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!

Santa visit

Well its that time of year again, and it is beginning to look a lot like Christmas. New York is a wonderful city to be in for Christmas: 5th Ave is adorned with beautiful Christmas lights; Macy's windows display an amazing Christmas-time story; and there is the possibility of a white Christmas.

This is our second Christmas in New York, but our first attempt at a Santa visit here. For Noah's previous 2 Christmas' we visited Santa at The Grove in LA. The first was when he was only 6 days old! On both occasions, visiting Santa was a magical experience and the whole ordeal was well practiced production, in true Hollywood fashion. Santa was gorgeous:

He was dressed all in fur

from his head to his foot,

And his clothes were all tarnished

with ashes and soot. (...ok not really)

His eyes how they twinkled!

His dimples how merry!

His cheeks were like roses,

his nose like a cherry!

His droll little mouth

was drawn up like a bow,

And the beard on his chin

was as white as the snow! (And real!)

He had a broad face

and a round little belly

That shook when he laughed

like a bowl full of jelly.

On both occasions we received a Christmas songs CD and a DVD entitled "My visit with Santa at The Grove" (and if I could work out how to upload the DVD to Blogger I would put it here so you could see it). Santa sat in a Candy Wonderland house straight from the North Pole, on a velvet throne and with elaborately adorned elves and helpers busily assisting him in pixie shoes and elf hats, hooped skirts and laden-hose-type shorts.

Our LA Santa experiences have been magical, but like visiting Santa in Australia, a large man, dressed all in fur seems a little out of place amidst the 25-30 degree weather outside. So this year, on a day when the temperature reached a high of 6 degrees, and a low of -1, we decided to seek out Santa in New York City. We headed to the upper East Side to Bloomingdales, where we had heard we could avoid the crowds of the Macy's Santa experience, but still have a wonderful photo in "Santa Land" on the 8th floor.

So after catching the F train uptown and finding Bloomingdales, packed to the rafters with pre-Christmas shoppers, we navigated our way to "Santa Land". This was our first disappointment. It was the smaller than Noah's bedroom and the decorations consisted of an arch which read "Santa Land Happy Holidays". Santa's throne sat in front of a window full of children's sized mannequins with just one santa hat between them and one small Christmas ornament at their feet.

Then the second disappointment - the elves were middle-aged woman in green vests over their usual Bloomingdales uniform. No elf hats, no pixie shoes with upturned toes, no elf costumes. We could however see a bright red suit sitting on a thrown through the crowd and so brushed aside our initial disappointment and joined the small line, saying to ourselves, "Well at least the line is short".

Then the third disappointment - one of the "elves" told us their camera equipment was not working, so we were welcome to use our own cameras. Of course all we had on us was am iphone or blackberry camera, neither of which were ideal, but we said to ourselves, "Well at least the line is short."

Then the fourth disappointment - Santa. No fur. No rosy cheeks - in fact we couldn't see is cheeks or nose or twinkling eyes for all the fake beard and hair plastered lopsided on his face.

All that said, Noah still got excited when he saw Santa. He refused to sit on his lap, but he was happy to sit with Daddy and have a photo with Santa, and he has continued to talk about Santa all afternoon. He tells us Santa is coming down the elevator (as we lack the traditional chimney), that he is bringing presents and toys, and that Noah is going to get a fire-engine. He is also quite proud of the mini colouring book Santa gave him after his photo.

I guess in the end, the disappointments were all Mummy & Daddy's and the most important thing is that for Noah the magic of Christmas is starting to come to life.

"Merry Christmas to all

And to all a Good Night!"