Santa Visit Take 2

Although it is already New Year, and the season of Christmas is well behind us as people return to work and the post-Christmas sales die-down, I have been wanting to post about our second New York Santa experience since well before "the night before Christmas".

Following our disappointing experience at Bloomingdales (see Santa Visit) we headed to Macy's on 34th Street - 'the largest department store in the world' with "Believe" written in Christmas lights across its facade and windows adorned with miniature scenes from Miracle on 34th Street.

We thought Bloomingdales was packed to the rafters - well Macy's was bursting at the seams. Thankfully they had elevators designated solely for families with strollers running express from the Ground floor to "SantaLand". And this time it was a Santa wonderland.

We first stepped onto, what can only be described as The Polar Express train, in which we rode to the North Pole (actually first we walked through the maze that was the roped queuing area but thankfully the queue moved rather fast). Upon stepping off the train we found ourselves in a winter wonderland, complete with elaborately adorned elves to direct us on our way, sign posts to well-known magical places, and an enchanted forest.

There were snow bears ice-skating and playing on see-saws, a miniature city complete with electric trains and buses, and a Santa Tracking Station. We wandered through this magical land for almost 30 minutes before being whisked through an snow-covered forest of Christmas Trees by our personal tour-guide-elf to Santa's cabin (ssshhh - it was one of 6 such cabins operating on that day) where we waited to see Santa.

And indeed Santa lived up to the description laid down in the well known poem "The Night Before Christmas", with rosy cheeks, and twinkling eyes, and a belly that jiggled like a bowl full of jelly. It was at this point that Noah's awe and excitement turned to logical practicality,

"All done Santa. No fine. Bye Bye Santa."

But with some coaxing and encouragement - and two eager parents - Noah reluctantly agreed to sit next to Santa with Mummy and Daddy for a photo. He eagerly waved goodbye to Santa and kept a firm grasp of the badges he was given by the resident Cabin elf. He talked about seeing Santa for the rest of the day, and about the train and skating bears.

It was a Santa experience we were all happy with - well except for Nathan who had to stand in line for 40 minutes to buy the photos. But all in all, it was a great trip to the North Pole!