Father Christmas

Last year we were still settling in when it came time for find Santa, we struggled and finally located a very sad admin at EY that threw on a red coat for a work activity. This year we planned ahead and asked around, turns out you can't find Santa at malls and large stores, they are at garden nurseries!

We had decided last year that we would try to go to Harrods to meet Father Christmas. Jamie did his research and figured out that you had to register way in advance, so in August he applied for the membership (we were bottom tier since we don't drop 10,000 a year there!) and then in September we got preferred booking. At 8am I got the email that I could register, I went online immediately and the system was already crashing from overload. The latest weekend (closest to Christmas) that was still open was the 12th of November, all of December was already booked. It worked out well for us since I had wanted to do it in November, but I was shocked! So we booked the slot and paid a 10 pound processing fee, you needed to bring your ticket and not be a minute late to make your appointment. I am happy to say it was worth it, we had a great time heading into London and meeting Father Christmas, they really went all out!

You entered into a Candy Land themed area to wait to be ushered into a room with just Father Christmas, so nice not to have a hectic line while trying to get a picture. Hadley loved the colors and decorations (and can someone remind me next time to not aim my pregnant backside toward the camera?)

Some of the characters were a bit creepy and kind of in your face, Hadley was not sure how she felt about the Gingerbread Girl.

We tried a few times, she wasn't buying it.

Father Christmas chatted with Hadley for a minute and then suggested a family photo so she could sit on my lap, she wasn't quite sure what to think of him. They took 3 pictures and you could purchase them at the front, we picked the one where she was kind of looking at the camera and for 15 pounds we had ourselves a picture!

Santa gave her a gold coin, a little christmas book and a button, we have absolutely no idea how she figured that the inside of the gold foil had something edible inside, but by the time we exited the room it had bite marks on it.

Our appt was right in the middle of the day and I had really wanted to go to lunch in Harrods. The only place I had seen at our last visit was this fancy restaurant that I knew would not be ideal with a toddler. We spotted this family cafe right by the toy section and it was perfect, the food was really good with a decent kids menu and it was filled with other families.

Hadley loved the crayons and spent a good portion of time putting them in and out of the cup when she wasn't coloring.

After lunch we wandered around the toy section and Hadley ended up finding a bear that she attached to and would barely let me pay for! We also picked up one for the newest addition as a Christmas gift and a few english inspired ornaments (miniature phone booth, bus, little harrods bag and delivery truck). We wandered through the children's clothing section and played "guess how much it costs" for awhile, we were typically about 200 pounds off on everything! We couldn't leave without a quick stop in the food department, it is so gorgeous. We tried a few cupcakes (still haven't found cupcakes that come close to the ones in the US) and I enjoyed a passionfruit marshmallow. They decorate for the holidays and it was a great way to start the season.

We then decided to make one last stop since we were already in London and headed over to the M&M world - we ended up being disappointed. We didn't even take pictures, there were hardly any M&Ms!! It was all merchandise and I was sad to leave without any Peanut Butter M&Ms (you can hardly find anything but plain here). We took the tube back to the train and headed home. Not sure when we will make it back into London, but we had such a wonderful time as a family!