To most families, making a visit to Santa to tell him your wishes is a much-loved and important December tradition.
However, this year, as I think we have all already figured out, will not be the same as previous years.
Pandemic restrictions in place will make the traditional Santa visits either impossible or very, very different from what we are used to. And this can no doubt seem very sad or upsetting to many little ones (and their parents) up and down the land.
According to
TheJournal.ie, many shopping centres in Dublin are still finalising their winter plans, while some companies have started to organise online Santa visits.
Jervis Shopping Centre are still finalising plans at the moment about Santa’s grotto, and neither St Stephen’s Green or Dundrum shopping centres have made any announcements about their Santa's grottos either.
Zoom Santa
As for a very socially distant option,
Santaonline.ie is expected to launch soon, and will involve children being able to see the man himself through Zoom from 12 November until 23 December. The children will then in the coming days after the call receive a gift from the elves delivered straight to your door.
People can book their time slot to visit Santa online, and according to the website, the gift will be dispatched after booking the slot and it will be delivered within three working days.
Parents can then hold onto the present until it’s time for the online Santa visit when it will be presented to the kids.
Children from different households can attend the Santa Zoom call together with prices reduced the more children booked in.
“A lot of the visits we get at the physical grottos would have grandparents, aunt, uncles… So Nana and Grandad and the cousins can go as well.”
The price of a visit and a present costs €30 per child. It’s €50 for two children, €60 for three, €75 for four, €80 for five and €90 for six.
€1 per booking will be donated to the Laura Lynn charity.
