The Santa Visit
I am writing this post late today as we have only just arrived home after our little festive jaunt over the hill here to Ashton Under Lyne to see Santa. A visit to Santa is probably not high on the list (if at all) for a lot of my readers but I have no problem joining in with the excitement of the grandchildren waiting in the queue in anticipation of handing over a Christmas list and receiving a small gift.
For the two seven year olds this was magical. Master Freddie had a very l o n g list to hand to Santa with every item beginning with Paw Patrol and then when that was exhausted Number Blocks. He had also written one for his little brother, baby Chocolate…though I suspect this was more another list of toys that he wanted rather than his brother. In fact, I doubt his little brother got a say in what he wanted!
I hadn’t realised what a long history Father Christmas has had and the changes he has undergone since his first appearance around the 17th century. It is from America that we have the Santa Claus we acknowledge more today as the one who comes in the night and brings gifts for children.
It is not the first time either throughout history that there has been a move by some group or other to abolish Christmas or replace its traditional customs with something less religious. For 15 years from around 1644 the celebration of Christmas in England was forbidden.
Might it be again? I see in the news that some schools are renaming their, now traditional, Christmas jumper days as ‘Winter jumper’ days and Tesco’s Christmas trees are being sold as ‘Evergreen trees’ all this lest they offend anyone. It seems history just keeps on repeating itself in different forms.
I have no problem with having a Christmas jumper, Christmas tree, Christmas cracker or Christmas cake and I love to hear proper Carols being sung in the shops rather than the American non-religious songs.
So for our visit to Father Christmas we chose to go to Portland Basin in Ashton Under Lyne, an old mill building that sits alongside the Peak Forest Canal (as seen on the Canal Boat Diaries with Robbie) houses a museum and cafe.
This will be the second year as we all loved it so much last year. It is quite low key compared with many and a lot of Christmas nostalgia. The museum has an indoor mock-up of an old street complete with chip shop and chapel. Santa waits patiently in the tiny living room of a replica of a terraced house decorated to resemble the war years.
It is reminiscent of my grandma’s house, complete with outside toilet and for all it is shabby, compared with today’s style of décor, it has a nostalgic warmth and cosiness. We could all squeeze in for a lovely little chat with Santa and a photo all together at the end.
The museum is full of nostalgia, many of the items I can recall from childhood like the signs for the Christmas club and good old-fashioned paper chains.
One or two board games like Snakes and Ladders are making a comeback, and of course, Monopoly comes in so many different variations now. My family always had a game on Christmas Day night as there was no TV back then. Uncle Peter generally won, but maybe not fair and square!
Remember these patterns for baraclavas – my mum had this one I’m sure.
Not only was it our Santa visit but it was a day of crafting and of course the adults in our little party, me included, could not help joining in.
Before we went to the museum we started our day at the Saturday craft workshop at the Vale in Mossley.
This week they were making gingerbread wreaths using gingerbread coloured card and white felt tip pens, with a lot of glue and imagination.
After our picnic we had chance to make some elf hats and hunt for the elf stockings around the museum.
And best of all (apart from the cost of booking to see Santa) it was all free; though we did leave a donation at each place. So well done to Tameside MBC for a fun filled festive day, and I, for one, will be putting my feet up now and watching TV.
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where the journey takes me 2 
Love the elf hats -so cute!
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It is amazing what fun you can have with a few bits of card and a pritt stick. Though I could have done with my glue gun to stick the pom poms on… I kept losing them around the museum!
Our 2 year old would not let go of the plate of plastic raw looking pork chops from the role play section and even took them in with him to see Santa. He wasn’t at all bothered for Santa he just wanted to play the old-fashioned piano in the room!
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its nice to visit a simplistic santa rather than the glitz and glitter places, sound a great place to go. Marlene, poppypatchwork.
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Santa without the hype! You get quite a long time with him and he chats to each of them and asks them what they particularly like doing not just what toys they might be wanting. I think they allow 30 mins between each booking so there is no rush and time for photos. I had to book this time as soon as they released the dates and times…I think it was still September and one weekend was sold out in an instant.
It was odd though that two families didn’t turn up for their booking and hadn’t called the venue to say why – what a shame as someone else could have used those slots. What family can afford to book and pay and then not go?
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Sounds like a wonderful day out. Simple and nostalgic sounds good to me. Many of the Santa Visits and Days out are so expensive for families now, its good to know there are still affordable alternatives. Love the elf hats and wreaths.
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It was a simple and fun day and so much to keep the children entertained before and after the visit with Santa. I shall be getting my glue gun out now to stick those pom poms on again! I especially like the way they used the smaller pieces of scrap card from the elf hats on another craft table for the children to make gift tags, avoiding any waste.
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Sorry Johnny jumps up here, I always forget to put that at the end.
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That sounds such fun! When my grandchildren were young I took them to their local museum which had mock-ups of rooms from the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s and made me feel very old! Luckily my daughter was with us and remembered some of the vintage things so I didn’t feel quite so bad!
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It does make you feel old – but will be something we will all go through eventually. I am sure computers will look strange in many years to come like the first mobile phones on the TV programme ‘Minder’ where they are like bricks!!
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Oh dear – Yes!
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A magical time for your young grandchildren, as they waited to see Santa. Those moments are precious. The gingerbread wreaths look like a fun craft activity to enjoy. From your last smiling photo it seems that you all had a good day.
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I am the one at the back right adjusting my elf hat I made the band too big for my head. Both my daughters are at the front. We had such a laugh making them, especially as there seemed to be only one pair of scissors and one glue stick and we had to keep pincing them off each other!
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