From my own observations, it has been a busy festive period
for Father Christmas. It began as early as 22nd November, when David Williams
and I were privileged to witness Santa’s arrival at Notcutts Garden Centre in Staines.
For several years the two Rotary Clubs of Shepperton have assisted Santa on his
regular visits to Notcutts during the run up to Christmas. Our help is rewarded
by a generous donation to our Charity Fund. We also accompany him around the
streets of Shepperton on several evenings during December, in the High Street
one Saturday and also one evening where he visits the pubs and restaurants of
Shepperton.
Santa with his elf at Notcutts
For his arrival at Notcutts, he was resplendent in a
magnificent carriage drawn by two enormous Black Beauties. Sharing the carriage
with him were two excited competition winners, a boy of 6 and his 8 year old
sister. They did a couple of triumphant circuits of the Garden centre car Park
before stopping outside the main entrance to be mobbed by a hundred or so well
wishers, mostly children.
Santa on his carriage with happy competition winners
Santa gets mobbed
In the following days and weeks, Father Christmas returned
on several occasions to grace the grotto with his presence, and also to have
sessions of Breakfast with Santa and Tea with Santa. I witnessed at first hand
one of the Breakfast with Santa sessions, when he joined around 20 children for
breakfast, together with parents, grandparents, brothers and sisters and
assorted other relatives. As usual some
children were terrified, some just shy, whilst others were happy to chat about
anything at all. Those were his favourites.
He particularly enjoyed meeting one boy who was with his
mother. In response to the usual question of ‘What do you want for Christmas?’
he said ‘An iPad’. His mother looked horrified, and hissed in his ear ‘Don’t
you remember, you said you wanted a snake.’ ‘Oh yes,’ said the boy ‘I want a snake or an iPad’. There was a slight pause,
then he said ’but an iPad would be
preferable.’ Somehow I can guess what he got for Christmas, and it wasn’t an iPad.
iPad
Another boy, a real chatterbox, became very conspiratorial
at one point and whispered into Santa’s ear that he (Santa) needed to get back
to the North Pole as quickly as possible. The problem, as he saw it, was that
the elves didn’t do any work whilst Santa was away, and just played games and
had parties. Father Christmas thanked
him for the information and declared that he would return immediately to the
North Pole as soon as breakfast was over, and make sure they got back to work.
The young man seemed relieved about this. On reflection, I think there was
probably some self – interest involved here, as he was probably concerned that
he might not get any toys for Christmas if the elves weren’t working.
Why aren't these elves working?
After Santa had met and chatted individually to each child,
all the children sat down in front of a comfy chair, where Santa sat to read
them all a story. Even though I expect many of them knew the story quite well,
they listened intently whilst the story was read to them, and seemed to enjoy
it. Next it was time for presents to be handed out. Each present was
individually labelled with the child’s name and they were very excited to
receive them. Santa’s new young friend, who had earlier warned him about his
elves, came up to thank him for the magnetic chess set he had been given, and a
long discussion ensued about the game of chess and the merits of chess pieces
which stayed on the board when it was turned upside down.
Magnetic Chess Board
The following day, Father Christmas was back at Notcutts to
take part in Tea with Santa. This was his first such engagement this year, but
he was unconcerned about it. The session would last about 40 minutes, but with
20 or more children, the time would soon pass and he didn’t have to worry about
the occasional child who didn’t want to speak to him. His confidence took a
knock, however, when he was informed that there were actually only two children
booked in for Tea with Santa. Furthermore, the café, where the session usually
took place was temporarily closed, so the store had arranged for the session to
take place in the grotto.
Santa in his grotto at Notcutts
Naturally he was a little perturbed about this, and said
that he assumed he would only be required for 5 or 10 minutes, as there were
only two ‘customers’ for him. ‘Oh no,’ he was told, ‘You are contracted to
spend 40 minutes with them’ . Santa was now, if not exactly terrified, then
seriously concerned in case the children
didn’t want to engage with him, which would make 40 minutes seem like an
eternity.
Santa at work in his grotto
He needn’t have worried. The two children, sisters aged 4
and 6, were just finishing their tea
when he arrived at the grotto. They were with their parents and another woman
who he took to be their grandmother, but actually turned out to be a member of
staff delegated to keep an eye on proceedings, and probably to stop him trying
to escape before his time was up. As it turned out, the children were an absolute
delight, happy to talk about everything that was going in their lives, from
school to Christmas preparations at home, to teeth they had lost, their pets
and of course, what they wanted for Christmas. The time passed very quickly,
the two girls sat arm in arm as Santa read them a story, and squealed with
delight when he gave them their
presents.
The Rotary club’s involvement with Christmas lasted throughout the days and weeks leading
up to Christmas Day. I have always enjoyed the work we do at this time of year
in bringing some magic to local families whilst collecting money for charitable
causes, but the biggest privilege is to be involved in supporting Father
Christmas as he engages with local children and to see the excitement this
generates. No doubt we will be doing it
all again next year, and from a personal point of view, I can’t wait!
Street Collection in Charlton Village
p.s. Found on the Internet:
Three stages of a man’s
life
1 . You believe in Father Christmas
2 . You don’t believe in Father Christmas
3 . You are Father Christmas!
