Meet Santa at London Zoo

The following sessions are no longer available to book. 

Meet Santa

30 November and 1, 7, 8, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 21, 22, 23 & 24 December

Little ones can take part in Christmas crafts before they meet Santa in his magical grotto at the heart of London Zoo and receive a very special early Christmas gift to take home. Perhaps they’ll even be lucky enough to spot our animals snuffling around next door as well! This experience is £17.50 per child.
 

Meet Santa Priority for Gold members, Fellows and Patrons

23 & 24 November and 19 & 20 December
Gold members, Fellows and Patrons had priority access to these sessions for 1 week only. The sessions included the same experience as standard Meet Santa sessions but were offered at a 10% discount. If you are a Gold member, Fellow or Patron, you were asked to use the email address associated to your membership to ensure you received your priority booking links. 

Meet Santa Priority Relaxed sessions were also available on 24 November and 19 December.
 

Meet Santa Relaxed

30 November and 1, 16, 17 & 18 December
These sessions include the same experience as standard Meet Santa sessions, but with dimmed lighting, quieter sounds and other reduced sensory stimulation to make the area feel more relaxed, specifically designed for those with additional needs. This experience is £17.50 per child.
 

Meet Santa Deluxe

30 November and 1, 7, 8, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23 & 24 December
For only £22.50 more per child*, enjoy a really special treat this year. Little ones will love meeting Mrs Claus and helping to prepare some Christmas dinner for the animals, before the whole group enjoys a sweet treat and a delicious hot** drink each plus a 30-minute Zoo tour. And of course, every child will meet Santa in his grotto and take away a Christmas gift.
 

Meet Santa Deluxe Relaxed

23 & 24 December
These sessions include the same experience as other Meet Santa Deluxe sessions, but with dimmed lighting, quieter sounds and other reduced sensory stimulation to make the area feel more relaxed, specifically designed for those with additional needs.

Meet Santa VIP Breakfast

23, 24 & 30 November and 1, 7, 8, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23 & 24 December

Our elves will sneak you into the Zoo at 8am, before normal opening, for a very special VIP Breakfast with Mrs Claus in our Tiny Giants exhibit. After a delicious continental breakfast, you’ll embark on a special early morning tour whilst the Zoo is waking up before little ones meet Santa in his grotto, taking home a special Christmas gift.
 

*Adults priced separately.
**Cold drink alternative available for our littlest guests.

Please find a list of available dates per Meet Santa session type below. 

Meet Santa
23, 24 & 30 November and 1, 7, 8, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23 & 24 December

Meet Santa Priority - NOW CLOSED
23 & 24 November and 19 & 20 December

Meet Santa Priority Relaxed - NOW CLOSED
24 November and 19 December

Meet Santa Relaxed
30 November and 1, 16, 17 & 18 December

Meet Santa Deluxe
30 November and 1, 7, 8, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22,23 & 24 December

Meet Santa Deluxe Relaxed
23 & 24 December

Meet Santa VIP Breakfast
23, 24 & 30 November and 1, 7, 8, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23 & 24 December

Yes, Gold members, Fellows and Patrons who registered their interest had one week's priority access to book for four special dates at a discounted rate of £15.75: 23 & 24 November and 19 & 20 December.

Registered Gold members, Fellows and Patrons were also the first to know as soon as tickets went live.

These were the available Meet Santa session types for 2024:

• Meet Santa
• Meet Santa Priority
• Meet Santa Priority Relaxed
• Meet Santa Relaxed
• Meet Santa Deluxe
• Meet Santa Deluxe Relaxed
• Meet Santa VIP Breakfast

We appreciate that the Zoo and our events can be quite loud or overwhelming for some visitors. Our Meet Santa Relaxed Sessions offer visitors with additional needs a more comfortable experience. This may mean less lighting, reduced noise, and off-peak times to limit the number of visitors on site.

A 2024 visual story was available for Meet Santa, our Magic of Christmas event and the wider Zoo as a whole. 

Meet Santa tickets were valid for the experience only and did not include Zoo admission. All participants and accompanying adults also needed either a valid ZSL Membership or Zoo admission tickets.

The prices for all different session types for Meet Santa 2024 at London Zoo are listed below: 

• Meet Santa - £17.50 per child
• Meet Santa Priority - £15.75 per child
• Meet Santa Priority Relaxed - £15.75 per child
• Meet Santa Relaxed - £17.50 per child
• Meet Santa Deluxe - £40 per child / £15.00 per adult
• Meet Santa Deluxe Relaxed - £40 per child / £15.00 per adult
• Meet Santa VIP Breakfast - £42.50 per child / £21.50 per adult
   

There was a maximum of three children per booking, but if you wanted to book for more children, you’d just need to make two online bookings. If booked into the same time slot, we did our best to allow the children to enter together; the limit per booking just allowed us to manage the time slots and capacities of the event.

At London Zoo there was no limit on accompanying adults in the grotto. You could include up to two free accompanying adult tickets when you made your Meet Santa booking. If you wanted to have more than two adults attend the grotto session, you just needed to mention this to the team on the day.

For Deluxe sessions and VIP Breakfast, to ensure the maximum number of children could enjoy these special Christmas experiences, the maximum number of adults per booking was two.

If you didn't wish for them to meet Santa or receive a gift (e.g. babes in arms), they did not need a ticket. If you wished for them to participate in the experience in any way, you needed to book them an Under 3s Meet Santa ticket.

The Meet Santa ticket alone did not include Zoo admission.

Members, Fellows and Patrons were granted Zoo entry on arrival simply by showing their membership card. Membership alone only provided access to the Zoo.

All other visitors, including Under 3s and any non-members accompanying members, needed a valid Zoo ticket in addition to any Meet Santa ticket in order to enter the Zoo.

Please note, any child members wanting to see Santa still needed a Meet Santa ticket.

We wanted to make the Christmas experience as magical as possible, and just one or two bits of information helped to make the conversation with Santa more tailored to your child.

Tickets are non-refundable and non-transferable. Tickets were only valid at the Zoo the booking was made for and at the date/time shown on the tickets.

If you had already made a booking and had a query about your booking, we asked visitors to please quote their booking reference in the SEE Tickets Customer Service portal: 
https://zsllondonzoo.seetickets.com/customerservice
 
If you did not already have a booking and your question was not answered in the FAQs, we asked visitors to contact ZSL’s Supporter Contact team by clicking on this link to complete an enquiry form.

London Zoo Meet Santa tickets were released on 1 October from 11am for pre-registered Gold members, Fellows and Patrons and from 11:30am for everyone else who had pre-registered. Meet Santa at London Zoo tickets are now sold out for 2024.

• Meet Santa, Meet Santa Priority, Meet Santa Priority Relaxed and Meet Santa Relaxed sessions lasted approximately 30 minutes.
• Meet Santa Deluxe and Meet Santa Deluxe Relaxed sessions lasted approximately 1 hour and 30 minutes.
• Meet Santa VIP Breakfast lasted approximately 2 hours. 

1. Choose which session type you’d like to book for above and click the relevant booking link.
2. Choose your date and time.
3. Add your ticket types.
   Please note: You can add a maximum of 3 children and 2 adults per booking.
4. If required, you can then add admission tickets for your party. Members, Fellows and Patrons will be granted Zoo entry on arrival simply by showing their membership card, but any non-members will need an admissions ticket alongside their Meet Santa ticket in order to enter the Zoo.
5. Checkout and payment.

The Meet Santa experience took place inside, however there may have been a short wait outside while waiting for your grotto timeslot. Those who had Meet Santa Deluxe, Meet Santa Deluxe Relaxed or Meet Santa VIP Breakfast tickets were also outside for their special tour of the Zoo.

We recommended that you choose the age bracket relevant to the age your child was at the experience. 

Since your Meet Santa session took place before the Zoo opened to general visitors, we asked you to arrive 15 minutes prior to your timeslot at London Zoo’s Fast Track entrance on Outer Circle (near the corner with Regent’s Park Broad Walk, opposite the ZSL Library) where a member of staff let you in. This information was also available on your PDF tickets.

Since your Meet Santa session took place as the Zoo opened to general visitors, we asked you to arrive 15 minutes prior to your timeslot at London Zoo’s Fast Track entrance on Outer Circle (near the corner with Regent’s Park Broad Walk, opposite the ZSL Library) where a member of staff let you in. This information was also available on your PDF tickets.

Meet Santa was fully accessible and there were also accessible benches available for the crafts.

If that person was accompanying purely to assist in a carer capacity they did not need a separate ticket. However, if they intend to actively take part in the experience in their own right, alongside the person they care for, then they needed to buy an experience ticket.

We directed visitors to see our general admission terms and conditions for more information on Zoo entry with a free carer ticket.

Once a session time sold out, unfortunately we weren't able to release any more tickets for that session. On rare occasions we may have been able to add extra dates and if we did so, these were available on the same booking links. We asked visitors to please check this webpage for any updates.

Santa also made pop-up appearances around London Zoo during our Christmas event so there was a chance little ones could still see Santa from a distance. However, this did not include any of the grotto experience, in-person meet and greet, crafts or present, and was at unscheduled times throughout the day so couldn't be guaranteed.

Confirmation emails could take a little while to come through so we asked visitors to be patient and check Junk or Spam folders. If there was still nothing, you could access your booking details and download your tickets using your booking number and email address through the SEE Tickets customer support centre.

London Zoo celebrated the Magic of Christmas from 23 November 2024 to 5 January 2025. We had everything you needed for a jam-packed family day out, like festive crafts, our giant animal advent calendar, Christmas-themed animal talks, Pop-up Santa, seasonal food and drink*, and even the chance to write your letter to Santa! Find out more here. 

*additional charges applied.

Yes, all children who had a ticket booked to Meet Santa, across all session types, received a gift. 

Babes in arms and other children under 3 who did not have a ticket did not receive a gift. If you wished for your under 3 child to meet Santa and receive a gift, you needed to book them a 'Child Under 3 with Gift' ticket.