Gifted | Our visit to Santa at Hamerton Zoo

The boys were given complimentary tickets to see Santa at Hamerton Zoo

Last week we were invited to go and see Santa at Hamerton Zoo. It has been a while since we last visited Hamerton, so we were all excited to see the animals. It wasn’t until recently that I learned that Santa is visiting over the festive period and we were really excited to see what it would be like.

The Santa Experience at Hamerton Zoo

When we arranged the booking we were able to choose a time slot, so we chose 2pm. We thought the last time slot of the day would be ideal for us! I love my lie ins on a Sunday and it meant we didn’t feel rushed around in the morning.

We met with Mark’s sister who brought her 2 children with us too. When we arrived at Hamerton Zoo, the children were each given a piece of paper for the gingerbread trail. It was a great way to walk around the zoo and see all the animals.

It didn’t take too long for us to finish the trail as the weather was cold we didn’t want to stop too long at each of the animal enclosures. The clues were really easy to follow and although we couldn’t think straight away what some of the animals were, it meant we learnt something too!

Train to see Santa

Once we had finished the trail we took our sheets back to the gift shop who exchanged our sheets for a small bag of Haribo. We then went outside to meet Santa’s elf and catch the train to see Santa. My nephew was so excited to ride the train and we took up pretty much all the carriages.

The train ride took us around the back end of the zoo and towards the tigers. Music was playing and the whole ride was really enjoyable. It would have been lovely to have listened to festive music rather than the tunes they were playing.

Santa’s Grotto

When we arrived at Santa his elf showed us where to go to meet him. She opened the door to his grotto where Santa was sat waiting.

Santas grotto is a wooden hut which once inside is decorated with a fire place and backdrops. Santa was great with the children, however I think he could have been a little better. When we visited he couldn’t read the names on the gift tags due to not having his glasses, so his elf read them instead. The boys didn’t mind, but Oliver did question down the line why he wasn’t wearing his glasses.

I love that Hamerton wrapped their gifts using ribbon and brown paper. With sustainability such a hot topic it’s great to see places making the change and helping to reduce plastic waste. The boys were all encouraged to open their gifts with Santa in his grotto, which they all happily obliged. Arthur received a lovely animal collection, Oliver received a set of dominos and a Hamerton Zoo notebook and Jack recieved an Alien archeologist set and notebook too. My niece and nephew recieved an orangutan hand puppet and a lovely wooden jigsaw.

Craft activities

After our visit to see Santa we took a walk to the cafe where we were told our craft activities were waiting for us. At the back of the cafe was a table full of coloured card, glitter, scissors and crayons all ready to use to create Christmas cards.

All the children really got involved in making their cards and spent ages perfecting their designs. With juice and biscuits available to them there was no need to have to rush off either.

After they created their cards there was another activity waiting. Each child was given a gingerbread man and some icing tubes along with some jellied sweets to decorate with.

The whole experience took a couple of hours and we could have made a whole day of it had the weather been a little warmer. However the warmth of the cafe was welcoming and broke up the cold nicely.

The Santa experience costs £10 per child plus the cost of entry into the park (which at the time of publish was £7.99). Included in the price is the grotto visit, train ride, gift, craft activity, Gingerbread decorating and the gingerbread trail. So lots!!