After a year of “Santa-tizing,” following social distancing and wearing masks, Santa Claus is here on Kaua‘i with Mrs. Claus and Elf Kitty Claus at his Kukui Grove Center hale.
Santa Claus said he is 1,749 years old today in North Pole years, and he normally starts his sleigh journey leaving Kaua‘i first and ends it back on the island with a little vacation to spend time with keiki.
“We made a special trip down from the North Pole to be here for the keiki because they were all worried about what we were going to do this year,” Santa said earlier this week. “Santa is normally in parades, schools and I can’t do it this year (because of the pandemic). But the parents are so happy that Santa and Mrs. Claus came this year.”
This year, Santa and Mrs. Claus gave unlimited selfie photos, a free gift out of the kindness of their hearts to cheer up Kaua‘i’s ‘ohana.
“This time to follow with social distancing, we had the children sit in front of Santa 6 feet on a bench, and only allowed five members to come into his hale for photos,” Mrs. Claus said. “Of course before they enter Santa’s house, the elves are busy sanitizing their hands and making sure they are wearing their masks before they stood up to tell Santa what they wanted for Christmas.”
Santa’s powers
Elf Kitty Claus shared what was the number one question that kids would ask.
“I been working with Santa and Mrs. Claus forever,” Elf Kitty said. “The kids would ask, ‘How is he able to come to see me if I don’t have a chimney?’”
Santa smiled and began to talk about his magical powers.
“Well, Santa has a red suit, just like Spider-Man, and it has magic so if I touch my suit with my finger and touch my magical ring, that makes me so tiny. I can be the size of an ant, so I can come through the keyhole and I can go down the chimney,” Santa said. “A lot of parents would say ‘we don’t have a chimney.’ Not to worry, cause Santa will still come to visit you and bring you toys. When I get close to the Christmas tree it’s magic too it makes me full size so I can leave the presents under the tree.”
Inside the hale, a magical book tells the keiki if they were naughty or nice this year. The hourglass helps the elves know who gets presents. And if the hourglass is naughty, kids still have time to do something nice to make it go back to nice.
“The kids have to say their name, it won’t respond to anyone else’s name,” Mrs. Claus said. “And the hourglass tells us when a child is naughty, it flips over and the magical dust goes to the bottom, so they have to do something nice in order for it to get back to nice. The elves will go into the hall of records where it’s kept and they look at all of the hourglasses to see who has been naughty or nice and Santa will check it twice, that’s how they know how to load the sleigh.”
According to Mrs. Claus, Santa doesn’t make total promises because some gifts parents have to be a part of, and she said Santa will see what he can do.
“He always lets them know they will have something special for Christmas,” Mrs. Claus said.
What’s in the sleigh?
Mrs. Claus said it’s too cold up in the sleigh with Santa for kittens and puppies.
“It’s not very good to take an animal up in a sleigh,” Mrs. Claus said. “And that’s also another one of the presents that moms and dads have to help because they have to go to the vets and they have to be feed and they have to have all kinds of expenses. It’s an ongoing expense, not like bracelets or toys.”
Santa Claus talked about how parents get involved with technology presents too.
“This includes technology like internet, cell phone, computers, etc.,” Santa said. “We tell them they cost money so you have to make sure it’s OK with mom and dad. We would love everybody to have everything they want, but obviously, there are things that are out of our control, and that is one of the things out of our control.”
From naughty to nice
Mrs. Claus said Santa’s favorite cookies are snickerdoodles, and there is still time to get things right if you landed on the naughty list before Christmas Eve.
“I am telling you right now, I have a real vision that every store will not have any cream of tarter,” Mrs. Claus said. “That’s the secret ingredient. Our elves love brussel sprout and gingerbread cookies, and I love sugar cookies.”
Mrs. Claus said she spent over 150 hours decorating Santa’s Hale this year with the help of red cardinals and sandpipers who watch Kaua‘i’s keiki while the elves are busy working in the North Pole.
“We want to wish everybody a Merry Christmas, we’ve been grateful to see so many kids come out here and spend time with us,” Mrs. Claus said. “We have learned a lot from them, we know what everybody wants for Christmas, we have had a lot of letters delivered this year, a lot of kids have brought us mail, so we have been really busy to get those letters to get things right.”
Santa said thank you for the snickerdoodles and have a Merry Christmas with your ‘ohana tonight.
“It’s not too late to get your hourglass from naughty to nice, do something nice for someone you love,” Mrs. Claus remarked.
Thank you. I didn’t know how old Santa Claus was. When was young I remember asking Santa Claus to give me more money so I could by my own toys. One of the toys was a train set and also one of the toys was a remote control car battery type. This was popular back in the 1970s. That was a fun but torcher to wait on for these presents to come in. And it did.