Making a wonderful grotto in your home or garden can be the ideal thing to jumpstart Christmas for your little ones.
The reason that we really adore having a grotto at home is he fact that you’ll be able to easily go and visit Santa one evening, and not have to deal with the stress and fuss of visiting a local Christmas grotto.
In this article, we’re going to run through some things to bear in mind when you’re making a Christmas grotto in your home, or in your garden.
We promise that it’s nowhere near as tricky as it might sound – you can do it easily!
How would you describe Santa’s grotto?
This is a great question to ask your little one so you can understand what they believe Santa’s grotto would be like. The last thing you’d want to do is provide the exact opposite grotto experience to the one that they were expecting.
Ask them every single detail you can think of, from the kind of chairs that Santa might have to the way that the grotto would look from the outside.
Before long, you’ll be able to easily conjure up some simple ideas that would work wonders.
Bear in mind that you’re catering to a child’s eye. To their eye, a Christmas tree can be made to feel utterly huge by placing it a little distance away, or on a platform such as a large box or crate.
There’s a reason why Disneyland doesn’t feel as big from the outside – the Imagineers have got sight lines and the design down to a science to make it feel much bigger than it actually is.
While you don’t have to go quite that far, you can easily consider the way that you want your children to look at the grotto you create, and organise things around that.
How do you organise Santa’s grotto?
Organising Santa’s grotto is perhaps the trickiest part of it all.
Especially when you consider that the child you’re catering to will likely be in the home that you’re setting the grotto up in.
Something that we would totally recommend is to set up the grotto in secret as much as you can.
Assemble kits and furniture on the day that you’ll be hosting the grotto, and string up lights then too.
The best way to do this, and to create a winter wonderland in your backyard, is to do as much as possible while the kids are at school.
This time window will allow for a magical Santa’s grotto to spring up in no time, at least from the point of view of the young one.
It will also allow you a greater chance of getting any animals, performers, or other odds and ends that you might be looking to hire.
For example, if you wanted to hire a local reindeer or something similar, then you would likely have more options for a Wednesday night than a Saturday night.
DIY Santa’s grotto
Creating the most wonderful Santa grotto doesn’t have to be anywhere near as tricky as you might think.
You’d be amazed at what you can do with as little as a Christmas tree and some fairy lights!
The key thing that we would make sure to recommend is to do it at nighttime. Creating an immersive space is much easier and simpler at nighttime because you’ll be able to hide the homes of neighbors and other local places with the cover of darkness.
This might sound like a tiny thing, but tiny things truly do add up when creating a grotto!
Choose the best space
First things first, choose the best space to set up a DIY Santa’s grotto in or around your home. Ideally, the best space will be somewhere that you have total control over, as well as the ability to add a number of things without making it feel too crowded.
These requirements generally combine to make it a great idea to opt for your back garden. An outdoor space can be a little chilly, but that just gives you a great chance to wrap up warm and make the trip a little more magical by adding some anticipation.
Spruce up your space to make it grotto-ready
Preparation is such a huge part of creating something, even though that might sound a little like a cop-out.
The truth of the matter is that you can’t bake a cake with dirty dishes and tools – you need to clear the ground before you get started.
In your garden, this might mean that you should trim back bushes and trees, mow the lawn, and remove any items that could be a tripping hazard during the night when it’s hard to see foot-level obstructions.
A great thing to do while setting up your garden to become a wonderful grotto is to clear out the shed.
The shed makes an ideal grotto location since it’s a waterproof spot within your garden that you have total control over – what’s not to love?
Clearing everything out of the garden shed is a great first step – it will allow you to easily and effectively prepare the space for festive fun.
Light up your grotto with fairy lights
Twinkling fairy lights are a simple creation, but they’re one that has provided a wealth of useful Christmas lights over the years.
Adding some bright fairy lights to the shrubbery in your garden can allow for your Santa’s grotto to have clearly visible bounds and locations that you can go to, while also maintaining the atmosphere that twinkling lights can provide.
Lighting up the inside of the shed with Christmas lights or fairy lights can be a great idea – they provide an excellent amount of ambient light, allowing you to make memories in there without totally ruining the illusion.
Create an enchanting path
An enchanting path is the best of many Santa’s grotto ideas that we’ve seen while researching for this article.
At the end of the day, Santa’s grotto will often just be a shed with someone inside it if it isn’t for the magic you create around it.
A great way to create this magic is to have a stop or two on the journey from the house to the garden shed.
Creative Santa’s grotto ideas are plentiful, but discovering which of these are useful and available can be tricky.
In an ideal world, a reindeer, donkey, or something similar would be a fun and memorable way of celebrating Christmas.
However, we know as well as you do that it could be messy, expensive, and frustrating.
A simple and accessible idea, though, is to add some traditional Christmas decorations to a small table, dress a friend or relative up as one of Santa’s elves, and have a small hot chocolate station. Complete with candy canes, marshmallows, and whipped cream, it’s hard to go wrong!
Setting up a Santa’s grotto
The final touches for a Santa’s grotto are typically the hardest items to get hold of. The concept to run with is very simple – disguise, and transform.
Santa’s grotto ideas from wreaths to trees are great, but they won’t all fit in your shed.
One of the wonderfully creative Santa’s grotto ideas that we’ve seen is to essentially carpet the shed with blankets.
Placing down blankets can hide a multitude of sins, from old boards to old rubbish.
Adding cushions and seats to the blankets can allow you to create an environment that not only hides the shed itself really well but also provides a comfortable, warm and welcoming grotto.
Decorate the inside ready for Santa
The final Christmas decorations are some of the most important finishing touches. Some great ideas include wreaths for the walls, as well as some bright and gently twinkling lights that you might enjoy.
Try to track down some ornaments that your kids might not recognize – that will help to preserve the illusion that they’re truly going to visit Santa somewhere other than in their home.
Best chair for Santa’s Christmas grotto?
Finding the best chair for Santa’s grotto can be tricky. While that fold-out chair from your garage is a great way to save time, space, and money, it doesn’t really complete the illusion.
A great idea is to throw blankets and other items over it. It comes back to the decoration idea that we mentioned before – disguise, and transform.
If a chair isn’t immediately recognisable as a chair that your child knows, then you help the illusion along just a little.
A big TV for Christmas movies?
Obviously, we all love the idea of a huge TV next to Christmas trees which would enable you to present The Polar Express in all its glory, but the truth is that you could get into the festive spirit with little more than a tablet.
With a tablet that you already own or even a cheap one that you bought second-hand, you can easily play a movie or two and bring a little Christmas magic to your homemade grotto.
We hope that this article has given you a few pushes in the right direction to ensure that you create a magical grotto for any little ones you might be entertaining. Remember – the magic is real, you just have to find it!
