For the first time ever I made it there myself, there being a special seniors' charity day after the main event. Rather an impressive affair which must have been quite something when full of happy & excited children. The illustration, which does not do the place justice, is of one of the dozen or so chambers, each chamber being themed with 'Alice in Wonderland', 'Wind in the Willows' or some such.
The staff explained that while the display is different each year, most of the materials are recycled - which implies packing it up and having somewhere to store it all until next year. All in all a substantial operation, the account books of which would make an interesting read. The garden centre is still a family operation so it is possible that they do it largely for fun, for charity and for the community, rather than for narrowly commercial reasons. But they do charge children to get in and to get to see Santa and I dare say the parents spend a bit on all the Christmas fayre laid out in the vicinity. There is also a large café which does a large range of cake - and which I have heard is an important division of the centre as a whole with the executive chef getting to sit on the main board (see http://www.chefsworld.net/ for definition).
Most of the fayre was still there today, half price. Again, the cost of packing and storing such stuff must be considerable so sale at a discount is going to attract. But all the unsold Christmas trees had gone, presumably to some eco-friendly composting facility. Maybe their own? Maybe defaulting staff get to do it by hand to work off their hang-overs. And then a garden centre is clearly just the place to sell the compost.
PS: the only alien element was penguins. Santa is generally believed to live in or near the Arctic where there are no penguins, global warming notwithstanding.
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