We were gifted a visit with Santa Online for purposes of this review.
Santa Online is an online experience where children and families can chat live with Santa from the comfort of their own home via Zoom. With outings restricted this year, an online experience provides an alternative way to visit Santa.
The booking is simple to do. You select the number of children and enter an age for each. Then, Santa Online delivers a wrapped gift for every child booked in. The gifts arrived in a plain box so I was able to hide them away unnoticed by the kids. Each wrapped gift has an age label on the gift.
There are a few additional options available with Santa Online. First, you can share the experience with a second household, such as grandparents. They can attend the Zoom visit with you by sharing the link with them. Second, you can book in the family dog to chat with Santa too. A dog costs €10 extra and a gift is sent out for the pet as well.
A donation of €1 is made to The Laura Lynn charity, an Irish children’s hospice charity, from every booking made.
Our Experience
We booked the 7:20 pm slot with Santa. The three gifts arrived a few days after booking which was great as they arrived in plenty of time. They were all wrapped the same wrapping and all labelled for age 6+. If you can, make your booking a week or more in the future, so your gifts arrive before the chat with Santa.
At 7:18 I received a phone call saying Santa was running late because he loves to talk and is it okay if we move our meeting to 7:25, which was fine with us. We were ready and waiting at the computer with the gifts. We were connected with Santa via Zoom at 7:25.
Santa asked the kids their names, what sports they play and what they enjoy at school. He asked me if they keep their rooms tidy and if they eat well. Then he asked if their gifts arrived and if it was ok with me if they opened them – which of course was fine – they were dying to open them.
Santa told the kids to open their gifts quickly as he had another call to make. Then he commented a few seconds later that they are very slow at opening gifts. The kids got their presents opened, Santa said goodbye and the whole thing was over in less than 4 minutes.
The three gifts received are: table tennis, slime and paint your own Christmas magnet kit.
If I had paid for the experience, it would have cost €60 for my three kids. That feels expensive for what we received because the gifts are very basic, token gifts, and the experience was so brief, rushed and lacked any interest from Santa. Personally, I’d have liked the chat to be more engaging, with more questions and interaction with the kids.
That being said, the kids were happy and said they loved it, even though they found it so short. They said he was like the real Santa, with a real beard.
I do feel that it was convenient to see Santa from our own home rather than trying to navigate regulations and masks to see Santa in person. I feel that the concept of Santa Online is a really wonderful idea to help bring Santa magic easily to people this year. It’s certainly a good option for many families. And it fulfilled seeing Santa for us this year.
Grab booking and further information over on Santa Online,
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