Is that sleigh bells we hear?

Santa is on his way to Matlock Farm Park for Christmas and what better way to celebrate his arrival than with a day filled with Christmas cheer!

Santa will be arriving on horseback at 12pm leading his parade of festively dressed ponies. There will be lovely photo opportunities with Santa and the ponies. He will then head over to his enchanting and cosy Grotto for a mince pie (or two). Grotto bookings will be available to book on the day where you will be able to walk down our Christmas canopy, sit at the naughty or nice o’meter to check you’re on Santa’s good list and join Santa and his Elf in the Grotto to receive a special gift.

🎅📸 Santa Meet & Greet opportunities 

🎁Grotto* (running 1-3pm, bookable on the day

🐴Festive Pony Rides

Complimentary kids’ face painting

🔔Christmas Pony Parade

🎄Treasure Trail

⛄Elf fun around the park

👼Face Painting

❄️Children’s Christmas crafts

*Payable activity

Check out our website to secure your ticket – don’t forget our Kids go FREE offer is on this day!

https://matlockfarmpark.digitickets.co.uk/event-tickets/33474?catID=46636&

**PRE-BOOK ONLY – early booking advisable**

(Annual pass holders pay discounted rate for this special event and must present their pass on arrival to gain entry. Please see our ticket selection page)

November 24th & 30th

We’ve been in deep discussion with Santa Claus to provide a special experience for your loved one. Our Autism Friendly Santa Experience offers a calmer, more relaxed experience at a pace suited to you. Upon booking, choose a specific time slot and let us know the requirements of your loved one – you may also wish to call us prior to visiting to discuss their needs in more detail.

On arrival, meet with our friendly staff member first to familiarise yourselves with the area and we will finalise details for the most memorable experience. Our gently spoken Santa can either greet you in his low-lit Grotto, or come outside for a more relaxed chat. They can be seated at a distance in the Grotto or even sit on the floor rather than in his chair. Visiting Santa is a magical experience for everyone, but we want to make sure we tailor your visit to your own needs. Your loved one will also be able to select a gift of their choosing from Santa, with sensory items available.

We have also included our transition room again this year to provide you and your loved one a calm, safe and inviting atmosphere before or after you visit Santa. As well as this, you will also have the chance for a special one-to-one small animal petting session before meeting Santa Claus.

You may prefer to purchase tickets for our Santa’s Grotto Christmas Experience, which is available on other dates. However, these sessions will be busier, noisier and have less time with Santa. The Autism Friendly Santa sessions are designed for loved ones who prefer a calmer experience.

Siblings are welcome -please book child ticket and add note in information box provided. (Under 2 siblings with paying child and adult ticket holders go free, without a gift).

What does your ticket include?

• Entry to the Farm Park for the whole day! You can arrive and leave at any time during our opening hours, the time you book is the time you will be booked to see Santa.
• Santa Claus encounter
• Private small animal petting
• Use of our sensory transition room
• Support of Autism trained staff
• Photo opportunities
• Gift for child/adult with Autism
• Free return pass for those attending

Registered carers attending must purchase an adult ticket for this event.

** PRE-BOOK ONLY – early booking advised. INCLUDES ENTRY to Matlock Farm Park for animal and playtime fun!**
(Annual pass holders pay discounted rate for this special event and must present their pass on arrival to gain entry. Please see our ticket catergories for pre-booking)

Dates in December include 7th, 8th, 14th, 15th, 21st & 22nd

Make Christmas extra special for your children this year with our magical Breakfast with Santa event!
Your day will start with a group welcome from Santa and a delicious breakfast served in our Garden Room Cafe. The Big Man in Red will come along to visit your family during breakfast and knowing the names of the children in your party, have a lovely chat all about them and their Christmas wishes.

Santa will have his BIG sack of gifts with him and he will provide a gift ‘specially labelled for your young loved one.

Following breakfast, there will be a special story time in a separate room with Santa’s sister, Mary Christmas! Find out more about Santa Claus’s reindeer and the children receive a bag of magical reindeer food to sprinkle at home on Christmas Eve.

All adults will receive a hearty breakfast cob of bacon, sausage, egg & hash brown (or vegetarian alternative), plus tea or coffee. Children will have a choice of Pancakes with fruit and syrup, Beans on toast or a Mini Full English. These will be able to select when booking. It is essential that any allergies/ specific dietary requirements are added when making the menu choices for every person in the party. Please state if anyone has accessibility requirements.

Please note, tables are set per booking- if you wish to be seated with other family/friends, this must come under the same booking.

The event starts at 9:00 am prompt, when breakfast will be served. Including seeing Santa, the event will last up to 1 – 1.5 hours and farm park entry for the remainder of the day is included in this ticket, when children can enjoy lots of animal and playtime fun!
Event only open to Breakfast with Santa ticketholders. Children must have at least one accompanying adult ticketholder with them. Santa’s Grotto visit is NOT included. Registered carers will need an Adult ticket to attend this event.

To book tickets click here

Calling all aspiring young wizards and witches… Would you like to become trained in wizardry and have a jolly fun old time in the process? Then join Professor Rupert Warrington III and his wizard prefects, where you’ll be split into classes to learn Potion Making, Quid-eech and ‘101 Introduction to Wands’ at selected times throughout the day! Don’t forget to get dressed up to get fully into the spirit…

Of course, there’ll be all the usual fun of the farm park too, with the last days of sheep and ferret racing (before the athletes rest from training for the winter), small animal petting, wallaby encounter, meerkat talks, children’s pony rides, lots of playtime fun and more!

Join us on New Years Day for a chilled out day in the fresh air.
We will be serving BRUNCH from 10am.

Park entry is massively reduced on this day to only £7.50 per person (under 2’s go free).

Included in the day, some of our daily events including animal petting, wallaby encounter and more!

Our heated Rainforest Indoor Play and Coffee Lounge will be open. Plus there’s also our undercover Enchanted Hamlet Adventure Play!

Opening times on New Year’s Day are 10am-3pm.

New Year’s Day at Matlock Farm Park has become a popular place for friends and families to meet up for a relaxing day out with our animals on the farm.
Wrap up warm and we hope to see you next year! 

Pony Rides will be on!
Cafe & food outlet prices apply.

CLICK HERE TO BOOK!

**Time slot is for Santa’s grotto arrival time only, not length of the experience. Please ensure you arrive no later than 15 minutes before the end of the time slot**

We’ve had confirmation that the BIG Man in Red and his elves are returning from the North Pole to see our wonderful visitors in Santa’s magical grotto! 

Dates in December include 1st, 7th, 8th, 14th, 15th, 21st, 22nd & 23rd

As you make your way to the grotto, you’ll enter our Christmas Canopy where your child will have the opportunity to write the most important letter of the year… to Santa Claus! You can either post it in the North Pole post box or hand it to Santa in person.

Our friendly Elf will take you to try our Naughty or Nice-o-meter to find out if individuals in your family are on Santa’s good list – it could go either way! Then it will be time to be taken through to meet the Big Man in Red for a special chat with your child about all of their Christmas wishes! Santa will also have a lovely early Christmas gift waiting for them.

Tickets include Farm Park entry. You are welcome to spend the day around the farm enjoying festive activities, animal and playtime encounters before and/or after your Grotto time slot.

Please note: Santa’s Grotto Experience tickets are required for children and for the adults accompanying them. Gift only provided to those with child Santa’s grotto ticket. For under 2s requiring a gift, a child Santa’s Grotto ticket must be purchased, otherwise farm entry for under 2s is free.

Registered carers must purchase an adult ticket to attend this event.

To book your tickets CLICK HERE!

Our Fang-tastic Halloween Festival is back!!
From 26th October until 1st November, join us for great Halloween activities including:
The return of our PUMPKIN PATCH, for children and grown-ups to pick their own pumpkin using our wheelbarrows and carve at our carving station or take home. FREE PUMPKIN for each child entry ticket holder! *

(**Our Pumpkin Patch will also be open as a stand alone feature on the weekend of 19th and 20th October**)

Our Halloween Festival will also include:

A daily SPOOKY TRAIL to follow in our FORBIDDEN FOREST, with prop based sets and riddles galore!

Daily WITCH WENDOLYN’S CRAFT WORKSHOPS indoors for the children, so they can take goodies home.

Matlock’s legendary HEADLESS HORSEMAN will be making appearances during the day, the only time of year he has ever been seen!

There will also be brilliant Live fun (not scary!) Halloween characters to meet on your way through the spooky trail in the Forbidden Forest at set times of the day between 26th-31st October. They’ll be pottering around the park too to meet with our visitors. Get involved with Frankenstein making SLIME for young visitors to get their hands in, make a scarecrow friend for our live fun scarecrow and join in with Witch Wanda who’ll be offering a BROOMSTICK FLYING WORKSHOP!

On the spot PRIZES for best fancy dress!

There will be all the usual animal delights of Matlock Farm Park too, including Sheep Racing, Small Animal Petting, Meerkat Talks, Wallaby Encounters & Ferret Racing, as well as our daily Pony Rides* for children.

Lots of opportunity to play too, including our fabulous covered Enchanted Hamlet multi-zone play area, marvellous indoor playcentre The Rainforest and outdoor Jumping Pillow!

*Pumpkins subject to availability.

Come and see the country’s leading strongmen and mighty strongwomen compete in this hugely popular Peak District and Derbyshire annual event! Enjoy a full and unique day out starting with the athletes’ parade. The super events then follow including The Eight Tonne Tractor Pull, The Peak District Dinnie Stone Challenge, The Tossing of the Caber, The GIANT Stone Throw, The 120kg Log Press and The Stone of Destiny Carry! View it all from our grandstands or rustic straw bales at our lawned arena. There’s the Greater Manchester Piper Band as well as Scottish Dancing to entertain the whole family. Don’t miss the Children’s Tug-O-War joined by the athletes!

There will be lots going on elsewhere in the park too, with market, craft and games stalls, food and drink concessions, including Bradfield Brewery, and wonderful animal activities, including children’s short pony rides, small animal petting and more. There’s great playtime fun for the children, featuring our fantastic Enchanted Hamlet and our Rainforest indoor play barn!

Tickets and more information will be released Spring 2025!

The Big Bubbleman, his bubble mill, wands and special potions make the most AMAZING bubbles! Whether it’s monster bubbles the size of a CAR, the ‘Bubble monster’ or swirling clouds of smaller bubbles being chased by happy children, this is pure joy!

Children also have the opportunity to make their own big bubbles or create smaller multi-coloured bubbles with hoops and trays of bubble liquid.

FREE with farm park entry.

Don’t forget all the other interactive animal and playtime fun of the farm park: small animal petting, sheep racing, wallaby encounters, meerkat talks, tortoise bathing, sheep walking, ferret racing, UK’s largest Jumping Pillow and much more!

Come along and get involved in some fantastic dinosaur fun!

Learn about Rita the great T-Rex and several baby dinosaurs at small outdoor shows throughout the day, see them wander the park to get up close for photos and let the kids join in some dig site fun.

Shows at 10:30; 11:45; 1:15; 2:30 & 3:45.

A ROARING time!

Of course, there’s lots of animal fun in the park too with sheep racing, wallaby encounters, ferret racing, small animal petting, meerkat talks more, plus lots of opportunity for fantastic playtime for the children!

Free with farm park entry!
Park open 10:00-5:00