Santa’s Wonderland Experience returns to Chessington Garden Centre this year.  They sell out quickly (Last year I was 125 in the queue 10 minutes after receiving the email that tickets had been released!)

Take a magical walk through Chessington Garden Centre’s Christmas Wonderland. Your journey will start with a short, animated film to get you into the Christmas spirit.

From there you’ll start your adventure. Each room features a different theme to take you through a journey of magic and wonder. From here you will then get your very own private with Father Christmas. You’ll visit him in his own cosy cabin where he will be checking their name twice on the list with the help of his very own elves.

Find all the best Santa’s Grottos in Surrey 2023

Here’s some photos from my visit last time.

Local Mum review of Santa’s Grotto at Chessington Garden Centre from last year

As soon as you enter Santa’s grotto you are transported to a magical world full of Christmas scenes and magic before meeting the big man himself.

The complete Christmas Wonderland experience involved two photo opportunities, interactive experiences throughout plus your meet and greet with Father Christmas. The ‘magical world’ through which you walk to reach Father Christmas was amazing for little ones and adults themselves, with many different themes each year such as last year we saw ‘Frozen’, ‘Alice in Wonderland’, ‘Charlie and the Chocolate Factory’. There is so much to look at and stimulate and interest both young and old alike.

One of our favourite scenes was Olaf from Frozen alongside Anna, Elsa, Christoff and Sven – Sven was moving as well. More music awaited around the next corner with a barbershop quartet of singing penguins – I could have watched them for ages!

Before you meet Santa you get to hear the marvellous signing reindeers, belting out Christmas tunes and providing lots of entertainment for the children. You can also post your letter to Santa for your Christmas wishes, and find out if your name is on the naughty or nice list.

Once you have met Father Christmas and had a photo opportunity with him, he gives each child a gift token which enables you to choose your own gift from the workshop on your way out. I personally thought this was a great idea as meant the little ones could choose something they really wanted.

We enjoyed our experience here so much that we have booked again to come back this December 2022.