Santa Speaking buys me one more year of Christmas magic

A week or so ago, a nice woman named Elf Annie emailed me to ask if my boys would like to talk to Santa this year.  My children have never gotten into the whole go-see-Santa thing; we’ve gone to a small local mall near our house, one that has volunteer Santas, for the past few years, but the kids won’t sit on his lap or have a photo taken — they just stand where he can see them and wave.

But they still believe in him.  Mostly — Henry is getting a little skeptical, I think, but you know, he’s 8 and most of his friends are teetering on the brink of not believing.  This may very well be the last Santa Christmas for him, which makes me a little sad.

And then Elf Annie came along.

Santa Speaking is a service that lets you customize a phone call from Santa –  you fill out a long questionnaire about your child’s interests and friends and wishes for Christmas.  And then you schedule a call and wait by the phone.

I didn’t tell the boys that Santa was going to call, which was nice — they were totally shocked.  They were also totally delighted, and completely convinced that it was the Real Santa.  The Santa we spoke with had a deep voice and a jolly laugh and was patient and funny and kind.  He talked to both kids, personally and individually; Henry had a really nice conversation with him, but Charlie was all hepped up on sugar and was a little wild — he kept yelling, “CAN I PLAY WITH THE REINDEER, SANTA???”  And Santa laughed and told him that the reindeer LOVE to play, but they are VERY busy right now.

And then he said, “You know, sometimes when I’m delivering presents on Christmas Eve and little boys and girls are still awake, they get to SEE the reindeer!  But that doesn’t happen too often, although we do sometimes loose a sleigh bell in people’s yards.”

(Note to self: get sleigh bells.)

An extended live call with Santa will run you $54.95 at this time of year; that’s for up to three children, and includes a CD recording of your call, so that you can embarrass your kids years from now.  And when you think about what you pay for photos with the mall Santa, this is really a deal — no lines, no fuss, and I promise your kids will be completely convinced that they are talking to Santa.

Santa’s schedule is busy right now, so get your call scheduled today.  I can’t thank Elf Annie and Santa enough for letting us do this — honestly, I think that call from Santa may be the highlight of our holiday.

Ho ho ho!

A big thank you to the people at Santa Speaking for providing this chat with Santa.