Bah humbug! Complaints Clissold Park Christmas Market ‘charged £7.50’ to see Santa

Clissold Park. Photograph: LBH (Wikicommons)

Visitors to a Christmas market in Stoke Newington were left shocked and appalled that children were charged £7.50 to see Santa.

One visitor complained it was too dark inside the grotto to get a proper photo and bemoaned the alleged behaviour of an elf, while another opined that the event was insufficiently Christmassy.

The Clissold Park Christmas Market was organised by themed events specialist Market Square Group and featured teacup rides, zorbing and a variety food and gift stalls as well as Santa’s grotto.

It was billed as a fun, family friendly event, but it attracted the wrath of several visitors who queued up to slate its apparent exclusivity on a Facebook page operated by Clissold Park User Group.

Vicky Marks wrote: “Who organises the Christmas Fair? I think £7.50 for a Santa visit is a bit steep for a borough with so much child poverty. It’d be nice if things like that were more inclusive for all Hackney residents.”

Rebecca Thomas explained she was “shocked…as were some of my friends.”

Olivia Harrison agreed, stating: “We took a toddler and a baby and it was £14. We were in there with Santa for approximately two or three minutes before the ‘elf’ came back in and began to ‘encourage’ us out again. (Elf was meant to be guarding our buggy outside).”

She added: “It was so dark in there it was impossible to get a proper photo and then they only gave us one gift for our toddler because apparently they didn’t have anything for the (almost one year old) baby. The gift was a 50p slinky (which incidentally our toddler loves) and is in fact a piece of tat. Not impressed but managed to laugh at our stupidity!!”

Iain Chambers chimed in: “Charging adults to accompany kids on the tea cup rides is also a bit steep. One ride is then six quid.”

And Kiera Rose Gormley contributed the following: “That’s so ridiculous and very unfair to parents, especially those with more than one child. I was highly disappointed at the price of the rides also. Same thing as above £6 for two minutes in a tea cup. It might be more fun to organise traditional games like slack lining or more thought out fun for the kids.”

Leigh Davies, meanwhile, declared the market “wasn’t very Christmassy”.

Caroline Millar from Clissold Park User Group told the complainants she would take their concerns direct to Hackney Council’s events team, and she pointed out that all such events were intended to raise money to fund the upkeep of the council’s many green spaces.

A Hackney Council spokesperson told the Hackney Citizen that, as the market was not a council-run event, they would not be commenting on the pricing of activities.

The Hackney Citizen phoned Market Square Group. Our inquiry was referred to a PR company who are yet to provide any comment on the issue.

Update at 10.45am on Wednesday 21 December:

A spokesman for Market Square Group said: “This was our third visit to Clissold Park in 2016 and we have enjoyed a great welcome in this beautiful area of north London, and received a lot of nice feedback from visitors to our events throughout the year.

“All proceeds from the cost of the Santa’s Grotto went towards the overheads of hiring the land and organising this year’s Clissold Park Christmas Market but we will take on board all feedback, both positive and negative, as we plan for our 2017 events.”