Visitors explore the immense Christmas display at Pugh’s Garden Centre in Wenvoe, where festive décor, dazzling lights, and the centre’s famously indulgent café dishes draw crowds throughout the season.(Image: John Myers)

Welsh garden centre spends three months transforming into Wales' best Christmas shop where everything is spectacular

30 Nov 2025, 04:32 by Kathryn Williams · Wales Online

Reindeers singing Mariah Carey , handmade cable cars and rows upon rows of gorgeous twinkly Christmas lights.

It's not your regular Christmas attraction like a Winter Wonderland but a Welsh garden centre, or village, which is packed full of photo opportunities for Instagram, beautiful decorations and ideas to take home for Christmas and a cafe that takes its menu as seriously as the rest of the centre takes its pruning advice.

Pugh's Garden Village, which has centres in Wenvoe, Vale of Glamorgan and near Radyr in Cardiff goes all out for the festive season and it shows. Not only in the collections of fairy lights, gift selections and, of course, seasonal blooms and plants, but in the extra mile they go for the whole decorations at the shops and the magical Santa's Grotto, which this year returns to thw Wenvoe site for the first time since pre-Covid.

The Pugh’s creative team start putting together the displays in August and it certainly pays off. With three separate areas, Apres Ski, Country Retreat and The Playroom - this fun and toy focused display features dancing trees, Teddy bears and Santa's workshop and ties in with 2025's Noah’s Ark Charity's Power of Play appeal, raising money for the children's hospital at the University Hospital of Wales, Cardiff.

At Apres Ski you'll find the more stylish, pastel-coloured festive look with the brilliant cable cars made by the in-house team, over in Country Retreat the more classic Christmas looks of dark greens and Burgandy dominate and make you hanker for a cosy Chrimbo.

And of course The Playroom area is full of fun - and those singing reindeer - spare a thought for the staff who hear them day-in-day-out but the kids will love them.

What's lush about Pugh's is that there's so much to take in as you wander around, but it's never overwhelming, there's also a lovely display of winter flowers and plants for the more natural Nadolig look. It's lovely to stop at the dressed doorways for a fun festive picture. Down the tree-lined, star-lit path there's the Santa's Grotto tipee, too, which is best to pre-book and you can do so, here.

I'd not be far off by saying you'd have a decent day out at Pugh's such is the amount of browsing and buying you'd get done - but there's also the restaurants and coffee shops that are buzzing and almost full by 10.30am on a Monday.

Piecing together a menu with local suppliers and produce, the Christmas menu is no different with sausages, burgers and more from Abergvenny butcher's Neil Powell.

Think loaded Christmas fries - smoked bacon, Camambert, gravy, stuffing and crispy onions, Bad Santa Burger - which has two beef patties, braised turkey thigh, braised red cabbage, Americancheese, camembert, sage and onion mayo, chipolatas and red wine jus and then there's the fried chicken juiced up in a buffalo cranberry sauce. It's a Christmas menu, but not as you know it and drastically different from your average garden centre cafe!

Fancy lights with photo-opp displays are found at Pugh's Christmas shop(Image: John Myers)

There's loads to look at(Image: John Myers)

There's a room of Christmas lights(Image: John Myers)

It's the singing reindeers!(Image: John Myers)

Just one Christmas tree in this image, but don't worry there are plenty more(Image: John Myers)

The Playroom display ticks all the boxes for Christmas(Image: John Myers)