09/12/2025
Top Tips for Visiting Lapland Manchester
I have no where near finished writing up about Lapland but as I know a few people going this week I have made a list of some top tips and things I wish I knew......i will keep adding to this as I think of things or let me know if ive missed your top tip
📍 First Tip - Its not in Manchester! Come on Lapland dont shy away from calling it Cheshire. 📍 Congleton Rd, Siddington, Macclesfield Cheshire SK11 9JY
We arrived at 10:45am for our 11.30am slot and stayed until about 4pm. It’s longer than you’d expect, and there’s a lot to do. The story, the activities, and the whole experience is visually impressive.
Lapland has clearly been designed with a wide age range in mind, and while teens won’t be bewitched like a 5-year-old, they’ll still get wrapped up in the magic if you let them.
💌 Before you go
Make sure you fill in your children details in the portal. You can add in their favourite sport, hobby or activity and also say something they have recently acheived like winning a prize or gettting a good report at school. Santa uses this information to talk to your child and this really makes the magic more real as my youngest daughter was like " how does Santa know i raked Grandads leaves the other week"
Be sure to open up the invitation box before you plan on giving them to your children, there are some Big Folk items in the box to take out first.
⚠️ Remove the Christmas Day gift postcard ( you leave this out on xmas eve with the teddy gift you are secretly passed at the end of the experience)
🎄 Top Tips I Wish I Knew
⏰ Arrive 45 minutes before your time slot. There is lots to do beforehand.
• Park up and walk to the entrance — there are photo ops as you walk in • Collect your passport from the main desk • Little shop to browse and buy from • You can buy your jingles in the shop • Toilets • A place to get hot chocolates and cakes • Elves to chat to and get your photo with • Soak up the atmosphere — it’s already beautiful in the entrance hall
⚠️ If you are going with another family or booking: We booked the same slot as my sister-in-law so the girls could experience it all together. However, we ended up separated for about half the time. When you arrive, you get a stamp in your passport to say whether you are in The Huskies or The Little Rudi. We didn’t think anything of this at the time, until we were told to go to separate areas of the first room.
We were then split off in the next few rooms until we reached the Elven Village. You are in the same room as the other group, but there is a partition, so you can’t mix with the other group. It was annoying, and I really wish I’d said something to the staff at the time, but we didn’t realise how much of it we would be separated for.
Once the girls were back together in the Elven Village, they could skate, shop, eat together, and get some group photos — but we definitely missed seeing them during the earlier parts. ♥️ Ive since found out I could have emailed and linked our booking. Missed this info so I hope this saves someone else doing the same
🪙 Jingles - Elven money 1 Jingle = £1
You can pre-book these online before you go and collect them when you get your passport, but don’t worry, you can buy them there in the first shop, so there really shouldn’t be any panic about pre-ordering. It took me less than 2 minutes to get them.
These are lovely for children to be able to spend ‘their own money’ and many people keep them as keepsakes.
You cant use cash, you can use your ‘Magic’ card or jingles to buy everything.
🥪 Food & Drinks from home are allowed. Wether your saving time or money or have allergies, its fine.
🎒 Bring a Small Bag You’ll want somewhere to store cookie decorating kits, kids’ passports, elf hats, and anything else your child takes off while going around.
🥾 It's NOT muddy. The whole this is inside and the car park has solid stuff down so even that isnt muddy.
🚻 Toilets
There are plenty of toilets, you can find them in most areas including at the entrance, in the bakery, at the entrance of the Elven Village.
🍔 Food
We ate in the Elven Village. It was quicker and more affordable than expected, not outrageous theme-park prices, just normal eating-out prices. Here are some examples:
• Hot chocolate £6 • Mulled wine £6 • Standard bratwurst £11 • Lapland smash burger £13 • Pepperoni pizza £13 • Mac & cheese £11 • Fries £5 • Coffee £4 • Kids’ burger, chips and drink £10 — a decent size and a meal I could have happily eaten
Our food came seriously quickly, but it still ate into our time. If you’d rather maximise activities than spend time eating, bring your own food. They allow it, and there are places to sit.
⏰ Time in Elven Village You get 90 minutes in the Elven Village. We managed to squeeze an extra 20 minutes, and even when we went to the exit door to go to the next part, we were asked if we’d done everything we wanted. I sort of wish we had asked for more time, as the girls didn’t get time to write their letters.
🦌 When you get to the reindeers after you leave the Elven Village, there are two queues either side - one to see the reindeers and have a photo in front of the sleigh and the other side to make reindeer food (6 jingles).
🎅 Waiting for Santa
You wander through the forest to Compass’ Lobby. Here you check in at the desk, giving your name and going though the sercret details you have entered into the postal. Make sure you sit your children on the benches while one adult goes to check in as you dont want them hearing this bit. Then you sit and wait, we hardly had any wait, maybe 10 minutes, just enough time to get excited/nervous.
📸 Ask the Elves for Photos
The elves are wonderful with the children, they chatted to ours for ages. One elf in particular, while we were waiting to start, kept calling the girls’ mobile phones “black boxes,” which made them giggle so much. The elves love posing for photos, and they’re also more than happy to take family photos for you.
🖊 Take an "autograph book" all the elves have their own signature and are more than happy to sign it for you with their scribble
🛍 Make sure you remember to collect your secret gift and printed photo before you leave the store after Father Christmas. The secret gift somes in a bag with paper over it, you can't tell what's in the bag but it isn't small so if you have an eagle eyed little one, think of a reason why you suddenly have a massive bag of something.
🌟 If your miss any stamps in the kids passports when you get to the shop at the end you can get any missing ones if you ask at the tills in the last store.
🎄 The experience tired me out and if you dont fancy going home to make dinner or want somewhere to eat before driving a long drive home then I recommend The Egerton Arms in Chelford. They have a special christmas menu for Lapland visitors and decorate the table all christmasy. LRices from £21.95 2 courses for adults.
01625861366 for bookings
What have I missed??
