Christmas grottos – the miniature, temporary Santa Claus-themed wonderlands that pop up around the world in December – seem to have taken a dark turn this year. In Britain and Australia, reports have trickled in of events that feel more akin to Fyre Festival than a festive celebration for the whole family.
In the UK, a drive-through grotto was criticised for long waits and creepy performers, including a “man in chains by a tree just staring at the car”.
When a grotto in Taverham Hall, near Norwich, opened on Friday, visitors complained of three-hour traffic jams and a Scrooge-like character who was deemed, in the organiser’s words, “too frightening for very young children”.
Louise Purdy, who visited the grotto before the Scrooge character was removed, described her family’s interaction to the BBC: “The Scrooge guy called us all mutants, said Santa has crashed his sleigh and the presents are in the mud, and there was a man in chains by a tree just staring at the car.”
When Purdy and her son passed inflatable waving Christmas characters lying deflated on the ground, she told him they were having a sleep.
One parent on social media complained of the traffic, “Would’ve been quicker to get to the North Pole.”
Organisers said the event had since been improved and visitors had recently found it “magical”.
In Kent, a Covid-safe “whimsical Christmas tour” turned into a traffic nightmare that left parents wishing they, too, had a magical flying sleigh.
Visitor Debbie Clay posted, in comments published by Kent Online, “I have been shielding since March. This was my first trip out other than hospital and I can’t tell you how much I was looking forward to it.”
Cars were “stuck in mud” at the grotto’s entrance, she said. “I had high hopes to go out of 2020 with some spirit of good in my heart and you have squashed it. I want a refund - I am fuming.”
Becky Hamblett warned other parents to, “Avoid at all costs!”
“We didn’t get to see anything except darkness and car headlights. I had small baby crying non-stop and let down my ten-year-old too,” she wrote.
The event organisers said they were “desperately sorry” for the disappointment and had taken the decision to move performers in a bid to ease traffic.
In Adelaide, Australia, a Christmas village was dubbed the “Fyre festival of kids’ Santa events”, a reference to the hellish 2017 island music festival.
Santa’s Winter Wonderland in Adelaide looks like the Fyre Festival guys did Christmas 😳 pic.twitter.com/ZwYEQn5jFT
— Michael Macolino (@michaelmacolino) December 18, 2020
Visitors to the Australian Christmas village posted pictures of a sleigh ride made from a mobility scooter – what the organisers had described as a “polar express train ride on a snowy trail through an enchanted forest” – and a maze constructed from crowd fencing and tinsel, the ABC reported. A family pass to the event cost AU$132 (US$100).
Although some visitors said they had enjoyed it – with one user writing that although she could see how the decor may have come across “tacky” her kids had “actually had a ball” – the event was cancelled.
One parent said she “instantly felt a feeling of shock” and had a lingering “lump of disappointment” once she had left.
