Dobbies Little Scare-lings Halloween afternoon tea

Dobbies garden centres offer a regular ‘little seedlings’ gardening club for kids and for Halloween this was transformed into ‘Little Scare-lings’- a themed afternoon tea and activities.

One section of the restaurant was dedicated to the event, with decorations and tables laid out with orange tablecloths and matching plastic crockery.

For £10.99 my daughter got a drink (a choice of bottled juice or a Capri-Sun) and a cake stand with a ham sandwich and a jam sandwich (cut into coffin shapes), a scone with cream cheese, grapes, cucumber and carrot sticks, a slice of chocolate Swiss roll, an iced jam doughnut and a sticky chocolate ball that reminded me of a cake pop.

The adult price of £7.40 got me a large slice of a very nice chocolate Swiss roll with orange and black icing and a choice of either a cup of tea or an Americano. So I think my daughter’s selection was good value for money especially considering there were games and an activity as well, while mine seemed a little on the steep side for a cup of tea and slice of cake (even though it was very good cake!).

After we had eaten the children were invited to decorate a pumpkin. Long tables had been laid out with miniature munchkin pumpkins, pens, crayons, glue, stickers, pipe cleaners, feathers, and best of all, glitter. My six year old enjoyed decorating her pumpkin and also the colouring and activity sheet that she could take home.

Then it was time for games led by a man dressed as a scarecrow. They played musical statues, Simon says (changed to the Dobbies monster says) and a game involving making their best monster noises. Sophie won the musical statues and her prize was… a jam doughnut, the same type we’d had as part of her afternoon tea (which ironically she hadn’t liked – so we took it home for daddy!).

Finally there was time for a quick selfie with either the scarecrow or a large (friendly) monster figure, then we had a quick wander around the garden centre (which already had its Christmas decorations and gifts on sale as well as a separate pumpkin patch area) before heading home.

The whole session was less than an hour and a half long but it was a good amount of time to stop kids getting bored (this is the first time my daughter has really sat and eaten more than a few bites of an afternoon tea) and the pumpkin decorating was a nice touch – and it was a good excuse to get dressed up in a Halloween costume!