Inside London’s Santa School ‘bringing magic back to Christmas’

National World - LocalTV

We speak to this year’s Santas, and an Elf making sure children hard of hearing can have a magical experience with Father Christmas.

Transcript

00:00Well, this is the 26th annual Ministry of Funds Santa School, where we gather together

00:06with professional actors and performers to teach them the art of playing Father Christmas.

00:13So yeah, we come together, share experiences, learn all the key ingredients that are necessary

00:17to be able to deliver a magical Father Christmas experience for a child in a grotto or a Christmas

00:23market, Christmas fair, wherever it may be, and share experiences.

00:28So different Father Christmas performers are able to share their experiences from previous

00:32years.

00:33We learn all sorts of things.

00:34We learn the key things that they should do, things they shouldn't do.

00:38We learn about the new toys that might be in demand this year that children would ask

00:42for, and just generally hone the skills to make sure that the performance they give and

00:48the experience they give the child is a magical one.

00:52Santa is the most magical job of all.

00:54It's very important and very rewarding.

00:57It's an important job to keep everyone happy as well, a lot of responsibility, but also

01:03to give that little bit of magic as well.

01:06Keep the magic going.

01:07It doesn't matter what age your child is or whoever comes into the grotto, one, two,

01:12three, four, five, all the way up to the teens, very important to keep the magic.

01:18Have you heard of the singer Adele?

01:21Yes, she came to see me in one of the department stores.

01:25She was lovely.

01:27And there's another one.

01:28What's his name?

01:29Oh, yes.

01:30Arnold Schwarzenegger.

01:31Do you know him?

01:32Yes.

01:33Very big man.

01:34Yes.

01:35He came to say hello to me.

01:36It doesn't matter what age you are, whether you're a celebrity or otherwise, come and

01:40see Santa and get that Christmas magic back.

01:44So we've been introducing BSL to Santa school now for the last three, I think this is our

01:49third year.

01:50We just think it's really important that everybody, every child at Christmas feels included.

01:56And I think it's really important that Santas have just a basic understanding because obviously

02:00Santa is so magical to children and he is the all-knowing and all-seeing.

02:04So to have that level of communication with non-verbal or deaf children is really special

02:10and really important to us here at the Ministry of Fun.

02:12Yeah, last year, actually, we had two moments which were magical.

02:16So I was an elf and then with my Santa, who could also sign because he learned some basics,

02:21we had two meetings, one with a deaf child and his brother and sister were hearing,

02:26but he was completely deaf.

02:28And his brother and sister said to us, oh, don't worry about him.

02:30He can't hear you.

02:31And I said, well, that's OK because Santa can speak sign.

02:34So we started signing with the child and then the oldest said, I'd stop believing in Santa

02:39until I've seen that.

02:40And it was so magical.

02:41It gets me really emotional.

02:42Oh, it's lovely.

02:43So that was really nice.

02:44And because the elf could sign as well and I was chatting to them, I introduced myself

02:47and I asked them what they wanted for Christmas and I did a bit of singing with them, with

02:52the hearing children to their deaf brother.

02:54It was really magical and they really took that to heart and they said it was the most

02:58wonderful thing.

02:59And the mum was crying.

03:00It was really lovely.

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