight over at 7pm we would be at the front of the queue. Unfortunately this isn’t the case and it took us an hour of queuing to meet Father Christmas. When you’ve paid almost £400 I don’t think it’s right to expect people to queue for this length of time, with two kids who both need a wee! Having said that, nobody around us seemed to be complaining so maybe it’s just me? You do pass by the reindeer whilst queuing though so that distracted the kids for a little while.
When we finally got to Father Christmas’ log cabin in the woods, the kids couldn’t wait to meet him. I have to say the Father Christmas was amazing, and the kids believed 100% that he was the real deal. He knew everything about them so they chatted about football, baking and even about our dog, Poppy. At the end he gave them a husky stuffed toy each which they were over the moon with. I really liked this as most Santa’s give the kids a stereotypical ‘boy’ or ‘girl’ gift which definitely does not suit my children.
And that’s it! You make your way to the exit, which of course is via another gift shop…
Is it worth the money?
Lapland UK review
My husband booked our tickets and he can’t find the email confirmation so I don’t know the exact price we paid, but I know it was around £400 for the four of us. Now, that is an insane amount of money for us and not something we would usually be able to consider if we didn’t have some spare money from the sale of our last house.
So is it worth it? I’ve gone backwards and forwards with this question because it is a crazy amount of money, but I would say that yes it is worth the money. But would I do it again? Never say never but no, I don’t think so. My kids are 11 and 9 and I was very aware of the fact that they aren’t going to believe in Father Christmas for much longer, so I wanted to do something special like this before it was too late. For me, it’s the kind of thing you do once, the magic would wear off if it was a yearly thing in my opinion. But don’t bankrupt yourself trying to take your children here, there are plenty of ways to make Christmas magical without going to Lapland UK. But if you can afford to do it just once, I say go for it.
There are things I would change about the experience though. Firstly it was a bit too busy for my liking, I understand demand is high and they need to try and get as many people in as possible but it was too busy in certain areas. I also felt the time in the Elven Village was too short, it felt very rushed and we didn’t get to do everything we wanted to do. We could have done with at least another 30 minutes here. And finally the queue to meet Father Christmas was too long. Queuing with excited children for an hour is unacceptable in my opinion and I feel Lapland UK should try to reduce this if possible.
Tickets are not easy to get hold of and do sell very quickly. So if you are thinking of visiting, keep an eye on their website for details. I believe we got ours in March.
I hope that you’ve found this post helpful and have enjoyed our Lapland UK review if you’re thinking about booking Lapland UK. If you’ve already been, please let me know your thoughts in the comments below.
Thank you for reading.
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