Coronavirus: What will Covid-19 mean for Christmas events?

Tickets for the Santa experience at Pugh's garden centres sometimes sell out in September

It may only be July but some annual Christmas events have already been cancelled in Wales.

Pugh's, which has garden centres in Radyr in Cardiff and Wenvoe in Vale of Glamorgan, has announced its annual Santa experience will not go ahead.

It said it would "be irresponsible for us to run our experience given the current pandemic situation".

Caerphilly Town Council has said there will be no switch-on of festive lights or lantern parade this year.

Posting on Facebook, Pugh's explained: "We feel that offering something small just for the sake of it would firstly not do justice to the experience that we have worked so hard to build upon and secondly not fulfil the demand for the number of people who would want to visit us, so this year we have decided to take a break for everyone's safety...

"We really hope you understand our decision as it was very difficult to know what to do for the best and this was a really tough call to make."

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Caerphilly's mayor Mike Prew said the town council made the decision to cancel all remaining events for the year - which includes the annual fireworks display at Caerphilly Castle for Bonfire Night and the Christmas lantern parade - because they would have had to start organising the fireworks event soon.

He said: "When you organise an event as big as that, we would have had to start organising it this week.

"We'd have the outlay of the fireworks, all the safety issues, the road closures. It's only 12 weeks away. People travel from all over the UK to see our fireworks display."

Former Wales international Gareth Thomas took part in 2018's Cowbridge Reindeer Parade

Organisers of Cowbridge Reindeer Parade in Vale of Glamorgan are yet to decide if the event will go ahead this year.

Alun John, president of the town's chamber of trade, which organises the event, said they would usually start planning it at this time of year.

"It's a difficult one - we don't know what we're going to do yet," he said.

"Do we cancel it and go bigger and better next year? We don't know.

"It's been a strange year and we want to do something to cheer everyone up, but also balance that with the risk of causing further problems and mass gatherings.

"We're still in discussions about it."

Panto postponed

Meanwhile, Theatr Clwyd in Mold, Flintshire, said it would be postponing its pantomime, Beauty and the Beast, which had been due to run from 20 November to 16 January.

"The size and costs of producing and running a large-scale show like our panto mean that any symptoms or illness in the company and the subsequent 14 days of isolation for the team could put the theatre in real financial jeopardy," it said in a statement.

"We know that this is a huge disappointment for all of us but rock 'n' roll panto will return."

'Different' kind of Christmas

In Rhyl, Denbighshire, Jacksons Boutique Garden Centre has decided to scale back its Christmas events.

Tea with Santa is off this year at Jacksons Boutique Garden Centre

Its director Robert Kingham said: "In short, Christmas will be quite a lot different - commercially that is - than usual."

He said as they have already started receiving Christmas stock they took a look at what options they have for this year's Christmas programme.

"Sadly we feel that tea with Santa will not happen this year," he said.

He said instead they were planning ticketed, evening Christmas shopping events with canapés and fizz for very limited numbers "so that more nervous customer will be able to enjoy a more spacious shopping experience".