Updated for 2025….It’s that time of the year again!

I love Christmas! I know I’m not alone in that, but I like to go all-out in creating magic for my boys. And a part of that involves visiting one of Santa’s Helpers in their many Grottos. There are Santas everywhere in December, all over the country. Some of these Santas are good, and some are…..not so good…..

We’ve seen so many Santas! From local garden centres to the unbeatable magnificence of Lapland UK. We’ve seen Santa in Legoland and Alton Towers. Last year we booked a Butlins Winter Wonderland weekend and the kids saw Santa there. This year we’ll be staying in Norfolk (which is where we call home) and visiting a local Santa.

But where are the best places to meet Santa in Norfolk? Which Santas pass the test and will help your kids to really believe in the magic of Christmas?

Here is a list of some of our favourite Norfolk Santas and, as an added bonus, they all still have availability to book now (at the time of writing). I’ve made a note of whether or not we’ve visited this Santa (tried and tested!) too, as well as the ages I think it’s best suited for.

Wroxham Barns: The Christmas Experience

Best Suited to: Toddlers and preschoolers

This is a fun Christmas experience which we visited when the boys were a little smaller (just after lockdown). It included lots of interactive activities, many of which would be best suited to toddlers and children of around reception/year 1 age.

The highlight for me here were the elves, who were so engaging and made sure that every child (even the shy ones) had the opportunity to be involved. We LOVED Wroxham barns at this point anyway, so the chance to see the animals was a very welcome one.

This year the Wroxham Barns Christmas Experience will see children decorate gingerbread with Mrs Claus, write and post a letter to Santa at The North Pole Post Office and catch The North Pole Express. 

Last year Wroxham Barns took a new approach that meant you now get a private meet with Santa in his grotto. When we went you saw him as part of a group experience. And another thing they do that I think kids will love is let them choose their own gifts. Santa gives each child a golden coin, and then they can take it to Santa’s Toy Shop to swap it for a gift of their choice.

Access to the Junior farm and the Fun Park is included. We had our son’s 8th birthday party here and he loved it. If you do have a mix of older and younger children then I do think the farm and fun park aspect means slightly older kids would have enough to keep them engaged here too.

📅 Dates: 6th – 7th Dec 2025, 13th – 14th Dec 2025, 20th – 23rd Dec 2025
⏰ Cost: £25 for children over 2, £15 for adults. Children under 2 are £10.
👉 Book now: Click here to book the Wroxham Barns Christmas experience for 2025

Winter Wonderland Norwich

Best for: Older kids and teens with younger siblings

We had an amazing time at Winter Wonderland Norwich last year, the second year that we’ve visited this mega-attraction. If you’re looking to do something Christmassy with older kids that isn’t neccessarily Santa-focused then this is a great choice, BUT this attraction makes the list too because it does also have a Santa’s grotto for younger children.

The ice skating rink here is huge (the best in Norfolk, in my experience) and although the food and rides were pricey, the kids loved every minute.

Winter Wonderland Norwich is a great choice for kids that want to enjoy rides AND give their list to Santa. It looked very pretty from the outside, but we didn’t go inside to meet Santa last year, so I can’t give you any feedback on what the experience was like.

We did ride the Santa rollercoaster though, and that was enough Santa for the boys! Paired with the Christmas music, the twinkling lights, and the ice skating, it was all wonderfully festive. And we met the Grinch and Elf on the Shelf wandering around too.

📅 Dates: 21st November 2025 – 4th Janaury 2026
⏰ Cost: Prices for this year’s experiences haven’t been released yet.
👉 Book Now: You can find out more about Winter Wonderland Norwich here.

Banham Zoo: Santa’s Penguin Grotto

Best for: Primary school aged children and animal lovers!

We love Banham Zoo (you can read about our experience of feeding giraffe in the zoo here) but we haven’t visited them at Christmas (yet!) so this isn’t a personal review. But honestly, their Christmas experience sounded just too cute not to share.

Think a festive train ride, Santa’s grotto which is right in the heart of Penguin Cove, and of course, the chance to explore the zoo (so great for older kids who want activities more than they want Santa!)

Thanks to the fun penguin theme, the gift the kids are given is a cute penguin plushie. And as an added bonus, they’re even adding a new stage show to the event this year. The stage show will be called  Go Awesome, with magic and festive songs and memorable moments throughout: and who doesn’t love the chance to sing along to Christmas songs any chance they get (I’ll be starting in November!)

📅Dates: 6th and 7th December, 13th and 14th December, 20th-23rd December 2025
⏰ Cost: £15 for adults and £18 for children. Infants can visit for a reduced rate of $8
👉Book Now: You can find out more about Banham Zoo’s Christmas experience and book your tickets here.

Dippy’s Christmas Celebration At Roarr Dinosaur Adventure

Best for: Primary school-aged children and dinosaur lovers!

Before sports dominated our weekends, we used to have Roarr Dinosaur Adventure annual passes, and one of our Christmas traditions was to visit what the boys call ‘the dino park’ on Christmas Eve. We did this every year for about 5 years.

We would play in the soft play and on the outside playgrounds, then meet Santa to say goodbye before he headed off to the North Pole for a busy night of flying around the world, delivering presents.

Dippy’s Christmas Celebration at Roarr is a GREAT experience for both young children and older ones. The smaller kids who are really engaged with Christmas and Santa can enjoy four festive activities, including making reindeer food, then walk through the candy cane trail. Much like at Wroxham Barns, Santa gives kids a ‘Golden Ticket’ they can exchange for a gift of their choice: In our experience, almost all the gifts are dinosaur-themed.

But there’s a lot to appeal to older kids here too, including rides like the Raptor Contraptor and Swing-O-Saurus, the Valley of the Dinosaurs, and Dinomite Indoor Adventure Play.

Boy9 is a believer: Boy12 isn’t. So this is a great choice for age gap families/families where some kids believe and some don’t. They’ll all still have a great time! The whole park is really pretty and covered in twinkly lights, which appealed to me too. Bonus points to any grotto that considers aesthetics for us parents!

📅 Dates: Saturday 6th December to Tuesday 23rd December 2025 (10:00am – 4:30pm)
⏰ Cost: £15.95 per person for Christmas park admission PLUS £12.95 per child if you want to visit Santa in his grotto.
👉 Book now: Use this link to book Dippy’s Christmas Celebration at Roarr!

Thursford Santa’s Magical Journey

Best For: The whole family and multigenerational adventures.

There are 2 different Christmas experiences you can book at Thursford: Santa’s Magical Journey and the Enchanted Christmas Journey. We have been to Thursford to see Santa for the Magical Journey before and this is a great experience for children who want a traditional grotto. The path is filled with lights, decorations, and animatronics. It’s excellent and probably one of the best traditional grottos in Norfolk. But for the last two Christmases (with our slightly older boys) we visited for the Enchanted Christmas Journey instead. This is a twinkly evening of magnificent lights: We LOVE it!

It’s suitable for all ages, and the two experiences are very similar but with the Enchanted Christmas Journey you see a spectacular array of twinkling lights. It’s beautiful and suitable for all ages: I may love it as much as the kids, and we visited on one trip with my parents who were as in awe with the light displays as the kids were!

You can explore a beautiful, breath-taking festival of luminous sculptures, from a fantasy underwater world to the wilds of the North Pole. Watch out for the naughty mushroom gnomes. There are vintage fairground rides, and old-fashioned food stalls (mostly beer and bratwurst) here too, further adding to the ‘fun for the whole family’ feel.

📅 Dates: 22,23,29,30th November and 5,6,7,12,13,14, 17-23th December 2025
⏰ Cost: £24 for adults, £17 for children. Infants under 1 are free and don’t need a ticket.
👉 Book Now: You can book tickets to the Thursford Christmas Experience here.

Notable Mentions

This will be our first full year with one believer and (gulp of sadness) one non-believer in the house. This means we’re looking for more experiences we can all enjoy that are still super fun for the kids, but a little less Santa-centric. So I’ve added a list of some fun and wonderfully Christmassy things to do where you might still see Santa, but that don’t offer a traditional grotto experience.

BeWILDerwood Presents Christmas

Best for: Outdoorsy kids and mixed-age families

BeWILDERwood is the perfect setting for a Christmas event, with its wonderful woodlight and twinkling lights. BeWILDERwood Presents Christmas couldn’t appear on the main list as they don’t offer a traditional Santa’s Grotto, BUT kids will have the chance to spot Santa as they walk through a twinkly light trail. (This works perfectly for mixed-aged families like mine: my youngest will love hunting for Santa, and my oldest will pretend to for his brother without the pressure of grotto experience).

The event features a Sparkly Light Trail, a mini pantomime, and a chance to meet your favourite BeWILDerwood characters (great for younger kids). But you can also explore BeWILDERwood’s play areas which my oldest at 12 still LOVES so this is great for kids of all ages, as long as they like being outdoors.

📅 Dates: 29th-30th November 6th-7th, 13th-14th, 19th-23rd December
⏰ Cost: £17.50 per person (adults and children pay the same here)
👉 Book: Use this link to find out more about BeWILDerwood Presents Christmas and book your tickets

Norfolk Festive Gift & Food Show

Best for: Shopping and building up the excitement for Christmas

This is a little off piste, but I’ve included the festive food and gift fair because it’s such a lovely event, very early in the Christmas season, and we use this as our kick-off event for Christmas every year

We have been to this fair every year since it opened, and always manage to find something unique and unusual to stuff stockings with. The boys eat their fill of delicious Christmas foods. And they have different entertainment options for children each year too – one year they stroked reindeer, one year there were even camels! The Norwich Star Wars club show up every year (which our boys love) and we all do a little Christmas shopping too.

📅 Dates: 7th, 8th, and 9th November 2025
⏰ Cost: £9.50 per adult and £5.50 per child aged 5-15 (children aged under 5 are free)
👉 Book: You can book and find out more about the Norfolk Festive Food And Gift Fair here.

Cinderella at Norwich Theatre Royal

Best for: The whole family!

What’s not to love about a Christmas panto: it’s such a great form of theatre that’s accessible for everyone, and actually serves as a great introduction to the theatre for kids that have never been before too. Everyone can enjoy a pantomime, from toddlers to grannies and everyone in between, making it a great choice for a multigenerational festive day out.

This year, Norwich Theatre Royal will be putting on Cinderella. Georgia May Foote will play Cinderella and Norwich panto regular Joe Tracini will be Buttons. Cinderella is such a classic panto, and this one is sure to be a lot of fun!

📅 Dates: 6th December 2025 – 4th January 2026
⏰ Cost: £10-42.50
👉 Booking: You can find out more and book on the Norwich Theatre Royal website.

Conclusion and Further Reading

Will you be taking your kids to see Santa this year, and where will you go? How do you handle things if you have both believers and non believers in the house – this is a new challenge for us, so i’d love to know!

If you’re also planning to spend your Christmas in Norfolk this year, I’ve popped a couple of posts from our Christmas in Norwich last year below to give you some inspiration:
🎄 Exploring the Christmas lights in Norwich 2024
🎅Our Review of the Winter Wonderland in Norwich (And What You Need to Know)

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