Handy Hints – A Visit from Santa

By Tim Connaghhan, aka: National Santa

Thank you for selecting TheKringleGroup.com / RealSantas.com to supply Santa for your Holiday Event. To help you in making Santa’s visit a most enjoyable event, we have prepared the following list of suggestions.

Have your photo area ready. It should have good lighting, especially for all of those camera phones. It makes the photos look better with brigher lighting. Be sure to clear your photo file on your phones so you have room for the Christmas Photos. Have those bigger camera/s ready, too. Be sure to have all the video cards, thumb drives, film, videotape and batteries necessary to take the photos you want, or need to get. Be sure all batteries are charged. P.S. Santa loves Selfies!
Reserve a special parking place for Santa. It should be as close as possible to where he is visiting. Santa is a senior citizen and needs to park directly in front or next to the house or party location. He cannot park down the street or in a parking garage & hike to your location,. He will be winded or exhausted, when he gets there. If at a home, a car could back down the driveway a little, leaving a space in front of the car. When Santa arrives the host could pull the car up and Santa parks behind it. Or, put a temporary barrier in the space reserved for Santa. Use a box, a chair or a sawhorse. Have some fun; put a sign out “Reserved for Santa!” If your event is at a company facility, office building or hotel, try to make arrangements for Santa to park in a valet or loading area. This makes it easier for him to be fresh and ready to bring joy to your guests.
A host should meet Santa when he arrives: to assist him; to show him where to park; to help load any presents into his special “Santa” bag; and to escort him to the location of the event. If there is a balance or payment due to Santa, This is a great time to take care of business. We prefer not to do business in front of the Chilrdren or other guests. It can ruin the magic of the moment. The host or coordinator meeting Santa outside should take care of any final payments that are due, before Santa enters.
Have your gifts ready. Santa normally does not bring any candy canes or gifts with him. He will hand out your candy and gifts and can carry in one bag of presents for children or guests, about 40 pounds. Presents should be well labeled. We suggest a large black marking pen and writing directly on the gift, as tags can easily fall off. All packages should fit into one 35-gallon trash bag. He will transfer the gifts to his “official” Santa Bag. If you have more than one bag, check with Santa and see if there is a way to have the gifts near his chair before he arrives or if there is a way for you to have “helpers” to bring the extra gifts in after he enters.
Get everyone together, before Santa enters. Timing is everything. You have scheduled Santa for a set amount of time, which begins the minute he arrives. Unless otherwise arranged, he will not be able to stay longer than he has been booked for. If everyone is scattered around the house or office, you loose valuable time. Santa and you can coordinate. He should call you when he is five minutes away from arriving. That’s your cue to get everyone together, maybe to sing some Christmas Carols, and to have someone go outside to meet Santa. Then, at the right moment the host enters and gets all the children singing “Jingle Bells!” Santa will then pop-in and joins everyone in their singing. If you have a large group of children to see Santa, you should assign someone to be Santa’s helper, and to hand him the presents.
Have a sturdy chair for Santa to sit in. Folding chairs and low chairs (the one’s you sink into) are not good. Santa usually likes a chair that is sturdy and stable. A good straight-back dining chair, with no arms, works well. He should be able to sit comfortably and the chair needs to support him plus a child on each knee.
Place the Chair near your Christmas tree or in a holiday setting. Your photos will have more impact when the background has a festive look. Place a wreath, a few Christmas cards or your children’s drawings on the wall to make a wonderful difference. Leave a foot or two between the chair and the tree or wall. This will allow room for others to gather around and behind Santa’s chair for group photos. Fireplaces do look nice but remember putting Santa too close to a real fire is not good for his comfort or health!
Think about photos with everyone. Yes, some teenagers might think it is too childish, to have a photo with Santa. Don’t worry; Santa can stand up for a “buddy” photo or a selfie. What about grandma and grandpa? Take a photo with Santa and Grandma Hugging. And Santa can take group photos with all the ladies or a “Team” photo with the guys. And did we mention: Santa loves “Selfies!” More photos of Santa show up on Facebook than almost any other celebrity.