Paddington Christmas grotto experience launches at Trafford Centre - so what's it like?
It's the biggest Christmas grotto experience in Greater Manchester - and this year there's a special guest joining Santa at the Trafford Centre in the form of Paddington Bear. The Christmas with Paddington Experience has officially launched and hundreds of families will be heading along to explore the new attraction in the weeks ahead.
There's an interactive doll's house version of the Brown mansion - where you can wave your hand to see cute scenes inside. Then an elf guide will take you through to the rooftops of London, where kids can peek into chimney tops and even slide down a chimney into the main living room of the Brown home.
Here, kids will get to sit on the carpets and listen to an elf tell a story before getting to meet Paddington Bear for photos. Predictably, you're not allowed to take your own picture, instead a code is scanned so you can then purchase this for an extra price on the way out . Then it's on through to meet the big man himself - Santa - with an elf to guide you through a maze of corridors. I took my seven-year-old and thre-year-old boys and they both loved meeting Santa this year which was a relief .
The price this year is £15 per child and £5 per adult which seemed fairly good value for the experience itself. The walk through was lovely and festive and the added Paddington storyline had an added resonance given the bear's movie adventures and royal tea-time over recent years. I ended up succumbing and paying £18 for a souvenir photo and bauble with my kids' photo inside because it was a cute pic with Santa. But I think I got away lightly on the Paddington merchandise by managing to persuade the kids to go for one of the smaller items, a Paddington stamp for £3.50. Result!
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