Willows Activity Farm – Santa Spectacular 2019!

I don’t even know how many times we’ve been to Willows Activity Farm in St Albans but I do know that you can never have too many days out there, and I also know that even when we moved from East London (a half an hour’s drive to the farm) to Norwich (a 2 hour drive to Willows) I was not prepared to give up our visits. It’s a shame that we no longer really live close enough to be annual members but perhaps it makes our trips at pivotal points in the year all the more special. We LOVE Willows at Easter and Halloween is another fabulously fun time to go along with a summer sunshiney trip also always lovely, but… Without a doubt, our favourite time of the year to go is right now for their annual Santa Spectacular!

The Santa Spectacular festive winter event at Willows is on from the 23rd of November until the 24th of December and we were very lucky to be one of the first families this season to sample its delights. Every year I wonder how they will surpass the year before with all they have to offer and yet every year I am left dumbstruck at quite how much they have managed. In a way I think ideally you need two full days at the Santa Spectacular because there is literally SO much to do but I don’t want to say it’s TOO much because it couldn’t be, could anything ever be TOO much for Christmas? You just have to be organised and pick the things you most want to do saving all the other bits to be surprises if you manage to make them, for as with their regular programme everything usually on offer at Willows is STILL on offer – all the wonderful playgrounds both inside and out (the Peter Rabbit areas are amazing), Tristan the Tractor rides, animal petting, fairground rides and so much more including all the wonderful farm animals, meet and greets with all the Peter Rabbit characters and then of course the spectacular totally lives up to its name with a truly SPECTACULAR amount of extras on offer!

Santa’s Grotto is a feast for the eyes to behold with scenes set up like a Christmas wonderland as you make your way to see the man in red and once there he spends time chatting before giving a magic key to his toy shop where children can choose anything they like in his toy shop. This is something the children talk about a lot as it really is SO exciting and all the toys take ages to pour over before making decisions (they are all excellent quality too and there’s something for EVERYONE)!

On top of the grotto there’s a festive 3D film, gingerbread decorating, create-a-cuddle (which is like build a bear), the magical ice rink, meet and greets with Mischka the husky, an Elf sing a long, the Nutcracker show, fairy show, snowball shootout, earning your Elf stripes with your passport stamp trail and many, many more wonderfully fun things for Christmas entertainment – it’s all under the one roof and nothing costs any more than the entrance price which is JUST what parents ordered!

The whole farm is decorated, the staff are super friendly, the food is inexpensive and SO worth it rather than a picnic. There’s a few places to eat with different types of food in each restaurant. We had lunch and cake in the soft play cafe which has had a mega overhaul since the last time we visited and is very swish looking. The jacket potatoes were very heart, tasty and warming!

Though you WILL come home exhausted, I guarantee that you will want to make the Willows Activity Farm Santa Spectacular part of your Christmas calendar for forever more – I just think a trip to Lapland itself couldn’t be more entertaining for the children, I really do!

See our YouTube video of the 2019 Santa Spectacular at Willows Activity Farm for 2019 below!

If you book on line in advance then tickets prices start from £30 for children aged 2, £14 for adults and babies £20. You absolutely get what you pay for AND more! It’s simply stunning!

We were invited to experience the Santa Spectacular for 2019 at Willows Activity Farm as guests of the farm.