Santa’s Magical Candyland at Pugh’s Garden Village Radyr.

With only 31 days left until Christmas it’s about time we all got into the Christmas spirit. This year we are having a Pughs Christmas.

Last year we left our visit to Santa too late and then was too ill so this year I wanted to make sure we did it early. Pugh’s Garden Village have such positive reviews and was even regional winner for Wales in the “Garden Trade Greatest Christmas Awards” in 2016, so when we were invited along to review we of course said yes.

If you’ve gone to a garden centre at Christmas time you will know how beautiful they look. The minute we walked through Pugh’s door we we’re greeted by the most beautiful display of festivity which lasts the whole way round. Its enough to get even the Grinch excited for Christmas (even in November).

Ticket Prices:
£14.00 per Child
£5 per Adult

What does the ticket include?
– 30 Minute Journey through Santa’s Magical Candyland visiting 5 different rooms along your journey towards and including meeting Santa
– A Surprise Tasty Treat for you to take home!
– A Free Toy from Santa to be collected from the toy shop
– A Discounted Hot Drink for every adult

All aboard the Candyland Express. Check in at the front desk (they have time slots so best to book in advance so you’re not waiting around for ages or having to come back another day) and you’ll receive your train ticket.

Head on to the waiting area around 10 minutes before your train time. While you’re there get your little ones to write their letter to santa, they can even post them in the little post box!

You will be called forward and so begins your journey. Elfie will explain what’s to come and give kids a magical log to help the train if it breaks down.

Board the train and begin the journey. I loved the special little touches with this. It was so amazingly Welsh, we even went past Caerchilly!

After filling the train with the logs we headed to the factory, they were all out of ingredients so we needed to help! A lovely way to keep the kids excited and add some fun, we had to throw balls into different sized holes… which MM didn’t find as easy as some of the kids (don’t tell him I told you).

Now we’ve helped the factory we headed round to Mrs Claus’ kitchen, passing through a Bubbleland.

The kitchen looked AMAZING, my favourite part (except for Santa) It was cute, cosy and everything you’d imagine Mrs Claus’ kitchen to look like. The kids helped the elves put all the ingredients into the pan to make Mrs Claus’ gingerbread cookies. These cookies are the tasty treats that your little ones gets to take with them, after Mrs Claus puts them in the oven and cooks them of course. We sang jingle bells, found owly and then headed through to a forest of Christmas trees, we even got to see ones covered in fruit.

After a short wait and talk with the elves we headed into Santa’s grotto. It was warm and welcoming and there was so much detail from the second you walk through the door. The kids sat in front of Santa on pillows while the adults had the benches. The children were called up individually to have one on one time with Santa and have their photo taken. I loved that it wasn’t rushed and Pops got to have a proper little chat with Santa. Once the photo was taken one of the elves hands you your photo ticket whilst Santa gives the child their toy voucher to be redeemed in the toy shop.

I was so impressed with the amount of choices they had in the toy shop, something for all ages… although Pops probably chose the worst thing in there. Typical. We decided before we went in we wouldn’t try and choose for her though.

Do you ever regret saying your little one can choose what they want?

We purchased our photo for £7 (they had different options like keyring and digital downloads). Personally I think £7 is a bit pricey for the photo, especially seeing as adults pay to take the kids through the experience, although, saying that the photo is of  really high quality. (much more so than other cheaper ones we’ve had in the past)

Have you seen what a Pughs Christmas looks like in person?

Overall I was really impressed with the whole experience, I wasn’t sure what Pughs’ could provide to make up for the cost but you really do get alot. The attention to detail is amazing and the staff are so friendly and really help make the experience even better. When we arrived Pops wasn’t sure about seeing Santa. At each part of our journey she got more and more excited and by the end was so confident talking to him. So much so she wants to see him again!

I would highly recommend you trying a Pughs Christmas. I do think its best from 2/3 years and up as they will be able to get more involved but the younger babies we saw go through looked like they enjoyed looking at everything and taking it all in.

Have you visited Santa this year or have plans to? We’d love to know where you go!

Until the next post.

Thanks to Pugh’s for providing us with train tickets to Santa’s Magical Candlyland for the purpose of this review. We bought our own photo and all opinions of the Pughs Christmas festivities are our own. If you want to check out any of our other Welsh reviews then head over to our Welsh/Wales section.