Monk Park Farm Visitor Attraction — Attraction in Balk

The Great Yorkshire Christmas lived up to its name!!

Honestly, it was so much better than we expected! There’s another place we wanted to try but the tickets sell out super fast, so we decided to try this, & honestly, I think it’s probably better! The whole experience was filled with Christmas magic. From our initial ‘checking in’ & getting our passports, to decorating gingerbread in Mrs Claus kitchen all the staff (or should I say elves) on the farm were brilliant. I particularly liked how the slots were staggered so the farm didn’t feel overly busy whenever we were doing any of the fun bits. It meant we actually got to enjoy ourselves without feeling rushed at any particular station.

We loved going around all the different ‘stations’ collecting stickers for our passport. We particularly loved the ‘Reindeer food’ station & the wishing tree, those were really fun.

Then it was time for the main event, meeting Santa. He was THE best Santa I’ve ever seen. Our super talkative 5 year old was wittering away about everything & anything & Santa was completely unfazed, joining in where he could make sense of what was being said. The grotto itself had been lovingly decorated to look like Santa’s lounge at home & was lovely toasty warm (which was a very welcome surprise considering it was blowing a gale & freezing outside). There was opportunity to take have a professional photo taken where the camera was nicely hidden in a gift box, so it wasn’t imposing on the experience. It didn’t feel rushed at all, it was lovely & personal & honestly made us believe. Santa gave our kids a special coin to spend in the toy shop, where kids could choose one big toy or 5 pick & mix little things, which I thought was incredibly generous for the price of the experience.

Then we went off to play on the farm for a while, whilst we waited for our ‘elf academy’ slot. I particularly like the addition of the mini train, the last time we were here (a good 2/3 years ago) the train wasn’t there. There were a couple of other new bits & pieces too, including the motorised cars, but I do think £2 is just a tad too much for those, after paying £7 for the barrel ride &.

The ‘Elf Academy’ show was interactive, festive & funny. Our little boy had a whale of a time watching & joining in. We had just enough time to ‘build a bear’ in the workshop & decorate a gingerbread biscuit in Mrs Claus’ kitchen before heading home after an absolutely magical, festive, family day out. Both kids fell asleep on the way home, which is the sign of a great day out (if you ask me).

Next year, please have more veggie or vegan marshmallows for toasting, we missed out as they’d all sold out! We very nearly had a meltdown on our hands but we were saved by the ‘build a bear’.

Needless to say, we may have added a new Christmas family outing to our list!

Thanks to everyone who made our day super special. This was our first ‘Santa’s Grotto’ visit & I honestly think it might be the best one...

We paid £70 for 2 adults, 2 children and 2 babies (both 4 months old, and shouldn’t have to pay for them in my opinion). The farm looked good from their social media page so we travelled over an hour to get there for a ‘day’ out. We arrived to a huge queue at the front desk which took 18 minutes in total to get to the front of as they only had one person serving. You would think this would have been more efficient given the majority had booked online prior to arriving. Once we eventually got into the farm we went to hold the piglets, which again was a lengthy queue, but we expected this. The piglets were squawking so my 9 year old son asked the young girl who handed him the piglet why this was, her response ‘if you was taken away from your mum and passed around you would cry too’ - this made my son sad and he then didn’t want to hold the piglet. Surely the amount you are advertising the piglet holding activity you shouldn’t then be traumatising or guilt tripping children for an activity YOU are offering?! We then walked around the rest of the farm and woodland walk which was extremely basic, wasn’t any engaging tasks for small children which is your target audience, and we saw no more than we do going for a walk in the local countryside. We then decided we would go to the cafe for lunch - big mistake. The queue was very long, the tables was left dirty and filled with rubbish as the bins was over spilling in the doorway and both the kiosk and kitchen appeared to be run by teenagers. Food was poor quality, to say it is a farm you would expect a quality MEAT chicken nugget or burger, but no, it was cheap poor quality food that I feel was over priced. There is no toilet facilities in the cafe, which is an issue when you have small children in a busy environment, instead you had to leave the cafe and go near the entrance. The toilet seat was hanging off, surround of the toilet littered with toilet paper and the floors dirty where people had trampled mud in. I understand it’s a farm, but surely basic cleanliness should be prioritised. The children played at the park for half an hour, and then was bored. The pumpkin patch was an additional cost which we didn’t feel we should pay, as we had paid £70 to hold a piglet and play at the park at this point. The ‘wizard’ stuff was mediocre, with a stick provided and some ribbon to wrap around it, no engagement from staff or entertainment to make it exciting. Overall we felt it was a complete waste of money, travel and our time. I would strongly encourage you to go visit other similar style attractions such as Cannon Hall farm to see how it...

We visited the farm on Sat 23rd December for the Christmas experience and I'm afraid to say that we were very disappointed by the overall experience.

While the actual seeing santa part was fine, most of the activities that were promised as part of the ticket price were not available (I've pasted a description from the website https://www.monkparkfarm.co.uk/events/christmas/):

"They will even teach you to make your very own reindeer food that you can sprinkle out for deer on your winter walk. The festive activities continue as guests can join Mrs Claus for some creative Christmas crafts. Get into the festive spirit in Mrs Claus Kitchen, located in the Hungry Monk Café. You can also write a letter to Father Christmas, check if you are on the naughty or nice list and warm up with a lovely mince pie."

We went to the Hungry Monk cafe at 3.30 p.m. to find that there was no Mrs Claus anywhere to be seen, no reindeer food making, no creative Christmas crafts or gingerbread decorating and no naughty or nice list as all these activities had been cleared away. The only elf we could see was also busy taking down the Christmas tree and decorations, which somewhat spoiled the Christmas atmosphere! I appreciate that this was the final day of the Christmas experience, but considering the farm was supposed to be open until 6 p.m. and our slot to see santa was at 4.10 p.m., these experiences should have still been available at 3.30. Taking down the decorations shouldn't really have been done until the farm had closed.

I think it's also worth noting that while the santa was friendly and engaging with the kids, he made a comment about my 7-year-old niece being "a very pretty girl", which I don't think is very appropriate or PC in today's world and made us feel rather uncomfortable.

The gift selection was also very poor (there was nothing age appropriate for my 10-year-old) and there were no sweets available (the website mentioned "Make sure to get your token from Father Christmas that you use in the elves toy store and sweet shop".)

I emailed Monk Park Farm at the start of January to request some sort of refund, and they have not even replied to my email over 3 months later, which is poor...