We’ve never been to Bocketts Farm Park, though have driven past the entrance many times. We’re also horribly disorganised this year and hadn’t booked H into Painshill to see Father Christmas. The slots all went and even locally it was hard – until we read about the Bocketts Farm Father Christmas.
Bocketts Farm is no more than five minutes from Polesden Lacey, so already an area we’re familiar with, though we’d never been. It’s a farm with a big play area, good for kids and somewhere that was on the list to visit.
Bocketts Farm Father Christmas can’t be pre-booked – you turn up and buy a ticket for your slot. To save you reading the review, we were really impressed and H got a great toy (a Barbie sized horse) – it was really well done and had the right atmosphere.
You can visit Father Christmas without visiting the park – entrance there is around the £9 mark and worth it if you’re having a day there. Father Christmas is an additional £5. We only wanted to see him so paid the £9ish charge which gave us access to the cafe and a small outdoor play area. As H is an only child we got a slot for an hour later (I suspect if I’d have had more than one child it would have been two) so we grabbed some sandwiches, had a play and had a browse in their shop. Soon enough our time came, our ‘elf’ took the kids in a trailer to the Grotto (made from hay and really well laid out), we sat down and let Father Christmas work his magic – and he was great. Writing the kids name and their present request, a simple touch but it was like he was listening to them. H was the last one to be seen, he asked lots of nice questions and handed over the present – she had a minute with him. We were all sat on hay bales watching.
It felt like we were in there for ages – each group of kids has around fifteen minutes until the next lot arrive, and he does see children in groups rather than individually and it was done really well.
A bonus is parents go free (up to 2 per child).
It’s small, but when you’re like us and badly organised Bocketts Farm Father Christmas is a more than adequate experience. If you’re National Trust members (like us!) then head to Polesden Lacey afterwards where there’s always lots going on. We were lucky and caught the last rides from two horses ‘disguised as reindeer’ in a truck around the grounds – that was pretty fab and I’m finally starting to feel festive. There was a Father Christmas who chatted to the kids in the queue, however H told me it wasn’t the real one, and they’re all dressed up and pretending. Gulp…