A father has been left angered after he paid over £40 for his six-year-old daughter to meet Santa but was told that she wouldn't be getting a present.
Joe Skarz, and his fiance Leoni Jackson, travelled with their young daughter Millie, to meet Father Christmas.
The proud dad said at the time he was happy to pay the extra money, £42, to give Millie a ‘day to remember forever’ after last year’s festive period was marred by the pandemic.
Instead, he was left feeling ‘totally disappointed’ and 'ripped off' after the parents and children were told they would not be receiving a gift from Santa on the day.
Worse still, Joe and his young family had traveled 30 minutes to The Piece Hall in Halifax for the event.
Joe, from Huddersfield, told Yorkshire Live : “We felt really ripped off by the price. Every time I’ve seen Santa as a kid, one of the memories is that you get a gift.
“As parents, these moments are the ones you cherish for the rest of your life. Seeing your little daughter with a present from Santa.
"To not have that opportunity was so disappointing.
“We traveled from Huddersfield to Halifax just to see it and after last year we wanted to make this year extra special, we want to keep doing more for Millie.
“It just makes it even more frustrating.
“People save up for days like this because it’s such a magical day, or it’s supposed to be.
“They ruined a bit of the magic of Christmas.”
Joe's daughter Millie was looking forward to the day as they told her she’d be meeting Santa, at the but hasn’t mentioned the day out since.
He added: “It says it all that she hasn’t talked about it at all.”
Joe said the event was a ‘waste of money’.
It was advertised online as “never seen before show” where festive folk are “welcomed on a magical journey of storytelling and festive imagination”.
But Joe said the stories felt like they were made up to waste time and had “nothing to do with Christmas”.
They were also grouped in with four other families and forced to walk around in the freezing cold “pretending to be a train” and making “choo-choo sounds”.
Joe, a coach at Sheffield United, said only after 30 minutes were they allowed into a cabin where Santa was waiting.
But the taleteller chose that moment to tell the children that while there were “many presents around, but they wouldn’t be getting any”.
Joe said: “Everyone was just sat there, and the kids just had two minutes to tell him what they wanted for Christmas.
“And when we got in the room, the woman told us there are presents everywhere but they won’t be getting presents today.
“She just said that to everyone. Even the kids.”
He added: “We’ve never seen anything like this before. We went to Harrods for three years when Millie was little, and it was incredible.
“It was worth every penny we paid for.”
Following an outcry from parents, The Pierce Hall decided to cancel the event “with immediate effect”.
