Santa school returns to London

Local TV

3 hours ago

The festive season has well and truly begun.

Transcript

00:00As Christmas approaches, London has become home to an unusual kind of training ground,

00:08the Santa School by Ministry of Fun.

00:11Now, established in 1999, it's the UK's longest-running and most recognised institution

00:18dedicated to preparing fully-trained Father Christmas performers for work across the country and beyond.

00:25And the training's happening right here in London.

00:28Over the years, it's become quite a pioneer in shaping what families now expect from a professional Santa experience.

00:37Sort of mid-August, late August, we turn our attention to Christmas.

00:41Santa generally calls us around that time, the real Santa, and asks us if we'll help him out once more.

00:47And then around this time of year, we hold our Santa School, in which we get together lots of Santa performers

00:54who have done it for many, many years and some that have never done it.

00:56Now, the curriculum is surprisingly thorough at this Santa School.

01:01Learning how to deliver a very believable ho-ho-ho is obviously compulsory,

01:06but staying informed in this year's most-requested toys as well,

01:10offering Merry Christmases in multiple languages,

01:13and understanding how to convincingly represent the real Santa himself.

01:19The number one trait that a Father Christmas performer needs is kindness.

01:24They just need to be kind.

01:26And an extension of that is listening.

01:31You've got to listen to the child.

01:33Children may come in and tell you about their Christmas list.

01:36They may tell you what they want and talk about the presents,

01:39or where they want you to leave the presents, or whether they've got a chimney, etc.

01:42But it's surprising how many times children confide in Santa.

01:47They see them as a trusted figure that they feel safe with.

01:52So they tell them sometimes about things that are troubling them, etc.

01:55So it's a real wonderful and moving experience and a real responsibility.

02:02Every year, which is getting bigger,

02:03is to make sure that we can be inclusive of all children, all abilities.

02:07And obviously, not all children can hear, not all children can see.

02:11So it's our mission to do as much as we can to make sure that all children feel included

02:16at Christmas time, especially when it's such a big thing to children.

02:20So touching upon smells and sensory things and what they can feel and smell rather than just see and touch,

02:27but also learning some basic BSLs.

02:29So children that might be hard of hearing or completely deaf, we can converse with them.

02:34And it just makes it so special that Father Christmas can also communicate with them,

02:40not just all the other children that might be able to hear him.

02:43If we can teach them basic sign language to Father Christmas, it means so much.

02:46Even just to be able to say, Merry Christmas, it's nice to see you again.

02:50That means the world to some children who have potentially previously not had that interaction.

02:56So it's just really important for us that we are as inclusive as we can be.

Santa school returns to London

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