Video Call with Santa Claus | AD - What Hannah Did Next

I think we can all agree that 2020 hasn’t exactly been a year for the highlight reel but it is definitely ending the right way thanks to the kids having a video call with Santa!

We started off the year being able to come and go fairly freely and then everything went horribly wrong, but little did we know that we would still be affected by restrictions at Christmas.

We have all had to adapt to the new way of living, at least for now. Even the main man himself at this time of year has had to adapt.

In my honest opinion, Santa’s grotto where Santa is sat there in a face mask kind of ruins some of the magic. I completely understand why face masks are important especially in a situation where many children will be passing through. However what kids have been through this year, they deserve to keep some of the magic that doesn’t involve viruses and restrictions and just be normal for a few minutes!

We were contacted by Sea Life to see if we as a family would be interested in experiencing a virtual Santa visit. Given that so much of the world has adopted Zoom as part of the family now, we thought why not.

Before I get into the details of the experience I want to say that having experienced both real life Grotto experiences and this new virtual Grotto experience, the virtual experience is by far my favoured option moving forwards for soo many reasons.

New for this year, Sea Life are presenting a video call experience with Santa Claus for the first time ever.

This new experience will give you and your kids a chance to say hello to Santa on screen and make magical memories with your little ones this festive season. Now the whole family can dive in to a personalised meet and greet with the main man himself, direct from his snowy grotto in his very own Lapland, all in one enchanting experience.

Spot Santa, complete with a gigantic white beard and twinkling spectacles, in his cosy home amongst glistening lights and snow-capped mountains.

Perfect for those looking for a safe, socially distanced meet and greet with Santa, little ones can ask him questions and tell him what they’d like for Christmas on-screen, all from the comfort of your very own home.

Having now experienced this, I can say we ended up with 2 very inquisitive children who had an endless list of questions and were more than happy to chat.

Plus you get the chance to say hello to SEA LIFE’s cheeky penguins on-screen and meet Binky Tinselsmith, Santa’s elf helper, before Zooming in and meeting Santa himself. You can dial in with the whole family, parents, grandparents and pets alike, but make sure you leave enough time for each child to speak to Santa.

As part of the experience, included in the price of £30.00 is a FREE childs entry ticket to one of the following centres: SEA LIFE Brighton, National SEA LIFE Centre Birmingham, SEA LIFE Scarborough, SEA LIFE Great Yarmouth, SEA LIFE Hunstanton, SEA LIFE Loch Lomond, SEA LIFE Manchester or SEA LIFE Weymouth.

So if you are already planning a visit to Sea Life then I can whole heartedly recommend this Santa experience.

As I mentioned earlier I said I would favour this type of experience vs a face to face Grotto experience and here’s why.

The main reason is that for traditional face to face experiences it is far from personal. Your kids go in and get asked what they would like for Christmas and this is where the magic of a virtual experience wins. Because these calls are pre arranged these calls get tailored to you and your family.

On our call Santa was able to mention our kids names which instantly brought the magic, our kids were absolutely amazed that Santa knew their names which added to the magic for them. He was also able to mention what each of them wanted for Christmas without any mention from us. This was absolute perfection for being able to tie in their Christmas lists they had written a long time back with them believing they may actually get what they had asked for and that Santa knew!

Seeing their faces when Santa said the gifts they wanted was something we will never forget, and this type of experience is something you dont get at a face to face Grotto experience. It has kept the magic alive for a little while longer with our eldest who we suspect was on the verge of finding out the truth, but this has reaffirmed his belief!

At the start we were a bit sceptical about how this would go, but it turned out better than we could have ever imagined and at a time when these small things mean so much, it is an experience we will definitely be looking to do again next year.