This year sees more garden centres opening their Grottos for Santa Paws events, particularly on weekdays and Pet Trade Xtra's Trevor and Karen Pfeiffer took their Doodles to see Santa at Frosts Woburn Sands to test the experience.
 
And we can report it was all that Trevor and Karen and their pets expected... and more. 

At Frosts they got a full on 'doggy' version of their grotto experience and the welcoming, friendly and patient elves made it all the more enjoyable. 

The experience included: meeting the yeti; a gift of a Petface pudding; finding biscuits and making a bag full to take away; a photo with Santa him and a reindeer toy as a present for each doodle.
 
From a retailing point of view it was great to see pet products merchandised at the photo checkout. 

"We don't normally have product here when children come through the grotto but pet owners love the opportunity to pick up an extra gift item for their pet," explained the head Elf.

Other Santa Paws grotto events have taken place at:

• Frosts Millets Farm
• Frosts Woburn Sands
• Garden King, Swadlincote
• Gordon Rigg, Rochdale
• Groves, Bridport
• Kershaw’s, Brighouse
• Notcutts Wheatcroft
• Planters Tamworth
• Squire’s Badshot Lea
• Squire’s Long Ditton
• Squire’s Stanmore
• Squire’s Washington
• Squire’s West Horsley