Meeting Father Christmas at Squire's Garden Centre, Washington

This year, Squire's Garden Centre in Washington, West Sussex, has introduced a brand new 4D Christmas Experience for children to enjoy as part of the traditional Christmas visit to Father Christmas, and we were really excited to be invited along to experience it.

I took along Harry, 4, and Mia, 2. We were greeted by Santa's Elves for some colouring and biscuits before we were taken into the attraction. The experience begins with a 3D film about Boris the dog and his adventures as he rescues a lost teddy on Christmas Eve. Everyone wears 3D glasses, and the film is enhanced with lots of special effects, it's a real delight and a lovely festive story. We all really enjoyed it, even Mia sat quietly all the way through it which is most unlike her!

Then we joined a queue to see Father Christmas in his grotto. I wasn't at all sure as to how the children would react - previous Father Christmas meet and greets have been rather unsuccessful. But he was lovely and friendly, and Harry warmed to him almost immediately, telling him what he wanted for Christmas and speaking for Mia who was still rather shy. Father Christmas gave them a lovely gift each, then we all posed for a photograph and wished each other Merry Christmas.

I was really pleased with how well our photograph turned out and so I bought a print for £5.99. There are various photograph bundles available and there are also other photographic mementoes which you can purchase, like baubles and snow globes.

We were invited to the press launch of the experience, so our visit to Father Christmas was complimentary, but I couldn't resist buying the official photograph of them with Father Christmas!