LaplandUK releases tickets for new North West site
Lapland UKA "fully immersive" Christmas event will head to the North West for the first time this festive season with tickets on sale later.
LaplandUK has run the immersive event which it says "puts families at the very heart of the action" at Swinley Forest, Ascot, since 2007.
A second site will be opened this year at Capesthorne Hall near Macclesfield which is being called LaplandUK Manchester.
"We have a customer base the length of the country, it's taken us a while to work up to this. It's not a reinvention, it's a progression of the last 18 years," the creators said.
When are tickets released and how much will they cost?
Tickets to both events will go on sale later.
The event will run from 8 November to 24 December 2025, with tickets ranging from £60 to £195, with more premium prices for weekends, and those closer to Christmas Eve.
In total, 350,000 tickets will be available. From 10am BST, guests will be able to enter the virtual waiting room via LaplandUK's own ticketing platform.
Each guest will then select which show they wish to attend. At midday, each guest will be allocated a random place in the queue for the show they have selected.
Once they reach position one, they will have the opportunity to select their preferred date and number of tickets.
Lapland UKWhat is included in the ticket price?
LaplandUK is the brainchild of Alison and Mike Battle. The married couple said they gave up their jobs to create the experience after struggling to find an immersive Christmas event for their four sons when they were younger.
"I was very passionate about what I call 'the wonder years' of childhood which I consider to be a time of imagination before it's replaced with information," former primary school teacher Alison said.
"I could do lots of lovely things with our boys but the problem happened when we stepped out of the home. I didn't feel that we could find anywhere that matched this feeling of belief."
The couple said the four hour experience "completely immerses" families in the belief of Father Christmas.
Children receive and invitation to Lapland from Father Christmas requesting their help in his toyshop. During the visit they make toys in the factory with the elves and bake gingerbread with Mother Christmas.
They can also go ice skating and write their letters to Father Christmas. The journey continues until they meet Father Christmas where every child receives a toy.
Why was Cheshire chosen?
Cheshire East Council approved the proposal for LaplandUK Manchester in January.
Marketing Cheshire said the economic impact for the area would be "enormous" and it was a "fantastic opportunity to put Cheshire in the shop window".
Concerns were raised by one councillor about the impact on the green belt, but members voted to approve the scheme as they felt the financial benefits would outweigh the harm.
Mike and Alison said they "sought far and wide" to find the right location for Lapland Manchester.
They said although the event was based in Cheshire, they decided to name it after Manchester as it was a global name that national and international visitors would recognise.
"Cheshire is very beautiful, we've viewed many many properties and met with many landlords and this one just felt right," Alison said.
Mike said they spent 18 years perfecting the event and the North West site would have same story, narrative, characters and experience as the Ascot experience.
"We bring the power and creative power of the film set world to us to bring that to life," he said.
"Everything is largely the same, we've used the same design team. It's the integrity of what we do, the story that we tell, that is paramount to us."
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