Real-beard Santas, and everything around them
Santa Hire
Children remember two things: whether Santa looked right, and whether the room did. Most places get one and not the other — a convincing Santa in a corner with a folding chair, or a beautiful set with an obvious costume in it. We do both, because we are prop people who also supply the man.
Why the beard matters
A child at the age where this matters most is close enough to touch him. At that distance an elasticated beard is not a costume, it is the moment the whole thing stops being real. It is the single detail parents notice too, and parents are the ones who book again next year and tell other parents.
Our Santas are real-beard Santas. Everything else — the suit, the room, the chair, the gift — is in service of the ninety seconds a family spends in front of him.
- Real beards, not costume beards.
- Booked with the set, or on their own.
- Elves, characters and entertainers available alongside.
- We dress the room as well as supplying the man.
Our Santas & characters
Father Christmas himself, and the characters who work alongside him.
The room he sits in
A Santa in a good set is worth three Santas in a bad one. Thrones, fireplaces, entrances and the gifts they hand out.
Where our Santas work
The job changes a lot depending on who is queueing.
Shops & garden centres
Ticketed sessions, a dressed room and a photograph. The set does most of the work; he does the rest.
Shopping centres
Volume. The queue has to move, which means the room is designed around throughput before it is designed around looks.
Attractions & estates
The full experience — a route, scenes, characters and a finish. We have built drive-thru and walk-through versions of both.
Workplace family days
Shorter, simpler, and usually one afternoon. A throne, a backdrop and a sack is genuinely enough.
Community events & switch-ons
Outdoors, in the dark, in front of a crowd. Lighting and a raised position matter more than the set.
Booking a Santa
Santas are the first thing to go and the hardest thing to replace. There is a fixed number of real-beard Santas and a fixed number of December weekends, and the arithmetic is unforgiving — attractions and large retailers commonly book nine to twelve months ahead.
If you are reading this in the autumn, ring rather than email. Tell us your dates, your sessions and the space, and we will tell you honestly what is still available.
We can supply real reindeer alongside, and dress the whole thing from our own catalogue.
Common questions
Do you supply real-beard Santas?
Yes. Our Santas are real-beard Santas, which is the detail children get close enough to notice and the one parents judge the whole visit by.
How much does it cost to hire a Santa?
It depends on the dates, the number of sessions and whether you want the set as well as the man. Tell us what you are planning and we will quote the whole thing together.
Can we hire Santa without the grotto?
Yes, and plenty do. We can also dress the room around him if you would rather not do that part yourself.
How far ahead do we need to book Father Christmas?
Earlier than almost anything else we hire. Attractions and large retailers commonly book nine to twelve months ahead; smaller venues should be talking to us by early autumn at the latest.
Can you supply elves and other characters too?
Yes — elves, costumed characters, stilt walkers and entertainers can all be booked alongside Santa so the whole thing arrives staffed.
Where we work
We deliver and install anywhere in the UK. We are based in Wigan, so everywhere below is within about a hundred miles of the warehouse — the places we can get to fastest, and where a same-week site visit is straightforward.
- Wigan
- Bolton
- Warrington
- St Helens
- Manchester
- Salford
- Liverpool
- Preston
- Blackburn
- Blackpool
- Chorley
- Southport
- Chester
- Wrexham
- Lancaster
- Kendal & the Lakes
- Leeds
- Bradford
- Huddersfield
- Sheffield
- York
- Stoke-on-Trent
- Crewe
- Shrewsbury
- Derby
- Nottingham
- Birmingham
- Carlisle
- North Wales
Tell us about your Christmas
Add anything you like to My List and send it over — we come back with one quote for the lot, delivered, installed and collected. Or just ring and talk it through.