St Nicholas Centre's grotto is £8 a child from 27 November and Dobbies Woodcote Green's is £15 to £17 from 21 November. Plus the 5 and 6 December fairs.

Two Sutton grottos are now on sale. The St Nicholas Centre in Sutton town centre opens its grotto on Friday 27 November at £8 a child, adults free, and Dobbies Woodcote Green in Wallington runs its North Pole village grotto from Saturday 21 November at £15 to £17 a ticket. Both run to Christmas Eve and both are booked ahead.

Two one-day grottos have dates but no bookings yet: the Carshalton Frost Fair grotto on Saturday 5 December and Sutton Mencap’s Santa’s Grotto and Christmas Fair in Wallington on Sunday 6 December.

Updated 23 October: St Nicholas Centre and Dobbies Woodcote Green have both opened grotto bookings, with prices, and St Nics has dated Santa’s arrival parade for Saturday 28 November.

St Nicholas Centre, Sutton: from Friday 27 November

The shopping centre says Santa “has a new home at the centre” this year, a North Pole grotto with a sleigh to climb aboard and his reindeer. Santa’s welcome is on Saturday 28 November: from 11am he makes his way from Level 2 down to the new grotto on Level 1, with an elf brass band, elf acro-jugglers and “a magical elf”, and the grotto opens at noon that day. Entertainers are on through the day (St Nicholas Centre, Book for Santa’s Grotto).

  • £8 a child, adults go free. Up to four children per booking; tickets are non-refundable but can be moved to another slot if there is space
  • Dates: the booking calendar opens 27, 28 and 29 November, then every day from 3 to 24 December
  • Quiet sessions for children who find the centre too busy: the booking site gives the first 30 minutes of Sunday 29 November, 6 December and 13 December, shown in gold; the centre’s own page names only 6 and 13 December
  • Booking is through the operator, Great Grottos (Book Father Christmas, St Nicholas)

The two pages disagree about where the grotto is. The centre puts it opposite Caffe Kiko on Level 1; the booking site says “the centre of the mall, on the Ground Floor”. The centre runs the building, so go by Level 1 and ask a member of staff if it is not there.

Dobbies Woodcote Green, Wallington: from Saturday 21 November

Dobbies’ garden centre at 4a Woodmansterne Lane, Wallington SM6 0SU has put its 2026 grotto on sale. Its listing gives 21 November to 24 December and tickets from £15 to £17, with the caveat that “not all stores offer an experience on all dates”; on 23 October the Woodcote Green calendar was showing slots from Sunday 22 November (Dobbies Woodcote Green, Santa’s Grotto 2026).

  • Children make a wish at a wishing well, go through a “magic door” into a North Pole village with activity “shops” and a Penguin Post Office, then meet Santa
  • Every ticketed child gets a penguin soft toy in a presentation bag
  • No more than two adults per group, because of space. Arrive at your booked time and no more than five minutes early: you will not be let in before it
  • The grotto “may be located outside”, so dress for it. Printed photos are extra, 20% off if pre-booked

The same store lists a Santa’s Quiet Grotto for children with additional needs, a Santa’s Breakfast and Santa Paws for dogs, and a Christmas Shopping Night on Thursday 26 November, 5pm to 8pm (Dobbies Woodcote Green, events).

Timeline of Santa events in Sutton borough in December 2026: the Cheam and Sutton Rotary sleigh starts on 1 December and runs to Christmas Eve, the Carshalton Frost Fair grotto is on Saturday 5 December at Honeywood Walk, and Sutton Mencap's Christmas fair is on Sunday 6 December at Stanley Park Road in Wallington.

Saturday 5 December: the Frost Fair grotto, Carshalton

The grotto at the Carshalton Frost Fair is run by the Friends of Honeywood Museum, and the fair itself is run by the Carshalton charity EcoLocal. EcoLocal has confirmed the 2026 fair for Saturday 5 December on its own event page and its homepage, after taking 2025 off entirely (EcoLocal, Carshalton Frost Fair 2026).

The grotto detail on that page is still the 2024 version, and EcoLocal says so. At the 2024 fair:

  • Tickets were sold from a booth outside Honeywood Museum, which opened at 12 noon, an hour before the fair itself
  • £3 a child, with the accompanying adult free
  • The fair ran 1pm to 6pm around Carshalton Ponds, Honeywood Walk, Festival Walk and the Memorial Gardens, with free entry

Treat the noon booth opening as the thing to plan around rather than the price. A grotto selling in person on the day, at a fair EcoLocal puts at around 3,000 people, is the sort of thing that runs out mid-afternoon. Our Carshalton Frost Fair page has the rest of the 2024 running order and what has and has not been confirmed for this year.

Sunday 6 December: Sutton Mencap, Wallington

Sutton Mencap has published its Santa’s Grotto and Christmas Fair for Sunday 6 December at 8 Stanley Park Road, Wallington, SM6 0EU, with free entry (Sutton Mencap, Santa’s Grotto and Christmas Fair). Alongside the grotto the charity lists face painting, stalls, crafts, refreshments and a raffle.

The listing carries no time and no grotto price. Sutton Mencap’s own note is that “more details and Grotto bookings coming soon”, so the grotto is bookable rather than walk-up, and the booking has not opened. Stanley Park Road is the charity’s registered office and its day-service base, a short walk from Wallington station.

The sleigh, 1 December to Christmas Eve

The one that comes to you. The Cheam and Sutton Rotary Club’s Santa Sleigh begins its annual fundraising tour on 1 December and, in the club’s own words, “is out nearly every night up to and including Christmas Eve”, visiting streets in Cheam, Sutton and Worcester Park (Cheam and Sutton Rotary, Santa’s Sleigh).

Routes are not published in advance. The club says they go out towards the end of November, on Santa’s own Facebook and Twitter pages and on the Cheam and Sutton Rotary Facebook page. It is free to come out and see, and the volunteers collect for local charities as they go. If you are in Carshalton or Wallington, note that the eastern half of the borough is not on the route.

What is still to be announced

  • Frost Fair grotto times and price for 2026. EcoLocal has historically updated its page in the weeks before the fair. Expect November.
  • Sutton Mencap’s grotto booking and the fair’s opening time. The charity says these are coming; no date given.
  • The Rotary sleigh’s routes. End of November, on the club’s social media.
  • The town centre switch-on. In 2025 the Sutton Business Improvement District ran a three-day festive weekend on the High Street with a Santa from Sutton and Cheam Rotary. Nothing has been published for 2026: see our Sutton Christmas lights switch-on page for the evidence and the history.

Getting there

The St Nicholas Centre is in Sutton town centre, a short walk from Sutton station. The Frost Fair and Mencap dates are at the Carshalton and Wallington end of the borough, and both are easier by train than by car. Honeywood Walk is five minutes from Carshalton station; Stanley Park Road is a walk from Wallington station.

If you do drive to the Frost Fair, the two closest council car parks to Honeywood are Carshalton High Street SM5 3AP and The Square SM5 3BN, and both fill early on fair day. Our parking in Sutton page has the tariffs and free periods car park by car park, and Sutton roadworks and travel carries anything dug up on the approach roads.

The other December fixture worth booking early is the pantomime: see Sutton pantomime for what is on at CryerArts and the dated runs at Epsom and New Wimbledon.