This year, many of our Christmas plans have dramatically changed, including those of our dear friend from the North Pole, Santa Claus.
Susen Mesco, parishioner at Immaculate Conception Parish in Lafayette and owner of American Events and Promotions, has spent over 36 years bringing a magic touch to the holiday season with her pool talented performers who portray Santa Claus. However, this year’s pandemic has changed the tradition, limiting Santa visits and canceling most of her events. Yet, there is one thing that hasn’t changed: her commitment to bringing joy to the little ones.
With the aim of doing her part to prevent the spread of COVID-19 while bringing joy, magic and Christmas traditions to homes across the country, Mesco and her team came up with the idea of creating virtual Santa visits.
“The Claus Family at American Events and Santa Visits USA have been working with technology for seven months to transfer the live stage to the small screen presentation with songs, stories, interactive family activities, puppets, magic, props, and special guest stars who pop in,” Mesco said.
Mesco and her team, which includes 150 of the top holiday performers in the country, worked for months to create children activities, including Christian readings, to help fill children with excitement the same way they do when they visit Santa at the mall.
“Children are very resilient! They have easily adapted to this new technology of Zoom wonderfully,” she said. “Standing in line at the mall isn’t a lot of fun if you’re five years old. With virtual Santa visits, there is no endless waiting in line exposed to germs. Children will spend 10-15 dedicated virtual personal minutes with Santa instead of 90 seconds at the mall.”
Her virtual parties include interactive children activities for up to 90 families at once that range from karaoke to storytelling among others. Families can also request personalized Santa messages and visits.
“We have virtual visits and personalized messages from Santa, Mesco explained. “Santa’s secret Elves provide us with details about the children. Santa spends 10-15 minutes with each family singing, telling stories and discussing events from the year as well as gentle reminders to pick up toys and brush teeth or eat more vegetables.”
This year, Mesco wants to share the magic of Christmas with Catholic families and make sure that no one is left out by offering a FREE program that includes Christian stories, religious songs and some reading of the bible. Visit SantaVisitsUSA.com and use the code DENCATHOLIC for access to this program.
“All of our Santa family is heartbroken that we cannot be with the children, but Santa needs to stay healthy at the North Pole so he can make his rounds on Christmas Eve,” Mesco concluded. “We can all be responsible. Virtual is the answer.”
This program is open from Nov. 1st until January 31st. For more information, visit SantaVisitsUSA.com.