No matter how old you are or how skeptical you may be about Santa Claus and his role in the winter holidays, it seems that everyone enjoys seeing him on their holiday travels.
Thanks to our colleagues in public relations, we can share some of his more exceptional appearances. They’re so much fun, in fact, that you may want to vacation alongside him.
And for those who prefer a staycation, SantaCon – an opportunity for any jolly old soul to impersonate Santa, returns to cities and bars around the country. In our home of New York City the reindeers take off at 11am, December 9, 2017. The international SantaCon directory lists dates and details for global events sprouting any time between December 1 and 24, around the world.
Here are 10 more ways to catch him – if you can!
Santa Surfs in San Diego
Let’s start in San Diego, where i.d.e.a.’s client Seaport Village is located, At the waterfront lifestyle mall downtown, Surfin’ Santa — a character who arrives near shore by jet pack or pirate ship — is a San Diego tradition that returns Saturday, November 25. Count on him dressed in board shorts and a Hawaiian shirt, and dress appropriately so you can pose for photos with him while he hangs ten inside a six-foot wave on a surfboard.
Santa Parasails in Jamaica
We love the beautiful Half Moon resort on Half Moon Bay in Jamaica, so it’s no surprise that Santa will be heading there on Christmas Day. According to the hotel, guests will receive a hand-written note from Santa on Christmas Eve, inviting them to watch him don his parasailing gear and take off over Sunset Beach the next morning. After that impressive exit, he returns to the hotel lobby on a donkey, bearing gifts of course, for an afternoon photo opportunity.
Canoe with Santa to Oahu
It’s always sunny in Waikiki, Hawaii – which is why tourists love it. On Oahu, Santa takes advantage of the climate to paddle his own outrigger canoe and pose for pictures. On December 9, 2017, he will pull up on the beach in front of the Outrigger Waikiki Beach Resort at 2335 Kalakaua Avenue, Honolulu, at 9:00am, and be met with a childen’s hula dance performance. Families can participate in a Breakfast with Santa at the sister Outrigger Reef Waikiki Beach Resort, The Reef Bar & Market Grill, at 2169 Kalia Road in Honolulu, on Dec. 16 from 8am-10am. Check out special seasonal hotel rates at the Outrigger Waikiki hotels, where holiday rates begin at $279 for a double with breakfast this season. If you missed him, Santa will be returning by canoe to Gray’s Beach on December 24, and pulling ashore in front of the posh Halekulani Hotel. The hotel is inviting kids to a Christmas party with balloon sculptures and a silent disco where they can share their wish-list with Santa, have their picture taken with him, and receive a present. Adults can drink, dine and enjoy a hula performance.
Santa Enjoys Breakfast at Tiffany’s in Natchez
It’s hard to find Santa among the glitter of gold and gems at the Towers of Natchez, an ornate bed and breakfast in this waterfront Mississippi town that dates to the late 1700s. During the holidays, The Towers displays a floor to ceiling “sculpture” made up of thousands of vintage costume jewelry pieces called “The Jeweled Christmas.” House tours are available Wednesday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday from November 25 to January 6, 2018; the cost is $20 per adult, $15 per child ages 8-12; call 601/446-6890 to confirm the schedule.
Santa Feeds the Fishes in Kentucky
Scuba Santa’s Water Wonderland is a seasonal exhibit at the delightful Newport Aquarium in Newport, located just opposite the city of Cincinnati. In their comfortable theater used for guided marinelife talks, guests can watch through a huge glass wall as Santa dons a bright red wetsuit and air tank in lieu of his normal winter garb, waving to his young fans and communicating through the glass. Don’t miss Santa’s helpers at the stingray, seahorse, alligator and penguin exhibits, too. Running daily November 24-December 31 except Christmas Day when, of course, he’s too busy.
Watch Santa’s Friends Ski in Maine
The Sunday River ski resort in Newry, Maine creates a photo-worthy spectacle on Santa Sunday, this year to be held December 3. The resort is offering free morning lift tickets to the first 250 guests to arrive in Santa costume; they must ski down the slopes together carrying a donation for the local Sunday River Community Fund to qualify. It’s a great chance to ski or snowboard early season.
Santa and Mrs. Claus Take the Train in Texas
Part of little Grapevine’s annual “Christmas Capital of Texas” festivities, the locally restored Grapevine Vintage Railroad gets dressed up for special trips to the North Pole. While families crowd the decorated Victorian rail coaches, Mrs. Claus boards the train and presents each child a “We Believe” silver Santa bell. Once at the North Pole, you can enter Santa’s workshop, meet him, have hot chocolate and get some one-on-one time with Santa for family photos. The North Pole Express departs from the historic railroad station in Grapvevine — don’t miss the huge gingerbread house that is part of North Pole Neighborhood, which opens November 28 through Christmas. Trains run weekends in December and daily the week prior to Christmas.
Santa Talks with Kids on the Spectrum
On December 2, Santa will be pausing from his preparations to visit with kids at a special Sensitive Santa event put on by Autism Live and We Rock the Spectrum Kid’s Gym of Woodland Hills, California. Children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and their families can have their photos taken, and receive a wrapped toy, while also getting the opportunity to explore uniquely ASD-friendly gym equipment. The event is free; reservations required at Autism Lives Eventbrite.
Santa is More Attentive than a Helicopter Parent
Santa gets airborne in a helicopter, arriving in style to his own party at the Hiller Aviation Museum in San Carlos, California, on November 25. He takes photos with the kids upon arrival, partakes in Christmas carols with the West Bay Community Band and lets kids explore the many aircraft and unusual flying machines housed at this Smithsonian affiliate.
See Santa at Macy’s Herald Square
Beginning November 24, the flagship Macy’s Department Store at Herald Square, New York City, will feature the annual Santaland, a huge area on the store’s 8th floor that is decked out for the holidays with its own resident Santa. Fortunately for restless toddlers, parents can visit the website and make timed reservations for their Santa visit, lap sit and photo opp. In the meanwhile, check out the six special holiday windows on Broadway. Did you know that Macy’s was the first department store to feature Christmas window displays? They have been enchanting generations of spectators since the early 1870’s.
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I poured my heart and soul into this!!! Hope you people enjoy! =)
Wow, this is wonderful! You are so lucky to have gotten this opportunity. You looked absolutely gorgeous at the show and the red carpet. Thanks for sharing this, it really made me smile. I used to have the biggest crush on Joe Jonas.. hahah!
Amazing trip!
I hope that my story will inspire and enrich your lives; even if it doesn’t touch you as much as it has touched me. I hope that this will be passed on and that people will take a few minutes just to read what I had to say and try to be in the mind of these children. Try to change your day and see your house, your possessions, your income, and those many great things that you possess and find a way to share them with others. We all need a wakeup call sometimes, a message to straighten us out and look at the life we were given. I hope to go back next year to repeat the experience all over again and try to change myself even more, I love those children and I love their compassion and selflessness. Words can’t fully express what I felt or what I witnessed but my words are clear, these people see the world much differently than us, they treat possessions differently and they know how to work as a community.
This is about when my family and I took a trip down to Central Florida for our Family Vacation.
Hope you enjoy!
This was a vacation that taught me a lot about how my religion is organzied and gave me more appreciation for it.
I will never forget the time I spent in Germany.
I hope you guys enjoyed my story!
Best luck.
South Africa is this amazing country that not only is beautiful for its animals and scenery but for its people and for its ability to overcome the greatest oppression: apartheid, the discrimination of the majority. I am so glad I was given the gift of traveling to South Africa. It is an experience I will never forget!
It was a great trip!
I hope everyone who takes the time to read The Awakening enjoys learning about my bus ride to reality.
My typed essay about my vacation in Vietnam. It seem poorly written or should I say typed :\
Bryan Gray Europe Tour.
My vacation to Panama became suprisingly meaningful, contrary to what I had initially expected.
Thank you
This was a fun and yet difficult project i truely have enjoyed sharing my vaction with you.
Mahalo,
Have you ever been to Maine? What did you like best?
This is such an amazing story and essay!!
Their were many more memories from this trip that impacted me as much as the ones that were included, but I just didnt have enough room. So, I shortened it and tried to write the best description of the trip without exceeding the word limit. But the trip was, indeed, as remarkable as I said it was.
Washington is a really nice place. It has many museums and historical places. it also has very delicious foods. Chinatown was my favorite place to eat.
Thank you for this scholarship opportunity!
IB York was a great experience, and a great opportunity to explore new ideas and innovations
So now I head to college without my classmates but i will always have this wonderful experience.
🙂
This is one of my many travel adventure stories from my trip to Europe in the beginning of the summer. Besides Prague, I traveled to Berlin, Munuch, and Nuremberg in Germany, Innsbruck in Austria, Liechtenstein, Switzerland, and France. My favorite place was Switzerland, but my favorite story was the one I shared. I hope you enoy reading it as much as i enjoyed experiencing it!
I want everyone to be able to expericence something like I did.:) Everyone desevers happines!
I hope you enjoyed my travel blog and I hope you plan to take your mom to the Peaks of Otter Lodge for the best brunch you will ever eat. For more information click on this link:
http://www.peaksofotter.com/
Finished product. I love PERU!
This eye-opening opportunity has shaped my conviction toward making change and developing the community. It is a great pleasure to meet all those Leadership Award Honorees and other49 ANNpower fellows from 24 states in the U.S. I will continue to make change and build a dynamic community, excursively to ethnic, social, political gender aspects of advantage, as my milestone to become a great leader!
This eye-opening opportunity marks the culmination of my junior year. I am so glad to meet all those wonderful women leaders from all around the world and 49 other ANNpower fellows from other 24 states. I will continue to explore the world and make change with eagerness and confident, and overcoming disadvantage exclusively toward the milestone of a great leader!
I hope everyone enjoys my trip to Catalina and Ensenada!
This trip was the best trip regarding family time. It is unforgettable.
To see more photography from the trip, check out my photojournal: http://www.facebook.com/pages/A-Photojournal-of-My-Grecian-Travels/213497035367351.
What a testimony!! Thanks for posting. You don't know how impactful this is. Let Jesus keep using you for His glory. 😉
I was saved in August of 2009. I was in my parents's room and we all prayed for m, becuase I was tired of not having a desire for God. There I gave my life to Him and let Him be my Lord. I already excepted Him as Savior, but though it was a license to sin. Thatt day, though I wanted to repent of my sin and let God lead me. Lord and Savior go hand-in-hand. My life is changed. Now I have convictions and am learning so much about seeking God, because He is seeking me. It's awesome to live in the security and hope of knowing I will see Him one day in heaven. I am so glad He lives in me, because my goodness outside of Him is nothing. I don't know what I would do without Him.
Jesus used that park to bring you and your dad back together. How beautiful 🙂
Each place I go, I leave a peice of myself. And everyplace I go leaves a peice of itself in me. The people I have met along the way have changed me in the deepest way. Their lives have touched mine and I can never return to life as was usual. Likewise, my life has touched many along the way. It is my hope that nobody I meet along the way may return to life as was their usual. This is how each thead pulls coth and fabric together as we the people of the world cover it like a quilt. We must double stitch each peice so not to fall apart or leave holes. We need one another.
To whoever reading this, I am the person wearing blue shirt and white shorts, sligtly leaning on the panda bear statue.
My essay that talks about my experience traveling to Lima, Peru aims toward encouraging others who are not too familiar with it to visit and appreciate the fun life changing experience they're gauranteed to get.
What a great contest! Hope to see lots of terrific teen travel stories here!
It was difficult for me to type a 600 word blog about an amazing experience I had in the month of July. It was also difficult for me to choose certain pictures from the ones that I have chosen, so I uploaded the pictures of my time at NeiHu elementary school. I really wished that I could have used more sightseeing photos, but unfortunately, those were too big to upload.
This trip was amazing and it also tested who I am becoming as a person. Seeing the woman in Central Park living out her dream, to the woman selling fruit throughout the day; New York is made of dreamers and hardworking people. I loved it. Hope I get the chance to go back.
This was an amazing experience! I am so grateful for everything it taught me!!
From research, I believe the ice cream shop was called Eisdiele Eddy. More information about the exchange program can be found at http://www.aatg.org/study-trip-faq as well as at the bottom of the page at http://www.aatg.org/NGE-awards.
These Picutures are both of my own creation (one being an acrylic painting). When I took this picture at the western wall in Israel, the man in the photo was crying his heart out wearing a tattered down bath robe, I thought it would make for an intersting picture. So it did, it also inspired to me to create a painting in which I showed the world what I believe he really is. A man who is down on his luck but seems to still find peace in his life.
My sophomore year of high school I went to Donner Pass in California with a group called The Woods Project (www.thewoodsproject.org) . I had to apply to go , I was really anxious and scared that I wasn’t going to get. When I got my acceptance letter I was excited. I was also nervous because I had never been away from home for more than a week and The Woods project was going to last for two weeks. I had chosen to go to Donner Pass because I wanted to experience something new. I was going to go backpacking for one week and hiking the other. I had never gone backpacking before. When I told my friends that I was going backpacking they started to laugh because I am the smallest girl in my whole school and they didn’t think I was going to make it. Getting that response from my friends made me super scared of going to the trip. I thought I was going to die while backpacking!
My dad went to go drop me off at the airport and then he left. I was already scared and freaking out at the fact that he had just left me there and I did not know anybody! . I got in the plane to California and I was already regretting going on the trip. I was going to be with complete strangers for two weeks! When we got to California we all got split .There were three groups going to different places, one to Yosemite, another to Marine Headlines and then mine, to Donner Pass. I got in a van and that’s where I met the people who I was going to spend two weeks with. We were in that van for hours! When we finally got to our cabin we had to go up a hill to get to the door.
The first cabin we stayed in was named Clair Tappan Lodge. It was really nice . It was made out of wood, had a pool table, personal chef, jacuzzi and hot water in the showers. I loved it there! Too bad it only lasted for two days then it was time to go backpacking. They gave us our backpacking materials. I tried on the backpack and almost fell over. My backpacking week had started. We went up and down mountains, through rivers and lakes, and I thought we were never going to set up our tents. When it started to get dark we finally started cooking. The food we had was not good at all. We couldn’t bring a lot of food because of the bears and other animals. My second day of backpacking went better than the first. Everybody in my group started to know each other better and soon we became really close. We would sing while backpacking to make time pass faster and at night we didn’t want to sleep because we would play games. While backpacking I got to experience many things I hadn’t before. Even though I was the smallest girl going backpacking I was always the leader of the line because of my stamina.
When our backpacking week ended it was time to hike. I had gotten the hardest part of the trip over with so I knew hiking was going to be a piece of cake. We would hike in the morning and hanged out at night. It was the best experience I had ever had! When it was time to go back home I didn’t want to because I knew I would miss my friends.
To watch my video go to : http://youtu.be/FLd7W71EnyU
My experience as a first time camper.
i hope i win