Santa’s Nursery Visit
Weekday mornings through December across Solihull, Birmingham, Coventry and Sutton Coldfield. We don’t send a Santa. We bring the grotto to you.
There is a moment, somewhere around the second verse of the second song, when a two-year-old who has spent ten minutes welded to a practitioner’s hip lets go and walks over to Santa on their own. Everything about this visit is built around that moment.
We build the grotto, in your setting
We arrive early with a 7ft × 10ft Christmas fireside backdrop and a chair dressed in gold and red throws, and we build a proper grotto corner in your hall or your largest room. It takes two minutes — it is the same rig we use for our disco parties.
Then your children come to Santa, the way you want them to:
- In small groups — story, songs, gift and a photo, room by room through the morning
- One at a time — if you are running a Christmas photo day and want every child to have their own moment
You tell us which, and in what order. You know your naps and your lunch far better than we do.
A Santa who sits down
Most Christmas entertainment sends you a Santa who is also running a party — leaping about, keeping thirty children at full volume, red-faced inside the beard by half past ten. Children of two and three do not want that man. They are slightly frightened of that man.
Ours sits down and stays sat down. He is in no hurry, and when a child needs three full minutes of watching from a safe distance before coming anywhere near him, he has those three minutes.
What happens
- A Christmas story read properly from a carol book — sat down, doing the voices, pictures turned out so everybody can see
- Christmas songs with as much dancing as the room is up for
- Gifts from Santa’s sack. You supply them, so they are right for your children, your allergies and your budget — and Santa hands each one over by name
- A snowball game for the older preschoolers
- A photograph of every child with Santa in a proper grotto setting, taken by your team on your camera — yours to send home to parents
Your team stay in the room and join in. Nothing to prepare, and your ratios are unaffected.
What you get for your files
Before we arrive: enhanced DBS certificate — and we are registered with the DBS Update Service, so you can verify our status online yourself — public liability insurance, and a written risk assessment.
Afterwards: a signed session record and an EYFS curriculum links sheet showing which prime areas each part of the visit supported.
Evidenced for your next inspection without anybody on your team writing it up in their own time.
What it costs
£275 — up to two rooms
£395 — up to three rooms
£595 — your whole setting, four rooms or more
A setting of 95 children works out at around £6 a child — for a grotto, a gift handed over by name, a story, songs and a photograph for every parent. A town-centre grotto charges a family more than that for five minutes and a queue.
Gifts supplied by you. Invoiced on the day and payable within 7 days by bank transfer. No deposit, and nothing to pay when you book.
Questions nurseries ask
What about the children who are frightened of Santa?
No child is ever made to go to Santa. They watch from a lap or the far side of the room and nobody draws attention to it. Most come over once they have watched three or four friends survive the experience. If a child doesn’t, their gift goes to them where they are, quietly, and Santa says their name and moves on.
We have babies as young as eleven months. Is it suitable?
Yes, and they get a different session from the preschoolers. Slow, quiet, lap-based, no loud bangs and no sudden arrival — over before anybody has had time to be unsettled by it.
Do we have to buy the gifts?
You supply them, and that is deliberate. You know your children, your allergies, your siblings and your budget. Santa hands each one over by name.
How long do you need?
A morning. The grotto goes up in two minutes and stays up, and we work through your rooms in whatever order suits your day. The 9.30–11.30 window is a container, not a fixed start — we agree the exact time with you.
Can we take photographs?
Please do. That is half the reason the backdrop comes with us. Your staff, your camera, your photos to send home.
How do we pay?
Invoice on the day, 7 days to pay, by bank transfer. No deposit and nothing to pay at the point of booking — same as all our nursery sessions.
Tickety-Boo has been entertaining West Midlands children since 2005, in nurseries, preschools and Sure Start centres in the week and at parties at weekends. Enhanced DBS. Fully insured. SEND friendly. No knockout games — nobody sits out.
Book your December date
Tell us a date, or two that would work, and we will confirm the same day. Or call 07817 033 292 — five minutes on the phone beats a long email chain, and a real person answers.
There is one Santa and twenty working days in December. Dates go in the order settings ask for them.
DRAFT — prices and wording still to be agreed. Hidden from the public.