Santa’s Grottos & Christmas Events
The UK hosts over 100 major Christmas attractions annually including grottos, light trails, immersive experiences and themed events. Households spend a staggering £28 – £30 billion on Christmas with the growing share now being spent on experiences over physical gifts.
Families typically spend £25 – £60 on a visit to Santa, and we are seeing a continuing rise in families prioritising memorable, interactive, experience based attractions.
Christmas is a firm favourite of ours, which is just as well as its worked on for around 10 months of the year to ensure the design and attention to detail are as magical for families as we can possibly make them!
Services Available:
- Experience design
- Layout and build
- Marquee/equipment sourcing and hire
- Full immersive theming
- Props and prop sourcing
- Set hire
- Artificial Snow Flocking
- Snow Room Sets
- Carpet Murals
- Photo Opportunities
- Painted cut out Characters
- Gift Selection and Present Rooms
We can also help with:
- Costume and costume hire
- Actors and Script writing
- Character Creation
- Walk about characters
- Reindeer Hire
- Bear Building workshops
- Event Production Management
- Atmospheric lighting
- Licence free music and sound effects
- Special effects and smells
Design and Build
Big or small, open or cosy we can design an experience that will work for your space and ideas.
With a little creativity and attention to detail even the blandest of rooms can be transformed into magical spaces.
We can either build your event for you, or if you have a team onsite that can do the build, we will design it together, you build it and we will do the theming, bring the sets to life!
Before and After’s:
Sets, Shows & Theming
The reason we love Christmas so much is the magic that can be created in each and every room. We thrive on seeing the wow factor on families faces when they step through the portal into the world of Father Christmas and the pure magic of that world. The attention to detail is important to us, as well as areas that can sometimes be forgotten like corridors and the little nooks you think people wont see!
To create that immersive feeling it needs to look, feel, smell and sound authentic and most of all, it needs to be fit your theme or story and be welcoming!
If you have a small grotto but you want to make it as magical as possible we can do that, if you have a large space and want to fill it with shows, throw your ideas at us!
Past sets & shows have included:
- Frostgate Hollow Secret Garden
- Elf School
- Room of Beleivability
- Post Office
- Elf Sorting Office
- Magic Transporter
- Reindeer Flying School
- Jingle Jesters Musical Parodies
- Magic Reindeer Food Making
- Present Shrinking
- Secret Wardrobe Entrances
- Santas New Sleigh
- The Magic Oven
- Santas Chrief Inventor’s Lab
- Cookie Decorating Kitchens
- Toy Building Workshops
- Story Telling
- Wish Catchers
- Mrs Claus’ Sewing Room
- Sweet Shops
- Reindeer Keepers Cabin
and of course our signature set… The Snow Room!
Interactive ‘Machine’ Props
We love a story line but we also love to get involved and what better way to do that than an interactive element, or ‘Machine’
Machines can be part of the show like a Belieiveability Scanner or Naughty and Nice Arch where families are encouraged to use as a part of the show that are operated by actor activated hidden show controls allowing the show to be ad-libbed in line with how families are playing along at any moment in time.
Machines can also be build as The Show! We have shrunk presents, multiplied gifts, ‘baked’ cookies in seconds, shot mail up shoots, sorted letters etc In each show we have of course ‘lost’ the keys, or elements to make the machine work which means your guests need to seek out the items needed hidden in the room and insert them into draws, flaps and keyholes etc. We have pressed buttons, used the hat of believability, worked out how to play song lines in the right sequence, found hidden door bells, some machines have even been dance activated!!
These elements are not only fun, but the perfect way to allow shy or nervous children to get involved. Once they immerse themselves into your experience, the only way is up!
Character Creation
Characters that look, sound, walk and talk Christmas joy will bring your attraction to life and really make it something to remember!
As well as creating our own characters and shows, we also work with a diverse group of professionals in their fields and together we can provide:
- Bespoke Characters
- Quality Costume – options to buy or hire available
- Script Writing
- Walk about Characters and Story Telling
- Provision of actors
- Recruitment and Training
- Props
- Make up accessories
Signature Snow Room Set
Our snow rooms have become so popular for us they really are a signature set for us. Filled with snow they are a real WOW factor and you can hear the intakes of breath as visitors walk into them!
Filled with snow, snowmen, penguins, snowflakes, trees and of course snowballs, they are the perfect wonderland to spend some time in. Consider this if you are breaking groups down into individual families, this is the perfect way to keep families entertained as you gently take each family off when its their turn to see Father Christmas without anyone feeling like they have missed out on something.
Size depending this space is great for toddler playhouses, snowball fights (with or without paintball style hideouts) snowball throwing games, face in the hole boards, snow-skittles, wishing wells, photo opportunties and even a sleigh if you have one. Our most recent hit in this set is the introduction of Santas Wish Wardens who encourage children to help them catch children’s Christmas wishes as they come into the North Pole!
Each set is Snow Flocked using our in-house flocking machine for that all over blanket snow effect. Snow flocking also available fo rinterior and exterior spaces, please see Snow Flocking for more info.
We have used this themed set in large and small spaces, corridoors, marquees and entrance areas, whereever you use it, its a truly magical set!
Santa’s Toy Shop,
Bear Building Workshops & Grotto Gifts
Imagine the excitement of being given a special key from Father Christmas and being told you can choose any present you like… and then stepping into a Toy Shop full to bursting with unwrapped gifts, I sure wish this was around when I was little!
Gifts can be given in different ways:
- Choose your own toy in a visit to Santas Toy Shop
- Santa gives a gift himself
- Your gift is a visit to the elves Toy Making Workshop where you can make and keep your own bear or Christmas plush
No matter who, how, what or where you wish to give your gifts, we can help seamlessly include this into your attraction.
Photo Opportunities
These all important photo opportunities are a must have now. Depending on your spac a variety of photo ops can be created to allow your guests to get in the spirit, have some fun, snap away and of course share how much fun theyve had on their socials!
Don’t forget your photo ops don’t have to soley be within your experience, if you have space to have some outside of it to allow non-ticket holder visitors to join in the fun too… who knows, they may even upgrade their ticket and join into the experience too!
See also Face in the Hole Boards and Stand Alone Characters
Grotto Makeovers
All this sounds great but maybe you only have one or two rooms that need a spruce up?
Send us a picture of your set, or better invite us along to see it in real time, and lets chat about how you’d like it to be better. This can be done via a consultancy basis ie you can complete the wok yourselves, or we will come in, sprinkle our magic and make it happen!
Mystery Shop
With years of experience and a keen eye for detail, what we are ultimatley striving for is for all children to experience magic at the most magical time of year, and for families to create memories!
We have been asked alot, would you mind just checking us out, casting your eye over our work and see what you think?
The answer is, Yes of course we’d be happy to! If we can help as many experiences provide the best possible magic thats a win in our book!
Get in touch, let us know where you’re based, when you’re open and lets chat!
Special Effects
Adding a few extra wow moments here and there will really set you apart from the competition.
The image above is a special UV reactive paint invisible until the magic word/dance or song are performed and you as a visitor ‘get your elf magic’ and can see what the elves can see.
This example is the result of a change in the lighting via hidden controls, and the elves toy blueprints magically appearing all over the walls… Voila, elf magic!
Carpet Murals
Transform any space, wall or fence with these brilliant backdrops that double up as photo ops.
Constructed of carpet, they are weather-proof and re-usable for the following year make these perfect for Christmas and Halloween events. All you need is a wooden backdrop for the mural to be stapled too.
Suitable for interior or exterior use.
And if you haven’t seen enough… here’s a few last little pieces of magic to give you the warm and fuzzies!