Newsletter Winter 2025:
MERRY CHRISTMAS
Christmas 2025 Newsletter
It’s that time of year again! With 2025 drawing to a close and 2026 just around the corner, we find ourselves looking back once more at the past year. If you have stayed with us before, I’m sure you know the drill by now but, if you were one of our many first-time visitors this year, we want to take this opportunity to thank you for staying, shopping, and summering with us and we welcome you to remember 2025 with us.
What would a Norden Newsletter be without a mention on the weather. From scorching heat to near flooding, we have seen it all this season. Never did we think we would see such upset over beautiful sunny skies but hand in hand with the gorgeous weather came a fire and fishing ban. Many of you missed out on your peaceful pond fishing, or cozy campfires at the end of a long summer’s day, perks that we know you love about camping at Norden. We are so grateful for how understanding you were in light of the bans, thank you! Happily, with the near torrential rain we have had since the end of the season the pond has returned to its normal level and the lush green ground has no chance of catching alight!
Back in April we held another annual Easter Egg Hunt and a Colouring Competition for our Easter weekend campers. We hope that everyone who joined us had a great time, we certainly did. Congratulations again to Archie and Flo for their winning entries!
We can’t possibly forget to mention the fabulous campsite music nights. Welcoming back performers Peter Cooley, the Transitions, Hugh Budden, Celtic Confusion, Longdog and Hardy and the Monuments, we all had a great time relaxing and dancing away the sunny summer evenings.
Food support was offered by Dorset Woodfired Pizzas on music nights, with breakfast and selected evening meals by Laura and the BapBox team, both equally popular with all the campers.
This December we welcomed two new sheep to the growing Norden flock. Please meet Zebedee a lustre and Ellie the Romney, a beautiful pair whose fleece we hope to sheer and process for the Farm Shop’s woollen yarn making endeavours.
We had another pair of new arrivals join us this year. Now happily housed inside our shop, Teddy and Pickles are our resident guinea pigs. They were a little shy at first but now seem to love watching customers come and go as they munch away on carrots and spinach (the guinea pigs not the customers!).
If you follow our social media, you may have seen that we installed a new member of the team in the shop. The coffee machine! Serving a range of coffees and hot chocolate this guy has become a much-loved team member certainly amongst staff and, from the looks of it is quite popular with our campers too!
We were delighted to be able to offer something a little different in our shop this year as we introduced Bella and Evie into our range of products. Their beautiful assortment of handcrafted, nature-inspired jewellery has been a wonderful addition, and we were so pleased that they could join us at our Christmas fair.
Speaking of the Christmas fair… we held a Christmas fair! ‘Noel at Norden’ came into being on Sunday 14th December, another first for us but hopefully not the last. Some amazing local traders joined us and the fabulous BapBox served up some delicious treats to celebrate the festive season. Congratulations to all our raffle winners who went home with some incredible prizes from local donors including The Mowlem, The Tank Museum, Corfe Castle, The Halfway Inn, and Dorset Adventure Park to name a few! If you are about next year, you won’t want to miss it.
The Christmas Fair also hosted the launch of Norden’s own wool brand DandyHay Yarns! From our flock fleeces, we have produced yarn for knitting and crochet along with slivers for felting or spinning.
Throughout the year our shop has been busy and bustling (just how we like it) and Christmas has been no exception, with Christmas trees our most popular purchase as always. It has been great to see so many regular and new faces popping in, either to browse or to stock up on those essential items.
With 2025 almost over, we have a sad farewell to make. After 14 fantastic years, Norden Cottage is closing its doors to holiday lets as of December 31st. We want to say a huge thank you to everyone who has stayed in our cozy little cottage over the years.
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year from all the team at Norden!
Shop Opening Times
24th December 8:30am – 3pm
Christmas & Boxing Day – Closed
27th, 28th, 29th, & 30th December 9am – 5pm
New Year’s Eve 9am – 5pm
New Year’s Day 10am – 4pm
From 2nd January 2026 we will be back to our normal winter hours:
8.30am – 6pm Monday – Saturday
9am – 5pm – Sunday
Campsite Reception Opening Times
Christmas Eve 9am – 3pm
Christmas & Boxing Day – Closed
27th, 28th December – Closed
29th December – 9am – 3pm
30th, 31st December – Closed
New Years Day – Closed
Emails may be checked on occasion during our scheduled closure.
From 2nd January 2026 we will be back to our normal winter hours:
9am – 5pm Monday – Sunday
Christmas 2024 Newsletter
We are fast approaching the end of 2024 and we are yet again reflecting on another fantastic year. Whether you joined us for the first time or have been visiting us for many years, we are grateful for your support and for being part of our Norden community.
It’s been a busy, sometimes challenging year, but we’d like to remind you of what happened in 2024.
Remembering 2024
This year has thrown most things at us weather wise. We started with rain, had a bit of sunshine and then snow and finished with lots of wind!
In February we were delighted to learn that we had won the Silver Award for Camping & Caravanning Park of the Year in the Dorset Tourism Awards which we collected at a glittering award ceremony at Weymouth Pavilion. This then entered us into the Southwest England Tourism Excellence Awards in which we won a Bronze Award. We collected it at the magnificent Exeter University.
These awards highlight our brilliant team throughout the year, and we are grateful for their hard work and dedication to us. Without them our work could not be possible.
At the beginning of the year we were sad to hear that our popular food vendor, the Spotted Pig, had decided to move on to other ventures. We were fortunate to find several replacements who, between them, all served up some delicious food throughout the year.
Laura at the Bap Box served up breakfast baps and several burger evenings. Neil & Katy from Lytchett Bay Foods offered delicious BBQ style food from around the world, and Dan & team from the Dorset Pizza returned to provide a popular offering on the entertainment evenings in the summer.
Each year we try to give you something new on the campsite. This year we were glad to be able to open a secure dog run area, which many of you have been asking for over the years.
We are always excited when we welcome new animals to the Norden family. Back in August Noah, Eve & Martha Pygmy Goats arrived, followed by Jack & Timmy the Black nose Valais wethers and Astrid & Esmerelda the Gotland sheep over the following months.
In September we were sad to say goodbye to Ben, our long-serving General Manager. Ben has been with the company for many years and he grew with the business. He has gone on to new challenges but we are glad that from time to time he still comes to see us.
At the end of October Paul & Heather, our long serving wardens, decided they needed to take a slower pace so we will be welcoming four new wardens to the team in 2025. Paul and Heather will still be seen on-site so say hi if you see them. We will be keeping them busy in other parts of the business.
As some of you will have noticed, we have new faces and some old faces taking on new roles across the businesses.
On the shop side we would like you all to welcome Gina, our new shop manager. Louisa, who has been with us for a few years, is taking on the deputy shop manager role and Pippa, who started with us this year, will be shop supervisor.
On the Campsite side of the business, as Ben is no longer with the company, Ann has taken on the Campsite manager role and Mark is now the Deputy Campsite manager. Both of them have been with the company for a number of years.
As you know we love interacting with you all and we were delighted to reach 10K followers on Facebook in November and we would like to “Thank You” all for making this happen.
And finally we reach Christmas. This has been a very busy time in the shop; Christmas Trees have been our most popular purchase as always, but it has been great to see so many regular and new faces coming to see us, either to browse or to stock up on those essential items.
Thank You for an Amazing Year
Thank you for being a part of the Norden Campsite family!
We truly appreciate each and every one of you who has camped with us, stayed in the holiday lets, shopped with us or supported our events. We love you sharing your memories so keep them coming.
We can’t wait to welcome you back in 2025.
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year from all the team at Norden!
Shop Opening Times
24th December 8:30am – 3pm
Christmas & Boxing Day – Closed
27th, 28th, 29th, & 30th December 9am – 5pm
New Year’s Eve 9am – 5pm
New Year’s Day 10am – 4pm
From 2nd January 2025 we will be back to our normal winter hours:
8.30am – 6pm Monday – Saturday
9am – 5pm – Sunday
Campsite Reception Opening Times
Christmas Eve 9am – 3pm
Christmas & Boxing Day – Closed
27th, 28th December 9am – 3pm
29th December – Closed
30th, 31st December – 9am – 3pm
New Years Day – Closed
From 2nd January 2025 we will be back to our normal winter hours:
9am – 5pm Monday – Sunday