Santa Shout out to Angela

Hello my friends,

Well today was full of fun little things and I would like to share a couple of them. But first the Shout out...

Santa's Shout Out is to Angela, our head keeper of the helpers for the last 40+ days. Today was her last day with the group, as she is heading home to Atlanta GA, Thursday AM. What can I say? She has been our den mother, mother, fixer, e-mailer, problem solver, problem taker on'er, and best of all - friend. She has helped Santa in many ways...too many to mention. I will miss her tough Italian exterior, but soft kind heart. She many be only 5 ft tall, but I don't know anybody that can take her. Santa will miss her.

OK, enough of that stuff and on to the cute stuff. Today we had a group of 3 blind teenagers visit Santa. As we all know, they got to "see" Santa with their hands when they were done telling him what they wanted for Christmas. Each of them got a chance to touch my face and beard. The girl asked her mom if it was really real (my beard) and mom touched it and yes it was. (See photo above.) Permission was granted for me to post this photo by the mother.

Next, a little boy came up and gave Santa a present all wrapped up and told me I could not open it until Christmas, which I thought was hilarious as that is what I say. The mom asked me after all the normal Santa stuff why I did not open the gift. I told her, and she laughed and asked him if he really said it? He responded with a wide grin, "Yes!" Mom said I can open it any time I want. So I did, and it was a token for a free ride on the mall's Carousel. How cute was that!

Oh, and the other picture shows somebody who I think I lost a bet.

Well off to the land of slumber...

Santa

Another one Down

Now I don't know if Santa's stuck in a pattern, but each morning I stop down at the mall offices and use their private restroom to make sure I look fabulous. As it just so happens, about week ago the office manager started a countdown. Each morning after she says how many days are left, I do a little dance that we affectionately call "The Santa Boogie." Angela wants me to do it during one of our entertainment breaks, but I think I might decline. Santa, however, does have rhythm (I didn't say that it was good or bad, just that I have it.)



For all of you web geeks out there, there are three different videos of our Flash Mob yesterday. One of them shows dancers on the lower level underneath the atrium dancing to the music.



Today Santa received a small box of assorted candy from a little seven year old girl. She was adorable as she said, "Here, Santa, this is for you!" I shared the candy with all my helpers and they thought it was great.



Also today, a little brother and sister gave me some food for Rudolph - pretzel rods with bird seed "glued" on with a sticky substance. They looked yummy and Rudolph loved them! After I chatted with this brother and sister, mom and dad knelt down next to me and said, "Did you ask Santa the question?" The little girl asked in her little toddler voice, "Do you want cookies or cake on Christmas, Santa?" I stroked my beard like I was deep in thought and I said, "Cake!" Mom said, "That's great because we have a lot of birthdays around Christmas." So I'm guaranteed cake at at least one of my stops. Yes!



Make sure you get plenty of rest, so you have enough strength to open Santa's gifts!


Nighty night,


Santa

Down to a Handful

Hey there, my blog followers -



Today we were visited by a Flash Mob during the supper hour. It was amazing! The Flash Mob tapped into our sound system and sang a wonderful traditional Christmas song. The crowd stopped and watched. Some joined in. And a great round of applause was given when they were done. As a "thank you" they then sang "Jingle Bells." We even shut down the Santa set to watch.



One cute moment was when five little girls came all dressed up wearing matching outfits to their American Girl dolls and had their pictures taken with Santa. It was quite fun!



We also had 20 moms come in for a group picture. They were all dressed up and belonged to a scrapbooking club. They all wanted Cricuts for Christmas!



As we near Christmas Day, my blogs will get shorter as the days get longer...but hopefully tomorrow I will be able to post new pictures.


Sweet dreams,



Santa

Last Sunday Before Christmas...

It was the last Sunday before Christmas and all through the house, nothing was stirring. Not even a mouse. And why do your wondering eyes banter? 'Cuz everyone's all at the mall seeing Santa! (After they went to church, of course.) All the little kids warmed my heart and gave me a big smile on my face, but the line only grew instead of dissipate.



Okay, okay. I'll stop. Nothing's worse than Santa waxing poetics...



A little girl, with missing teeth, actually told me that she really would like her two front teeth for Christmas! And what did I say? "I'll put a good word in with the Tooth Fairy for you." I asked her if she ever heard the song and she said, "Yes! and I'm sick of it!" as she looks at her parents. (Who were chuckling) :o)



I was told that we did about 1400 pictures yesterday. Today I'm guessing we did about 1100. My knees are no longer sore, because they are numb. I wish I could say the same for my butt. It's just plain sore! Mrs. Claus needs to make Santa a donut...



Have a great Sunday evening. Say a prayer for Santa before going to sleep, that his energy level and stamina stays with him for the remainder of the week.



Nighty night!



Santa

First of the Last

As you can imagine, this is the first "last full Friday" working as Santa this year as next Friday is Christmas Eve...and Santa doesn't have to explain what happens on Christmas Eve.


There's only six days left to find out what EVERY boy and girl wants Santa to bring them so a LOT of kids made sure they saw Santa today! A couple of kids wanted sewing machines, but the "big 4" are still Barbie, Legos, Pillow Pets, and remote conrolled anything.



Santa had a couple of interesting kids today, plus one VERY expectant mother-to-be. Let's start with her. She walks up to Santa in a floor-length velvet red dress, waddling like a duck. When she got about 5 feet away from me she said, "I'm not going to sit on your lap because I don't want my water to break." Good plan! She could stand wherever she wanted to take the picture. I was quite concerned on how she was walking that the baby was due any second. But she said the baby was not due until the 1st.

Now onto the little girls. One little girl (age 3) sat on my lap, looked around the room, turned to face me and then pulled my glasses off throwing them half way across the room to the camera man. The mom was very apologetic and said, "Oh, I should have told you that she likes to grab things." Sooooo, for the next few photographs, I was talking pictures with little hand prints all over my spectacles.



Another little girl was extremely hesitant to see Santa and making her displeasure known loudly and wildly to her father. The father was holding the girl rather loosely, and at that moment, in front of Santa and all of his crew, she kicked her dad right in his sugar plums...and all the guys working went "Owooooo" as dad went to his knees. For some reason the little girl did not make it all the way up to see Santa...as daddy limped off the set and mommy dragged the little girl by her hand down the hall back to the car.



Now just as a coincidence, I had a rather obnoxiously teething toddler with grandma and grandpa come and see Santa today. To say the kid drools, was an understatement! Both grandma and grandpa wanted to be in the picture (which was fine), but right before the picture was taken grandpa said, "Oh, we need to wipe his face." Just at that moment, Hoover Dam opened up and all three of us ended up being covered in drool! It was disgusting! Well, grandpa quick got a burp bib to wipe off our hands and the kid's face. I quickly grabbed the hand sanitizer next to my chair. After we snapped the picture, three bottles of hand sanitizer came out of NO WHERE for Santa to use! Santa was safely sanitized before seeing the next child. (Thanks!)



Santa's going to take advantage of the extra two hours of sleep tomorrow morning and try to stretch it out into more by going to bed early tonight, so nighty night!



Santa

6:45 AM - I get to sleep in tomorrow!

Today lived up to all expectations and Santa was again 100% correct. People were hovering around the Santa set an hour before "show time." I did come out for my command performance 10 minutes early...to help out the little kiddos.


Santa would like to do a special shout out to my helper CHECK (Pedro). When I went on lunch break, CHECK brought the whole crowd in to the Santa set and read them stories until I got back. The crowd loved it. That-a-boy, CHECK, I trained you well!


Just in case you're wondering, there are only 7 shopping days left before Christmas...and Santa takes a 2XLT. For specific gifts ideas, contact Mrs. Claus. :o)



Let me share about a couple of kids I met today:


A family came to see Santa and I asked each one of them what they wanted for Christmas. The little boy told me he wanted a truck and a remote control helicopter (which is really, really popular). About 10 minutes later, the mom brings him back and he is just sobbing! He forgot to tell me that he also wanted a Transformer. I wiped away his tears and thanked him for coming back to see Santa, and told him that I will make a special note to try to remember the Transformer. Magically, he then became the happiest boy in the mall!


A little girl (approximately 7-8 years old) came bounding up to me when it was her turn and we chatted a little bit. I asked her what she wanted for Christmas and she said she wanted a pony. Well, surprisingly, I get asked for a pony at least twice or more a day. I always look at the parents for their reaction. Usually, the parents are laughing because they live in an apartment, etc. and I have to try to talk the kids away from the pony. I say something like, "You can't have a pony in your bedroom." Well, tonight with this little girl guess what? She asked for a pony. I was just about to tell her about not being able to keep a pony in her bedroom...and her dad gave me a "thumbs up." Well I thought maybe I interpretted the dad's signal wrong or he overheard incorrectly, so I told the little girl that I would see if it was possible and asked her what else she wanted. At that point the father leaned over and whispered in my ear that they own a horse farm. So she's getting a pony from Santa (grandma and grandpa)!




As you can imagine, Santa needs his beauty sleep. (Not much, you understand.) But I still need my rest because Santa is WONDERFUL all the time. :o)



Sweet dreams!



Santa

Release the Hounds!

Yesterday I said that I would show you the new look of Santa. What do you think? There are two photos of the "new look," a photo of the mall management office staff with Santa, and a photo of the cutest little girl who came in her pj's to have breakfast with Santa. (I'll talk about that more a little later.)

The workshop Santa look is a big hit in Grand Rapids. The people really like it, the photo people encouraged me to go with it, and the mall management loves it. Plus, it's much more comfortable. So this continues the theme of "firsts" for this year. Please send me your opinions of this new look.



Today was a VERY nice day weather wise. It was bright and sunny with no wind. And even though it was only in the upper 20's we had droves of people coming to the mall. To start the day, we had "Breakfast with Santa!" I thought this was going to happen on Saturday, and my helpers also thought the breakfast was on Saturday. (Unfortunately, this makes it the 5th time Santa has been wrong.) Needless to say, we did not have breakfast prepared for the eight kiddos who showed up. Instead we punted and read stories to the kids, sang songs, took rides on the carousel, and had special pictures with Santa. Luckily, Santa was able to save the day for those eight little kiddos!



I hope everyone is having a wonderful time getting their last minute shopping done. And I hope you brought your kids to see Santa's helpers before the last week of Christmas as these last 7 days are the busiest of the entire season!



It's early dismissal from school tomorrow for Christmas break where I am! Tomorrow's going to be GREAT!



Sweet dreams,



Santa