Families in Oxfordshire are demanding refunds after finding out excursions to a mock Lapland Christmas park were more Blunderland than Wonderland.

Parents paid up to £30 per head for tickets to Lapland New Forest — billed as a Christmas village where “dreams really do come true”.

Buttonight they were thwarted as they tried to cancel their bookings following reports the Dorset attraction was a disappointing “zero out of 10 experience”.

Cindy Cox, from Fairhaven Road, Caversfield, near Bicester, visited the site with her 12-year-old daughter Rebecca on Friday, and said: “It’s rubbish.

“I was extremely disappointed — it was a total misrepresentation on the website.”

A father-of-one from Blackbird Leys, Oxford, said: “It just looked like a gipsy yard.

“It definitely wasn’t worth the money.”

Advertisements for Lapland New Forest, at Matchams Leisure Park near Ringwood in Dorset, appeared in the Oxford Mail in October.

The adverts claimed the snow-covered attraction included a magical tunnel of light, log cabins, a Christmas market and an outdoor skating rink.

But Mrs Cox said the ice rink was closed, the tunnel was a tree lined sidewalk, the log cabins were garden sheds and the Christmas market was made up of four stalls.

Mother-of-one Joanna Afifi, 27, from Green Hill, Greater Leys, tried to ring Lapland New Forest to get a refund for 11 tickets after reading bad reviews on the Facebook website, but could not contact the company.

She said: “What are we going to tell the kids? I feel ripped off.”

A spokesman for Dorset County Council Trading Standards said: “We have been inundated with over 50 complaints about Lapland New Forest and we are currently investigating.”

Vikki Crawford, of Blay Close, Blackbird Leys, who was planning a trip, said: “I am gutted. We are all single mums so it was an effort to get the money together.”

Dale Harris, of Normandy Crescent, Cowley, booked tickets for his girlfriend Leah Goodson, son Haydon, four, and daughter Mya, six, who has spina bifida.

He could not get through to the organisers by phone and did not receive any replies to his emails when he tried to get a refund.

Mr Harris said: “My little girl has had a rough time of it every year of her life so far. I am not going to be putting her through that.”

Nobody at Lapland New Forest was available for comment yesterday.

An advertised mobile phone was switched off all day and the website laplandnewforest.co.uk, was also down.

The attraction opened on November 28 and is due to end on Christmas Eve.

ghamilton@oxfordmail.co.uk