A colleague of mine (Hi Dawna!) tipped me off to this at a Christmas party the other day. If you are Canadian and have kids who still believe in the wonder of Santa, you *must* visit the Portable North Pole.
You answer a few questions like how old is your child, first name, gender, province of residence and a few others, and then upload a photo of your child (optional, but worth it!) Santa will e-mail them a personalized video greeting. Tristan and Simon were open-mouthed with wonder, especially when Santa opened his big book and said, “Hmmm, Tristan, let me see. Oh yes, here you are!” and turned his book to show Tristan’s name and a photo of him. Priceless at any cost, but totally free! (We had extra fun with ours because the photos I uploaded came from our trip to North Pole, New York earlier this year. Upped the believability factor by 10, IMHO!)
I sometimes have trouble finding personalized mass-produced trinkets with Tristan, Simon and Lucas written on them (dang, shoulda named them Ryan, Matthew and Michael!) but all three names were in the drop-down menu on Portable Santa. I’m highly impressed!
Give it a try, your kids will LOVE it!
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I was able to get the name Josee in french! I can’t wait until she gets home from school to see this…………
Way cool Dani!
We did this the other day for our 4.5 yr old daughter and she was very impressed that Santa had sent her an email. THEN when he spoke her name and had her picture, oh how I wish our video camera was working to catch that reaction!!! One Christmas memory made!!!
Happy holidays to you and your family.
My sister told me about it. My youngest sons name is not on the list. I will try anyhow, when I have a bit more time. Sounds like fun.
Hmmm…I may have to give that a whirl…if only to play head games with my oldest who is 9 and is confident that there’s no such thing as Santa.
Thankd for the shoutout! My Maddy is a bit young to really understand, but still had a hoot seeing herself in the video. And, let’s face it, I really enjoyed it too!
Very cool – thanks for passing this along! I might try it with my husband’s face and name!
Hi Dani. Thanks for writing about Portable North Pole last December and to your colleague Dawna who turned you onto it. We’re excited to be back again this year, in partnership with Sympatico and benefitting Unicef Canada. You’ll see a few upgrades that I think you’ll enjoy: adapted scenarios tailored specifically to kids under two (perfect for Lucas!), a map that shows the path Santa and his reindeer will take as they travel from the North Pole to your Ottawa home, and a fun version for your adult friends who have been naughty or nice. We know half the pleasure of PNP is actually creating the videos, so we’ll leave you the pleasure of sending Tristan, Simon and even baby Lucas their own messages from Santa. All the best to you and your family for the holiday season.
Alex.