Former Neillsville Man Creates Unique, Virtual Santa Visit at Mall of America
Saturday, December 5th, 2020 -- 11:00 AM
-During the time of the coronavirus pandemic, even Santa visits have changed, if they’re being held at all.
However, for the team at Mall of America, they devised a fun virtual way for kids, and adults who are kids at heart, to visit with Santa. The Lead Storyteller and Experience Designer at Mall of America Christopher Grap, originally from Neillsville and the son of Kevin Grap of Central Wisconsin Broadcasting, discussed how this unique virtual experience came about.
Chris: “It came to us late in the season. We were working really hard in advance trying to figure out how we wanted to treat the holiday experience this year. And we were seeing a lot of things and hearing a lot of things around the Santa experience that felt very kind of cold and dystopian to me, like ‘Santa’s trapped in a snowglobe!’ It felt like, when you watch movies or TV and people visit each other in prison and they touch the glass before they say goodbye. That’s what I was seeing from the Santa experience! I don’t want to acknowledge the weight of the world. We want it to be fun and we want it to be magical.”
“So, this group Hotop had an idea for the Candy Cane Institute, which checked a lot of our boxes except, at that time, it didn’t have a Santa visit included. So, we worked with them to bring Santa into the mix. And what we developed was a very family friendly, COVID safe experience where guests essentially get to visit the Candy Cane Institute Field Office for the first time ever! They're getting to work with the elves and do these experiments and work on what makes the holidays magical. And so each family would have gone through in their own group and you wouldn’t have interacted with anybody but your elf. But part of what’s clever about it is because the elves are doing experiments, they have to wear masks and lab coats anyway. They don’t want to mess up the experiments! I liked how it approached the safety aspect where it made it a part of the story and more playful, rather than, again, the weight of the world on everybody. The last thing you want for a family at Christmas is to be acknowledging that we’re in a pandemic.”
“So, we had a great plan. And November 17th, we’re building it, it’s going into the space, we’re getting ready, and then the Governor’s new orders come out in Minnesota that we can’t have any indoor entertainment or any in-person Santa experiences. So, we had to very quickly rethink how we were going to bring this to folks and our IT team...bless them! I bless them for putting up with me and everything else! But they came up with a great solution and so I’m really happy that everybody saw how special this could be still, even though it wasn’t an in-person experience. Our entertainment team, working with their elves, made it something truly unique and magical. I’m absolutely tickled that we’re doing it! I love it!”
Question: “I give you guys a lot of credit! For you guys being able to do this and bring this to kids is a really great experience!”
Chris: “Yeah, and I think it’s great for kids of all ages. We’ve seen visitors make reservations and it’s just adults that enjoy it just as much as kids! And that’s the beauty of it being unique is our elves are communicating directly with the group. It’s not a pre-scripted piece. So, every conversation, every visit is unique to that guest. But the idea that the kids actually virtually get to visit the elves and Santa’s workshop at the North Pole is really charming and it’s a lot of fun!”
Question: “So since people can do this anywhere, how do they do it? How do they get signed up?”
Chris: “If you visit candycaneinstitute.com it gives you a little bit of the history of the Candy Cane Institute, but there’s also a link there to buy your tickets. And really what you’re doing is buying a timed reservation. So, you would choose the date and choose the time that’s available. It’s $20 per group, so it doesn’t matter how many people are in your group, it’s really just the $20 for that specific reservation. And there’s some instructions we ask you to follow for the most optimal visit, making sure that your mic is on and your video is on so we don’t have to mess with any technical stuff when you get to your virtual Candy Cane visit. All-in-all, I think, in the world that we’re in, everybody is probably overly familiar with online video services, so it’s all fairly intuitive. It’s really fun; it’s really engaging. It’s interesting now, we were reliant on foot traffic before. When it was going to be in-person, it was really only going to be for anybody that was at Mall of America. But now, anybody, anywhere can enjoy this experience. And I think that’s pretty cool!” View the Candy Cane Institute website here!
Question: “Do you think this will be just for this year's experience or do you see this continuing on next year?”
Chris: “We’ve already kind of announced that next year we are planning on opening the Candy Cane Institute’s first field office at Mall of America. So, absolutely! We see this continuing to grow and develop throughout the years. I mean, the elves are always going to have questions and Santa is always going to want to talk to guests, so yes I see this continuing. Offering both options, I think, is how we want to take it. Based on the response to the virtual experience, I think that’s something we’ll always have in mind. But I think getting that in-person and tactile experience is going to be paramount for us next year as well.”
Feel free to contact us with questions and/or comments.