After inheriting the sleigh from the previous organisers, Batchworth Sea Scouts in collaboration with other local scout groups, organise a series of routes around the Rickmansworth, Croxley and Chorleywood area across weeknight evenings in December. Rudolf’s Sleigh is accompanied by a team of Elves that encourage people out to see Father Christmas, and to invite donations towards the charities we support.
In 2022, we continued our support for New Hope, a Watford based charity helping those who find themselves without a home and who need support at this time of year more than any other. 50% of all the donations collected during the Santa Sleigh rides were passed directly onto New Hope.
The remaining profit is split across the Scout Groups that run the sleigh rides, ensuring that the local community can access active adventures at a young age. Everyone involved in the sleigh rides is a volunteer – most are either scout leaders, parents of scouts or scouts themselves (aged 16 and over, due to licensing restrictions).
Santa Sleigh Routes
In 2022, the Sleigh covered 10 routes around Croxley Green, Chorleywood, Rickmansworth and Mill End. We will publish the programme for 2023 on this page in the Autumn.
All routes aim to depart at 5.45pm and will finish by 8pm.
Seeing and hearing Father Christmas pass along your road can be a magical experience for our young residents and we try to choose routes that cover popular roads. However, we have only 10 nights a year when we can run the sleigh due to the restrictions on our charity collection licence, and each night requires over 10 volunteers to be successful.
We appreciate the frustrations if we can’t pass along your route; but please do come and find Santa whilst he is out and about! Keep an eye on local Facebook groups for live posts about his travels
For any queries regarding the Santa Sleigh, please contact santa@batchworth.org.