The festive celebration, on land the organisers had rented at Bury St Edmunds Rugby Football Club, advertised ice skating, a Santa’s Grotto, face painting and a Christmas workshop.

Tribute acts, meet and greets with fictional characters and a Christmas cinema were also promised.

Dan Prescott, who went with his dad, wife and two children at a cost of £24, said the attractions did not live up to expectations.

He said: “My five-year-old really wanted to do ice skating but it was a plastic rink, which looked miserable and even she knew it was rubbish.

“Nobody knew what was going on if I am honest, and people didn’t know whether to laugh or not because it was just terrible.

“We thought there would be lights, snow and Christmas stuff, but it was really poorly put together and not Christmassy at all and did not give off Christmas cheer.

“It was nothing like we expected or what we’d been sold. It reminded me of that Willy Wonka experience.

“It was the Wonka experience of Bury.”