It’s that time of year again: the season when British individuals typically voice their grievances about excessive spending on overpriced Christmas gatherings. The celebrations for this year have commenced with vigor, catalyzed by the dysfunctional drone display featuring Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer in Haywards Heath this past week. Reports suggest that the drone show was a quintessential example of its kind. It made grand promises, proposing families “an evening of enchantment and awe” equipped with “cutting-edge production [and] 600 LED drones”. And it demanded a hefty fee, with some families forking out hundreds of pounds for admission. Then, naturally, it thoroughly failed to meet expectations.
Sources indicate that the experience was not only brief – lasting merely 15 minutes – but also rendered completely incomprehensible due to the malfunctioning drones. “From the outset, a significant number of drones were absent, creating vast voids in the formations and making it nearly impossible to decipher what the images were intended to depict!” lamented one frustrated participant on social media. “The ‘grand finale’, which the entire audience anticipated, never even transpired. Just an empty sky.”
Honestly, one would think we’ve learned by now. The recent history is saturated with holiday events that soured due to a host of poor planning, technical glitches or outright deceitful practices. Here are some of the most notorious examples from the last fifteen years.
2008: Lapland New Forest, Ringwood
What was promised: The BBC reported that organisers pitched it as a location “where dreams genuinely come to life”, featuring “Hollywood-style special effects”, a “magical light tunnel” and cozy log cabins.
What was delivered: A two-hour wait to meet Santa, a non-functional ice rink, two plastic polar bears, and a reindeer missing an antler. The nativity scene was likened by one guest to “a large picture far across an unreachable muddy field”, and the supposed tunnel of light was simply a 6ft net of lights draped between two trees. “I took my son to the restroom, and he spotted ‘Santa’ enjoying a smoke break beside a Portaloo,” reported another guest.
What happened next: Total pandemonium. Infuriated by the up to £30 ticket price, countless of the 40,000 visitors lashed out upon seeing what they had paid for. An elf recounted being yelled at (“I can’t believe this has happened. Just look at what you’ve done to my children. They’re crying, their fingers are blue. You’re swindlers, taking advantage of us”), slapped, and almost run over by a cart. Two fathers clashed in a gingerbread house, and one disgruntled employee bluntly informed a visitor that “Santa’s fucking dead”. After just six days, the park closed its doors. Three years later, the organisers faced convictions on eight counts of misleading the public and received 13-month prison sentences. This incident remains the benchmark against which other holiday disasters are measured.
2013: Winter Wonderland MK, Milton Keynes
What was promised: A dazzling event proclaiming “the enchantment of the festive season” that would make guests “fall under a magical, holiday spell”.
What was delivered: One attendee described it as “a whole bunch of food trucks accompanied by a tiny amusement fair”. Another called it “a tent with some sculptures”. Comments about Santa included observations about his “beard drooping to reveal normal clothing beneath his outfit”. One individual noted it had “no reindeer, no huskies, no rides, no live music, not even a single solitary light!!!!”. One parent stated, “it did nothing but warp and perhaps even obliterate my child’s belief in Christmas magic”. However, the most biting review came from one visitor’s child who asked, “Nanny, have we been bad?”
What happened next: Winter Wonderland MK shut down after one day of operations. The organisers provided 200 refunds, with PayPal extending offers to reimburse other customers. No one knows if little Anais ever bounced back.
2014: The Magical Journey, Sutton Coldfield
What was promised: A 90-minute immersive experience – designed by none other than Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen – in which visitors would explore a “winter wonderland of enchantment and excitement”.
What was delivered: A 40-minute wait to visit a Santa who distributed cheap, unwrapped toys. One visitor commented that there was a small forest filled with “people dressed as elves attempting to slow you down”. Another noted that the ambience resembled “an airport lounge”.
What happened next: The event was such a fiasco (one participant stated it had “ruined Christmas’) that it shut down after one day. It later reopened, excluding media, only to shut permanently nine days before planned. Refunds were issued. Llewelyn-Bowen expressed that the entire ordeal had left him “not feeling particularly festive”.
2019: Christmas Grotto, Harrods
What was promised: A “woodland blanketed in snow filled with dazzling surprises”.
What was delivered: A snow-covered woodland filled with sparkling surprises … exclusively accessible to children whose parents had shelled out at least £2,000 at Harrods. Unsurprisingly, this approach did not sit well with shoppers. “Harrods is acting like the Grinch who stole Christmas,” fumed one outraged father. “Seeing Father Christmas shouldn’t only be for those lucky enough to shop at the store and spend thousands.”
What happened next: Harrods relented and allowed 160 children whose parents hadn’t hit the £2,000 mark to visit Santa, although estimates suggest that Santa would still spend 96.4% of his time with wealthy kids. Santa has not made a return to Harrods since 2021.
2022: Enchanted Balgone, East Lothian
What was promised: “A family-oriented Christmas experience in a breathtaking rural location”.
What was delivered: The epitome of disappointing Christmas encounters. The highlight of Enchanted Balgone was the Santa Train Room; a grain shed completely devoid of charm – featuring a shop mannequin with no hands, glaring and dressed in a Santa suit held together with electrical tape, posed on a white cloth beside a plastic palm tree. This scene was indicated by a piece of plywood sprayed with the word “ACTIVITIES”. Visitors were left baffled. “It was nothing short of appalling, to put it mildly,” commented one.
What happened next: The event was terminated, refunds were processed, and the estate that hosted it extended an apology. The handless Santa continues to disturb the dreams of all who encountered him.
2024: Elf on the Shelf Experience, Bluewater
What was promised: As per the ticketing website, an “unprecedented interactive, theatrical adventure will whisk you away to the North Pole on an immersive journey where you’ll join the Scout Elves in spreading holiday cheer through a series of enchanting games and challenges”.
What was delivered: One attendee described it as “a sparsely filled blue room with minimal ‘activities’”. Photos of a bare, dimly lit retail space seem to support this claim. Another visitor remarked: “I felt like I was in an episode of The Apprentice and this was the team being dismissed. I am appalled that I was charged for such trash.”
What happened next: The event received a barrage of one-star reviews on Tripadvisor (“They are robbing families of their money and magic during the holidays”, “There weren’t any elves!!”), and this year it has been replaced by a Bluey Christmas trail.
