Feeling festive at Webbs

When I was young, I used to spend a lot of time in garden centres. Why, you might ask. Well, my Grandad was a keen gardener for starters so whenever we would visit, we would pop along to the local garden centre, have a wander around and grab a slice of cake and cup of tea while we were there. I always loved our trips out and have always enjoyed garden centres since because they have so much to offer beyond plants. Sometimes there's pets to look at and there's always lots of gifts and books and local produce.

Christmas is always a great time to go to a garden centre and this year we took a few hours on my day at home with Ethan to go along to Webbs of Wychbold. I've been to Webbs several times in the past and at Christmas it really comes into its own, with a really impressive range of Christmas decorations. They also have a Hobbycraft inside too, and a great cafe, so plenty of reasons for me to have visited before.

This year, Webbs has really pulled out all the stops for Christmas. There's a good size ice rink with a spacious, and warm, cafe attached. There's Santa's grotto, complete with displays and friendly elves. Your children can post their letter to the man in red and will receive a reply if they include their address, for free. You can of course pick you Christmas tree too and you could decorate it a hundred times over in every colour or scheme you could conceive with all the decorations on offer.

The three of us were looking forward to a nice day out and our first stop at Webbs was to see Father Christmas. The grotto was nicely put together and Ethan was fascinated but the animatronic displays of penguins and elves. We were then greeted by an elf who took us through to see the big man in a cosy, well dressed room. He was jolly and we had a good chat before having our family photo taken. Ethan then waved goodbye before we were shown to the back area of the grotto where we were able to pick any present for Ethan to take home. There were several large display racks of a wide range of toys to choose from but Ethan spotted a chunky train instantly and made up his mind.

The price of visiting Santa is really great value in my opinion, as it's £7 per child, including one adult, which includes any gift you choose, which has a value of £5. Additional adults are £2 each. The grotto is nicely done, you're not rushed through and the choice of gift, with plenty of options to suit different age ranges and interests, is a great idea.

We then decided to visit the ice rink, although we decided not to go on (Ethan's still a bit too small for the rink aids and we're both clumsy on the ice!), before having a muffin and hot chocolate, which went down very well!

We spent the rest of our visit looking around the Christmas decorations, displays (including a princess carriage you can have your photo taken on) and choosing a few new things to take home with us. I also had to have a look in Hobbycraft and I also saw there's a Lakeland shop too (not sure if it's new, if not, I've never spotted it before).

My top tips would be to allow a good couple of hours for your visit, pre-book your Santa visit  just so you can be sure he's ready for you when you arrive (same for the ice skating) and be sure to check out what other activities are going on when you go.

There's fair rides for the children at weekends and during the week of Christmas plus free children's crafts with Professor Pepperpot on certain dates and a riverside ramble throughout December and early January, also at no cost. Oh, and there's lots of festive things to enjoy in the coffee shop. Phew, I'm sure I've forgotten something but I think you get the picture!

All three of us had had a really nice day and we were impressed by how much there was to see and do. Ste even said how nice it would be to make it an annual tradition to come to Webbs, see Santa and pick our Christmas tree and I have to say, I agree.

* Thank you to Webbs for inviting us along for the purposes of this review. We had a wonderful time.