Santa’s Woodland Walk at Keydell Nursery
This time last year I saw a lot of friends on Facebook raving about the Christmas experience at a local garden centre – Keydell Nursery in Horndean, Hampshire. If it was just one person posting loads of photos I might have passed it off as over-enthusiasm. But in the space of a few weeks I saw dozens of pictures and recommendations.
Tin Box Tot was a little too young to appreciate what all the festive fuss was about in 2014, so we didn’t visit but I did file the information away for future reference.
If you’ve read my bucket list of Christmas family days out you’ll know that we are super excited for Christmas this year. Keydell didn’t make the list but it came up is discussion with a friend when we were looking for somewhere to meet for a playdate.
A quick visit to the Keydell website revealed that Santa’s Woodland Walk and Grotto was open from mid-November until 23 December. It costs £11 per child to visit Santa in his grotto and receive a present but the woodland walk was free.
So off we went to Horndean on Friday. And I’m so glad we did – we had such a good time.
We arrived at lunchtime to find queues of cars trying to park. There were plenty of spaces but everyone seemed keen to get as close to the entrance as they could.
Our first stop was the cafe to feed the kids. This was also busy but we managed to get a table and a couple of highchairs for the babies. A soup and roll, latte and kids lunch box with ham sandwich, crisps, yogurt, jelly and carton of drink cost just under £10. Not too bad.
With full tummies all round we walked back into the main garden centre in search of Santa’s Woodland Walk. We had decided against paying for the grotto as my friend’s daughter gets a little freaked out by Santa.
The garden centre is packed full of plants, seeds, bird food, gardening tools, ornaments and gifts. It’s quite an assault on the senses. Our eyes were drawn in all directions so it was a bit of a surprise that we managed to find the entrance to Santa’s Woodland Walk quite quickly.
Inside the kids’ (and adults’) excitement levels rose steeply. The walk winds through numerous Christmas scenes from a nativity to animatronic displays and photo opportunities with Santa. You can also meet some of Santa’s real reindeer.
Tin Box Tot was beside herself – there was a lot of squealing with joy. Tin Box Baby, who should have been napping long ago, was fascinated by the lights and refused to let sleep beat her.
When you come out of the walk there are three pens of animals to pet.
Meeting the pigs, donkeys and goats gave us a chance to calm the kids down a little bit before we visited the Christmas shop, which is an attraction in itself.
There are baubles in 20 different colour schemes as well as table decorations, lights and those cute little village scenes that look like they should be part of a train set.
My favourite display (although part of me found it fascinating in a scary way) was the largest display of Santas I’ve ever seen.
After the Christmas shop we decided to go around the Woodland Walk one more time before retiring to the cafe for a hot drink and cake.
All in all we spent nearly four hours at Keydell with only our tummies to blame for spending any serious money. I love those types of day trips!
Everyone was happily exhausted by the time we set off home.
Keydell Nursery puts on Santa’s Woodland Walk to raise money for the Neonatal Unit at Queen Alexandra Hospital and there are lots of water features around the route where you can throw in a donation. Last year £4,680 was raised.
Tips for your visit:
- Don’t use the nursery’s postcode on your sat nav – ours took us off the A3 at Horndean and then back onto the A3 heading to Petersfield. Use a good old fashioned map.
- Keydell Nursery is no secret. Be prepared to share the experience with lots of people if you visit on a weekend.
- Buy your tickets to meet Santa as soon as you arrive at the Nursery as sessions sell out fast and you may have to wait until later in the day. Tickets can only be bought on the day.
Disclosure: the lovely people at Funky Giraffe gifted me some bibs for Tin Box Baby. All opinions are my own.
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It looks a truly magical place to meet Santa and have a Christmas experience. There is a similar one near to us, and we are off there next weekend – can't wait! Thanks for linking up with #TriedTested
It's such a busy time of year, isn't it. Enjoy your next visit x
This was our first year doing it but I think we'll definitely be going to one again! X
I'm glad you liked it 🙂
During the week (we went Friday afternoon) is definitely a good plan. I loved the huskies too but sadly didn't get a good picture. There was just so much to see x
It's brilliant, isn't it?! I've been excited for weeks now and it's all been as magical as I hoped so far. I'm hoping we won't have had Santa burn out by the time Christmas actually arrives. I'm sure that's not possible, right? 😉
Thanks!
They so are and particularly this year with TBT about to turn three. Aww, that sounds brilliant. We're hoping to do a Santa express with our girls next year. I can't wait x
We're lucky to have quite a few near us that have great displays but so far Keydell is winning the Christmas-off 🙂
It was great fun. Tin Box Tot loved it x
Ha, yes! The army of Santas were a bit Marmite 🙂
Love the display at Keydell – we try to go when visiting my mum who lives in Petersfield although not sure we will get the time this year. Glad that you all enjoyed your visit there 🙂
Can't beat a garden centre Grotto…we've done it every year and Tigs seems to remember it so must have been a big deal to her after all x Thanks for linking up to #coolmumclub
Thanks for sharing such interesting post full of X-mas photos, especially with Santa #abitofeverything
We went here on Saturday and oh my it was busy!! We had the pram and could hardly move it the christmas shop and it took us ages to find the woodland walk. We weren't disappointed when we did find it though, Leo absolutely loved it, especially the little husky dogs and polar bears. I would love to go again but maybe we will go during the week next time. Lovely post and pictures xx #coolmumclub
This looks great. It's fun when the kids get to an age where they can really start to appreciate Christmas. It's makes it so magical. My big one is at that age this year too – can't wait! 🙂 #coolmumclub
#happydiaries thank you for sharing! Loved this insight into your wonderfully festive fun!
This looks SO good — it's making me excited for our trip to see Santa in a couple of week's time! There's a little steam train and he *may* get on at some point!!!! I can't wait to see the boys' faces!! These kind of days out are magic aren't they?! xx #TwinklyTuesday
Oh I love days like these, especially in garden centres with all of their decorations up!!
#TriedTested
Never seen so many santas in one place! Looks fun x #triedtested
Nice that all that was just a donation. The cafe sounds pretty reasonable too. Those pigs are gorge which almost makes up for the terrifying Santa collection.
Thanks for linking up to #fartglitter