The Royal Pavilion grotto is on sale: 4 to 24 December, £21 a child. Out of town, Bluebell Santa Specials run from 28 Nov and Drusillas from 21 Nov.

The Royal Pavilion grotto is now on sale for 2026: Father Christmas is in the Adelaide Suite from Friday 4 December to Christmas Eve, £21 per child. Churchill Square has still published nothing, and the two big bookable Santa events out of town, the Bluebell Railway and Drusillas, are selling.

Updated 9 October: Brighton & Hove Museums has published Father Christmas and Storytime at the Royal Pavilion, with dates and prices.

Everything below was checked against the organisers’ own websites and booking pages.

Confirmed and on sale: Bluebell Railway Santa Specials

Sheffield Park station, from Saturday 28 November. The Bluebell Railway’s Santa Specials are the biggest Santa event within easy reach of Brighton, and the 2026 dates are published and bookable.

The dates: 28 and 29 November, then 5, 6, 12, 13, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23 and 24 December.

The times: four departures a day, at 10.00am and 11.05am in the morning and 1.00pm and 2.05pm in the afternoon.

Prices: adult from £35, child from £10. The whole thing takes around two hours.

What you get, in the railway’s own description: a steam-hauled run from Sheffield Park to Horsted Keynes in a compartment or a reserved seat in an open carriage, an activity pack for each child at their seat, a Christmas fair at Horsted Keynes with fairground rides and family attractions included in the ticket price, and a collectible toy handed over by Santa himself.

Three practical warnings, all from the railway:

  • No dogs, other than registered support dogs. The railway calls the event unsafe for pets
  • No buggies or prams on board, because of the platform and compartment space. You can leave one at Sheffield Park and collect it on the way back
  • The train will not wait. Miss it and there is no refund and no rescheduling. Much of the Horsted Keynes fair is outdoors, so dress for it

The trap: SteamLights is not a Santa event this year

This is the thing most likely to catch people out. The Bluebell also runs SteamLights, an illuminated evening train, on dates through November and December, and in past years it has been read as a second Santa option.

Not in 2026. The railway says so in bold on its own SteamLights page: the theme this year is “Somewhere over the Rainbow”, the host is Linda the Good Witch rather than Father Christmas, and “this year, Santa will NOT be making an appearance at Steamlights”. The railway goes further and describes it as “NOT a traditionally festive event”, telling anyone who wants something festive to book the Santa Specials instead.

SteamLights runs from 21 November, with dates including 21, 22, 25, 26, 27 and 28 November and further dates into December. Tickets from £35, again from Sheffield Park, around two hours. One access note the railway flags: flashing lights are used in one of the displays, which may not suit anyone with epilepsy or light sensitivity.

Confirmed and on sale: Drusillas Park

Alfriston, from Saturday 21 November to Wednesday 23 December. Drusillas has published its 2026 Christmas season and the Santa Experience is bookable.

The pattern is weekends only from 21 November to 13 December, then daily from 14 to 23 December.

The Santa Experience is £19.50 per person and includes a one-to-one with Santa, a photo opportunity and a gift. The catch, and Drusillas states it plainly, is that this is an add-on and not a standalone ticket: you need a day ticket or valid membership to get into the park at all, on top of the £19.50. Included with normal day admission, without paying the Santa supplement, are a 24 foot Christmas tree in the Events Arena, singing reindeer and festive photo spots.

Drusillas is about a 40 minute drive east of Brighton and advises booking the Santa Experience online in advance.

On sale: the Royal Pavilion, from 4 December

The Royal Pavilion is the grotto most Brighton families actually want, and Brighton & Hove Museums has now put it on sale.

Father Christmas at the Royal Pavilion runs on Friday 4 to Sunday 6 December, Friday 11 to Sunday 13 December, then every day from 18 to 24 December, in the Adelaide Suite upstairs, with time slots from 10am.

  • £21 for one child, £42 for two, £63 for three; adults £7. The ticket includes Pavilion entry and the winter exhibition, A Fairytale of Frost and Fire.
  • A private five-minute visit for the family, a gift for every child, and a professional photo available to buy on site.
  • The museum says to allow 15 to 20 minutes to walk through the palace to the suite, and that a missed slot means no visit. Buggies are parked on the ground floor.

Storytime with Father Christmas is the cheaper group option: a 45-minute story in the Red Drawing Room on 5, 6, 12 and 13 December, then daily 19 to 24 December, from 10.15am. £10 per child, £8 per adult, recommended for ages 2 to 8.

The run is shorter than last year’s, which opened on 29 November: there is no Pavilion Father Christmas on the weekend of 28 and 29 November. More on the Pavilion’s whole festive programme is on our Royal Pavilion Christmas page.

Not announced: Churchill Square

The shopping centre’s grotto is the free option in the city centre, and its events feed carries nothing festive for 2026. The most recent Christmas entries on it are from last year: The Gonks’ Christmas Playground, 5 to 24 December 2025, and the centre’s Giving Tree, 20 November to 24 December 2025.

What we would do

Book the Bluebell now if you want a specific weekend date, because the December Saturdays are the ones that go first and the railway only runs twelve Santa days all season. Book Drusillas if you want a shorter, cheaper trip with a guaranteed one-to-one. For the Royal Pavilion, the December weekend slots are the ones to book first. Churchill Square has historically gone live later in the autumn.

Getting to any of them without a car: the Bluebell’s Santa Specials all leave from Sheffield Park, and the railway is explicit that you cannot start the journey from East Grinstead, which is the end with the mainline connection. Plan the drive. Drusillas is just off the A27 at Alfriston. If you do drive into town for a city centre grotto later in the season, our Brighton parking guide has the December reality, and the roadworks and travel page is worth a check first.

Expected next: Churchill Square’s Christmas programme. This page will be updated when it is published.