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It was more grotty than grotto for families excited about Bangor’s Winter Wonderland event at the plush Clandeboye estate.

Dubbed by the organiser as "Northern Ireland’s premium Christmas event for Northern Ireland 2017", it promised a Santa with a real beard, a personalised experience for the kids, craft stalls, an ice rink and even a Christmas cinema.

But today it has been nicknamed WinterBlunderland and has shut up shop, with refunds being demanded by disappointed customers, one of whom said: “Craggy Island fun fair was more convincing.”

Mum-of-four Gemma Kingham, 36, from Moneyreagh, Co Down, travelled with 11 family members to the venue in the courtyard of the Clandeboye Estate which is regularly used for large functions.

The student nurse, said: “It was meant to be a winter wonderland but it was definitely more winter blunderland for us.

“My husband Lee and I took our children Watson, who is 10, Matthew, eight, Reuben, seven and three-year-old Beatrice.

“We also had my sister Gillian Kelly and her husband Eric, and their children, Darcy, who is eight and their five-year-old son Oliver. And my mum and dad Ireland and Bobby Watson were with us too.

“So we travelled in a three car convoy, all of us very excited about this magical day we were expecting. We have done this every year for the past 10 years and the anticipation in our house is a brilliant start to Christmas. Normally we go to Glenarm but it got booked out so fast this year, I missed it.

“I had booked the Bangor event in July and paid £147.50 and on Friday night all the kids were excited about meeting Santa the following day.

“There was to be an ice rink, Santa in his grotto with his real beard, presents, a rodeo and a bouncy castle.

“But the whole thing was a joke. The ice rink was the big attraction for our kids as we arrived but it was chaos with no staff on hand and what appeared to be a bleach-type substance on the synthetic tiles which made it slippy.

“The Santa experience was a total disaster and my son asked me why Santa had an elastic band on his beard. While he was looking at that I was astounded to see we were actually not in a cute grotto but in a grubby room with a kitchenette with rubbish and coffee cups strewn around, and decorations hanging off the walls.

“When I booked I’d been asked to fill out a form for a personal exclusive Santa experience for the kids and I had to give their names, ages, gender and what they wanted for Christmas.

“I assumed the events people were really organised but my hopes started to dip when we were queuing in the cold for half an hour because Santa was running behind time.

“And as we stood there shivering, we watched a series of children coming out of Santa’s grotto in tears. One 10-year-old girl started crying when she opened her present and found it was a paper glider.

“The place was grubby, disorganised and chaotic and it didn’t match any of our expectations. Our kids then started asking all the awkward questions and we couldn’t really answer them.

“But luckily our elf on the shelf left us a note this morning and explained that Santa had been a bit unwell and had to send a helper so that’s why the Santa they saw had a false beard.

“I met the event organiser Emma McKnight and confronted her about the situation, but I felt her response was totally unacceptable. The whole thing was a shambles and we want our money back to try to get to see a proper Santa.”

Winter NI, a company run by Mrs McKnight, posted a series of apologies on Facebook.

Initially they urged visitors to give them an other chance but later announced the event would be closed from Monday, a week ahead of schedule.

And their statements about refunds has left customers with conflicting information, first saying all tickets would be refunded and later stipulating only tickets for December 18 - 23 would be refunded.

Emma McKnight said: “Winter NI would like to apologise for the Bangor Winter Wonderland event which has fallen way short of our expectations.

“For this reason it has been decided to cancel the event from tomorrow morning, Monday 18th December. For anyone already on their way today we are remaining open until 8pm.

“Whilst we understand that this will be greatly disappointing to many we feel we can not recover from the negative publicity and it is clear that we have hosted an event which has not met the high standards we had aimed to deliver.

“All ticket holders for the period 18 - 23rd December will be given a full refund and should not travel to the event. “Refunds will be processed automatically over the next 28 days, but should anyone wish to get in touch sooner then please email winterwonderlandni@gmail.com including your order number.

“Once again, on behalf of all involved we sincerely apologise for the inconvenience and disappointment caused.”

An other statement said: “We know some of your are angry, and we understand this and trying our best to get things sorted, but please direct it at Winter Wonderland NI and not the staff members who worked at it.

“For this reason it has been decided to cancel the event from Monday 18th December. For anyone already on their way today we are remaining open until 8pm.

“Whilst we understand that this will be greatly disappointing to many we feel we can not recover from the negative publicity and it is clear that we have hosted an event which has not met the high standards we had aimed to deliver.”

The Clandeboye Estate, which has been dealing with challenging times over the a road closure because of a damaged bridge on the estate land, left the blame squarely with the events company.

They posted what they described as an “important announcement” on Facebook, saying: “Winter Wonderland was an external event managed by Winterwonderland NI. The Clandeboye Estate has leased the venue for the week and were not involved in the delivery.

“We are extremely disappointed that the event has not lived up to our expectations and our usual high standards that visitors expect at our beautiful estate.

“A decision has been made to close the event from Monday 18th December. Winter Wonderland NI will be issuing refunds. Visit www.winterwonderlandni.com or email winterwonderlandni@gmail.com.

“We can only apologise on behalf of the Estate for the disappointment that families have experienced.”