Good news – Santa Claus IS coming to town this year.
Families have been fretting over Christmas with Tier 3 lockdowns in the Liverpool City Region and elsewhere in the UK meaning that many popular festive children’s events, such as Santa’s grottos, may be postponed.
So two Southport events experts have teamed up to create Virtual Santa At Home.
Children will be able to make magical memories this Christmas and book Santa for a personalised pre-recorded Christmas video message.
Or they can enjoy an actual live interactive virtual chat from Santa’s very own home in Lapland.
Virtual Santa At Home has been launched by Lisa Hames, owner of G Models & Casting Agency, and Baz Todd, owner of Baz Todd Events, both based in Southport.
Lisa has run her events and entertainment agency over many years while Baz set up his company after an impressive career working as a radio presenter at some of the biggest radio stations in the North West.
Lisa said: “We have teamed up to do a virtual Father Christmas online. A lot of Santa’s grottos, and other things like that, are sadly not going to be able to open this year with the Covid restrictions we have now.
“Even if some grottos do open, there will be many families who won’t be able to visit if they have family members in any of the clinically vulnerable groups.
“We are offering pre-recorded messages with Santa, which we can send in time for Christmas. We will ask some questions online so we can personalise your messages.
“We are also going to be offering some live Zoom calls so Father Christmas can do some one to one calls with children from his grotto in Lapland.
“We want to make the messages with Father Christmas fun, a bit cheeky, and with a modern twist. We can make out the messages to individual children or families, or to a class in school, or to a local business.
“It’s a Covid safe way of doing it this year to give families some peace of mind, while still being fun and having the magic of Christmas. We hope to see lots of smiles.
“Over the next couple of weeks Father Christmas will be out and about in Southport, so look out for him in a cafe, or working out in a gym – who knows where you might see him?”
Virtual Santa At Home will start sending out festive messages to people from mid-November up to Christmas Eve, which will be personalised with individual details.
The live link-ups will be done via a booking system, with a 10-minute slot including a chat with Santa and a short story, which will be available up to and including Christmas Eve.
Lisa said: “We are going to offer a modern kind of Santa, a bit cheeky, fun and interactive.
“After the year we’ve all had, children deserve something to smile about this Christmas.”
FOR more details about Virtual Santa At Home, please visit the Virtual Santa At Home Facebook page, or email: virtualsantaathome@gmail.com or call: 07843 857868.
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