Over the years our Christmas Santa visits have ranged from garden centres, to small theme parks and to farm centres.
This year we decided to meet the big guy at Beale Park, a wildlife park in South Oxfordshire.
We have visited Beale Park many times and have always enjoyed this lovely setting.
After entering the park, we were informed of the time that we were meeting Santa and the reindeer and so had a few hours to look round the park.
Beale Park was founded in 1956 as a place dedicated to the care and conservation of rare and endangered mammals and birds.
This conservation has continued up to the current day. We saw creatures such as otters, tortoise, meercats, lynx cats, parrots, capibaras, snakes, porcupines and armadillos to name just a few!
As well as visiting the animals there are lots of other attractions for children including a fun playground area for small children and a large playground for older children.
In the summer there is also a splash park.
There is also a popular outside jumping pillow, which my children are big fans of!
Beale Park has a good snack bar with hot and cold food plus lots of picnic areas.
One of the most popular parts of Beale Park is the miniature railway which circles the park, giving great views of most of the animals and grounds.
When it was our time to meet Santa, we went along to the grotto and were showed in by an elf.
Santa spoke individually to all the children gathered and gave them each a lovely gift 😊
After meeting Santa, we went outside to see two reindeer.
It was explained that these were not the main sleigh pullers of Rudolph, Blitzen etc but were certainly in the stand by team.
The children enjoyed hearing facts about the reindeer, stroking and feeding them. Even holding some antlers which had recently fallen off!
We all really enjoyed out Christmas trip to Beale Park and I would say that it has probably been the best Santa trip so far! 😊
The Kids, Me and MS 