Santa's grotto to open soon and prepares for special needs days

Santa is again throwing open the doors to his grotto as part of this year’s Christmas festivities in Burnley town centre, including two dates reserved just for children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND).

Youngsters will be able to share their Christmas present wish lists and receive a gift from Santa every weekend starting on Saturday, 16^th November, up until Christmas Eve.

Following the success of last year’s SEND experience, there will be two dates this year - on Saturday, 23rd November, and Monday, 23rd December, when smaller crowds and a quieter, calmer atmosphere are anticipated.

In preparation for those days, the grotto team will be trained in Makaton, or key word signing, to make sure their visitors get the most out of the experience.

Makaton is a simple and easy way of communicating using signs, symbols and speech used by more than 100,000 children and adults in the UK. There will be a British Sign Language translator on hand too.

This is the third Christmas for the Burnley Leisure and Culture (BLC), and Charter Walk partnership and to keep tickets prices as low as possible, the grotto is being sponsored by Charter Walk, Burnley Pantomime Society, Northwest Payments, HUG Burnley, Burnley Rotary Club, Burnley Council and The Small Sign Company.

Andrea Pollard, BLC’s Events and Partnerships Manager, says: “This year’s grotto has a new festive express train theme, offering a 20-minute experience with fun for all the family.

“Santa and his helpers can’t wait to welcome children from all over to their grotto again this year.

“But they wanted the immersive SEND experience to be as inclusive as possible, so they’ve been working hard to make sure the special needs grotto dates are just that – special in every way!”

The grotto’s opening is timed to coincide with Burnley’s Christmas lights switch on. Festivities will get underway at 12 noon and culminate in a lantern parade around the town centre with Santa and his elves at 4.15pm, leading up to a countdown and lights switch-on at 5.15pm.

Before then, visitors will be able to be able to play free crazy golf on Curzon Street and the Burnley Alliance Silver Band will be filling the air with festive classics.

The day will also feature a festive trail with prizes, face painting, Lilo and Stitch mascot, a fun fair and a live stage where there will be music, performing art dance schools, students from Burnley College of Performing Arts, an interactive elf show, and Burnley Panto Society presenting Peter Pan.

For details of how to book a visit to the grotto, including a link to the special needs day, visit the BLC website here.