Today Judith, AJ and I went to Titanic Belfast to their Christmas Experience to introduce AJ to Santa Claus. We arrived 10 mins before the our 10am slot and we got the elevator to the second floor where we were signed in and then greeted with a cup of mulled wine and a mince pie.
After parking up AJ’s buggy we went behind the curtain which revealed a magical set including a toyshop window, a post office, a mini cinema, story time area and benches with blank Santa letters for the kids to write and not forgetting The Old Curiosity Shop itself housing the man we were there to see. It was also noticeable that there were only about 10 or so families in at a time which meant it was not too busy and plenty of room for kids to run about and have fun.
AJ found the hurricane lantern attached to this old bike very interesting
AJ really enjoyed himself and was running around all of the different props with the other children. Every now and again a bell would ring and an elf would read the children’s names from nice list so the next family could go and visit Santa. I really liked this approach as it makes it a more personal experience as you are guaranteed to see Santa and are not standing in a huge queue of people which can be difficult to do with small children.
AJ having a look through the toy shop window
AJ had a crack at writing his own letter to Santa and even tried to post it himself after a couple of attempts.
When it was AJ’s turn we took a look at his name in the nice book and headed in to The Old Curiosity Shop. There Santa was sitting there in his velour red and white suit with authentic white beard – yes he had a real beard and somewhat resembled Richard Attenborough’s character in Miracle on 34th Street. Now as some of you may know this is not the first time we have met this Santa. He visited our late son Jacky in the Royal Children’s Hospital in 2013 and he sat and spoke to us for quite a while and is a true gentleman.
Jacky back in 2013 with the same Santa who visited the hospital
Unfortunately AJ was not keen to sit on his knee so he sat on mine and we all posed alongside Santa for the obligatory photo.
The experience was £15 per child and £4 per adult which if you have a large family it could get quite expensive but we would really recommend going as it is definitely a much more enjoyable experience than queuing in a shopping centre. The gift AJ got was a unisex 0-2 year old gift bag not too dissimilar to what Jack got and consisted of a wooden co-ordination loop toy and a small Rudolf’s Rainbow Children’s book.
We are in no way affiliated with this event but really enjoyed it and recommend it. If you would like to go follow this link http://www.titanicbelfast.com/magicalchristmas