Christmas at Whipsnade Zoo

The following Meet Santa sessions are now sold out:

Meet Santa Animal Gift-Giving Relaxed - £42 per child / £15.75 per adult
These sessions include the same experience as Meet Santa Animal Gift-Giving sessions, but with dimmed lighting, quieter sounds and other reduced sensory stimulation to make the area feel more relaxed, specifically designed for those with additional needs. 

• Meet Santa - £18.50 per child
  Santa is once again making a special stop at Whipsnade Zoo this year! Little ones can join in festive crafts before meeting Santa in his new magical grotto and receive a very special early Christmas gift to take home.
• Meet Santa Priority (for Gold members, Fellows and Patrons only) - £16.65 per child (NOW CLOSED)
  Gold members, Fellows and Patrons had priority access to these sessions for one week only until 23 September 2025 at 9am. These sessions include the same experience as standard Meet Santa sessions but are offered at a 10% discount for Gold members, Fellows and Patrons only. They were available for 7 days, after which any remaining capacity was released to the general public at full price.
• Meet Santa Priority Relaxed - £16.65 per child (NOW CLOSED)
  Gold members, Fellows and Patrons had priority access to these sessions for one week only until 23 September 2025 at 9am. These sessions include the same experience as standard Meet Santa sessions, but with dimmed lighting, quieter sounds and other reduced sensory stimulation to make the area feel more relaxed, specifically designed for those with additional needs. These sessions were offered at a 10% discount for Gold members, Fellows and Patrons only. They were available for 7 days, after which any remaining capacity was released to the general public at full price.
• Meet Santa Relaxed - £18.50 per child 
  These sessions include the same experience as standard Meet Santa sessions, but with dimmed lighting, quieter sounds and other reduced sensory stimulation to make the area feel more relaxed, specifically designed for those with additional needs.
• Meet Santa Animal Gift-Giving - £42 per child / £15.75 per adult 
  For only £23.50 more per child*, join our elves to make tasty gifts for some of our Zoo residents and then head on a tour to deliver your gift and watch the animals get stuck in. And of course, every child will meet Santa in his grotto and take away a Christmas gift. Most suitable for ages 5 and over.
• Meet Santa Animal Gift-Giving Relaxed - £42 per child / £15.75 per adult 
  These sessions include the same experience as Meet Santa Animal Gift-Giving sessions, but with dimmed lighting, quieter sounds and other reduced sensory stimulation to make the area feel more relaxed, specifically designed for those with additional needs.

This year, Meet Santa sessions run on 22, 23, 29 and 30 November, then 6, 7, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23 and 24 December. Please check the booking link for the latest availability per session type.

No, in 2025 there are no Meet Santa VIP Breakfast sessions running at Whipsnade Zoo. However, if you’re looking for a special Christmas experience, we do have Meet Santa Animal Gift-Giving sessions where you can make and deliver tasty gifts for our animals after meeting Santa in his magical new grotto.

• Meet Santa, Meet Santa Priority, Meet Santa Priority Relaxed and Meet Santa Relaxed sessions last approximately 30 minutes.
• Meet Santa Animal Gift-Giving and Meet Santa Animal Gift-Giving Relaxed sessions last approximately 2 hours.

Yes, Gold members, Fellows and Patrons who registered their interest had one week's priority access to book for four special dates at a discounted rate of £16.65: 22 & 23 November and 18 & 19 December. The remainder of the Priority tickets were then released to the general public at full price. Registered Gold members, Fellows and Patrons were also the first to know as soon as tickets went live.

Gold members, Fellows and Patrons had exclusive one-week booking access to priority sessions on four special dates (22 & 23 November and 18 & 19 December) with discounted pricing. All other sessions and bookings for these sessions after the priority period has ended are not discounted.

We appreciate that the Zoo and our events can be quite loud or overwhelming for some visitors. Our Meet Santa Relaxed Sessions offer visitors with additional needs a more comfortable experience. This may mean less lighting, reduced noise, and off-peak times to limit the number of visitors on site.

The prices for all different session types for Meet Santa at Whipsnade Zoo 2025 are listed below:

• Meet Santa - £18.50 per child
• Meet Santa Priority - £16.65 per child
• Meet Santa Priority Relaxed - £16.65 per child
• Meet Santa Relaxed - £18.50 per child
• Meet Santa Animal Gift-Giving - £42 per child / £15.75 per adult
• Meet Santa Animal Gift-Giving Relaxed - £42 per child / £15.75 per adult

Meet Santa tickets are valid for the experience only and do not include Zoo admission. All participants and accompanying adults also need either a valid ZSL Membership or Zoo admission tickets unless arriving after last entry (3pm) for a 3:30pm, 4pm or 4:30pm session.

If you hadn’t logged into your account for a while, we recommended you check your credentials were correct for a smooth experience on the day of the ticket release. If you are a supporter, we recommended you use the email address your membership is registered with. We also suggested resetting your password if you hadn't logged into our new system yet.

1. Go to the booking link.
2. Select which session type you’d like. More information about each session type can be found at the top of this page. Click ‘continue’.
3. Select how many adults and children you’d like to book for. You can book a maximum of three children and two adults per booking. If you need to book more than three children, please make a separate booking. Note: at least 1 adult must be included in each booking. Click ‘continue’.
4. Select your visit date from the drop down. Click ‘continue’.
5. Select your visit time from the drop down. Click ‘continue’.
6. Add in extra information. If you are booking with another family, please enter the name and order number for the other booking her and we’ll do our best to allow you to enter the grotto together. This is an optional field. Click ‘continue’.
7. Choose extras. At this stage, you can choose to add Zoo admission tickets or guidebooks to your booking.
8. Login. If you are a member, please use the email address associated with your membership. If you have not logged in before, enter your email address, click ‘continue’ and then click ‘email me a link to log in’. If you do not have an account, please enter your email address and you'll be able to create one.
9. Review your basket. Check the information is correct and click ‘add to basket’. This will take you to another webpage which will show you your basket again. At this point, your tickets are held for 20 minutes to allow you to complete your booking. Check the information is correct, then proceed to check out. Note: do not remove the Timeslot Reservation from your booking or your booking will not be valid and your tickets may be cancelled.

There’s a maximum of three children per booking, but if you wanted to book for more children, you’d just need to make two online bookings. If booked into the same time slot, we’ll do our best to allow the children to do their crafts together, but we can only allow up to 5 people into Santa's grotto at any time.

Please let us know in advance of your visit that you’ve booked two or more groups for the same timeslot, either by notifying us during the Extra Information stage of the booking journey or by letting our Supporter Contact team know via this enquiry form. In both instances, we would require names and order numbers for the relevant bookings.

Please note, each booking must include at least one adult, even if booked for the same timeslot.

No, this year there are only ‘Child’ or ‘Adult’ tickets available and you do not need to select the age of your child on booking.

At Whipsnade Zoo, due to limited space there is a maximum of two adults per booking and a minimum of one adult per booking. Please add your adult or accompanying adult ticket(s) when you make your Meet Santa booking.

If you don’t wish for them to meet Santa, receive a gift or be in the photo with Santa, they do not need a ticket (e.g. babes in arms). If you wish for them to participate in the experience in any way, you must book them a Meet Santa ticket.

Yes, people of any age are welcome to come and meet Santa! Anyone with a ‘Child’ ticket, regardless of age, will be able to enter the grotto, meet Santa and receive a gift.

The Meet Santa ticket alone does not include Zoo admission.

• Members, Fellows and Patrons will be granted Zoo entry on arrival simply by showing their membership card. Membership alone only provides access to the Zoo. Please note, any child members wanting to see Santa will need a Meet Santa ticket.
• Bookers for Meet Santa, Meet Santa Priority, Meet Santa Priority Relaxed or Meet Santa Relaxed at 3:30pm, 4pm or 4:30pm do not need a Zoo admission ticket to enter the Zoo for their session, as these session times fall after last entry to the Zoo and they will be unable to explore the Zoo after their session. However, if bookers for these sessions wish to arrive at the Zoo before 3pm to look around, they will need a valid Zoo admission ticket in addition to their Meet Santa ticket.
• All other visitors and bookers for other session times, will need a valid Zoo ticket in addition to any Meet Santa ticket in order to enter the Zoo. This includes under 3s and any non-members.

This year, the elves have found Santa a brand-new, magical grotto location at Whipsnade Zoo, in the River Room at the Learning Hub, near the Butterfly House. Experience the Northern Lights from Santa’s cosy igloo and soak up the Christmas vibes!

Although the Meet Santa grotto itself is fully indoors, there may be a short wait outside while waiting for your grotto timeslot. 

Meet Santa Animal Gift-Giving and Meet Santa Animal Gift-Giving Relaxed sessions will include outdoors elements, so please plan and dress accordingly.

This is subject to availability on the day of your experience, but children will get to deliver their enrichment to one species and do a scatter feed with another species.

If you need to make us aware of any allergies ahead of your Meet Santa Animal Gift-Giving or Meet Santa Animal Gift-Giving Relaxed session, then please contact our Supporter Contact team via this webform at least one week before your experience. Please note, we do not use latex gloves for this experience.

Since your session will take place before the Zoo opens to general visitors, please arrive at the Zoo entrance ahead of time so you have sufficient time to get to the start point. Please have your tickets ready for checking at the gate by our friendly security staff. You will be directed to park in the Zoo before being directed to your experience. This information will also be available on your PDF tickets.

• For sessions before 10am: Since your Meet Santa session will take place as the Zoo opens to general visitors, please arrive at the Zoo entrance by 9:45am to allow sufficient time to get to the start point. Unfortunately, we cannot guarantee admission to late-comers. This information will also be available on your PDF tickets.

• For sessions at 3:30pm, 4pm or 4:30pm: Your session takes place after last entry to the Zoo, so if you are arriving after 3pm please drive to the main gate and our team will direct you to park in the Zoo. The Zoo closes at 4pm, so you will not be able to explore the Zoo after your session.

  If you have booked one of these sessions, but choose to arrive early and explore the Zoo before last entry at 3pm, please make your way to the grotto ahead of your session start time. If you your session starts at 4:30pm (after the Zoo closes) and you had already entered the Zoo earlier in the day, you will be able to wait near the grotto until your session start time. Note: If you do arrive early to explore the Zoo before your session, you will require a valid ZSL membership or Zoo admission ticket in order to enter the Zoo. 

Santa’s grotto is fully accessible, with ramps leading into the event area. If you have accessibility requirements, please contact our Supporter Contact team at least 48 hours in advance of your visit and we will do our best to accommodate you. There are accessible toilets and a changing facility located nearby. As part of the Meet Santa Animal Gift-Giving and Meet Santa Animal Gift-Giving Relaxed experiences, there is a tour lasting around 15 minutes. The tour may not be the same every day and may visit different animals per session, so unfortunately we can’t confirm that these sessions will be fully accessible.

If that person is accompanying purely to assist in a carer capacity, they do not need a separate ticket. However, if they intend to actively take part in the experience in their own right, alongside the person they care for, then they will need to buy a Meet Santa ticket. Please see general admission terms and conditions for more information on Zoo entry with a free carer ticket.

• If you’re placed in a queue: It’s possible you may be placed in a queue to access tickets. Queue places are assigned based on when you requested to access the link by clicking it. Please be patient in this case and wait for the link to grant you access, where you can go in and book your tickets. Note, if you leave the queue for any reason, e.g. by leaving the webpage, you may lose your place in the queue.
• If the ‘add to basket’ button is not working: If you’ve made your way through the booking steps to ‘Review Your Basket’ and you click the ‘Add to Basket’ button but the button doesn’t take you a checkout page, this could be caused by a few different factors. Firstly, please ensure you have been through steps 1-5 in full and that all the information is inputted correctly. If the system doesn’t have the right information, sometimes it’s unable to progress to checkout. As tickets are not reserved until added to your basket, it’s possible that tickets which were available may sell out before you are able to add them to your basket. In this case, please try selecting a different date, time or session type with availability and follow the steps through to checkout again. In some cases, it may help to refresh the page or clear your browsing data. Please note, if you were in the queue and cleared your browsing data, you would lose your place in the queue.
• If you’re using a VPN: Please note that it may not be possible to access the booking link via certain VPNs. In this case, please disconnect from the VPN and refresh the booking link page.
• If you are still having trouble: Please contact our Supporter Contact team here and they will try to assist with your query.

Once a session time has sold out, unfortunately we won't be able to release any more tickets for that session. On rare occasions we may be able to add extra dates and if we do so, these will be available on the same booking links – please check this website for any updates.

Tickets are non-refundable and not transferable to other dates, times or visitors. Tickets are only valid at the Zoo the booking was made for and at the date/time shown on the tickets.

If your question is not answered in our FAQs or if you have a separate question regarding your Meet Santa booking, please contact our Supporter Contact team who will be able to assist you.

Confirmation and ticket emails can take a little while to come through so please be patient and check Junk or Spam folders. If it’s been 24 hours since you booked and you still haven’t received your tickets, please contact our Supporter Contact team who will be able to assist you.