Q Can you recommend a Christmas experience within driving distance of London? I’d like to take my two children to see Father Christmas, but while I’d like something better than a shopping mall grotto I don’t want to go to the expense of a trip to Lapland.
Kirstin Standage, via e-mail
A You could visit Santa’s Magical Kingdom (01622 870821, santasmagicalkingdom.co.uk), which opens at the Hop Farm, Kent, next Saturday. It promises more than two hours of activities, including a train ride to a fairytale castle where children can write letters to Father Christmas, meet elves and reindeer, make decorations, visit a huge grotto filled with animatronic polar bears and penguins and meet the great man. Afterwards there’s a Christmas circus pantomime and the chance to go ice skating. Prices start at £25pp including a present.
If you’d rather have an outdoor, more Scandinavian day out, Lapland UK (0871 2219627, laplanduk.co.uk) near Wadhurst, Kent, offers a four-hour experience including helping in the toy factory, decorating gingerbread and meeting Father Christmas in a snowy woodland setting. Prices start at £57.50 including a gift, two-course hot meal and ice skating.