Mall Has Kids Skype Santa Instead of Visiting in Person
Santa sets up shop in cyberspace.
Going to the mall to visit Santa during the holidays is a tradition for many families around the world. However, one busy shopping mall in Canada has decided to make a change with regard to how kids interact with Santa.
The Canadian Press reports that Toronto's Eaton Centre has had Santa in the mall for more than 100 years. This year, Santa will return to the Eaton Centre Mall but only for an hour on Saturday mornings and only for kids that have signed up in advance for his special storytime experience. The rest of the week, he'll be behind a computer, Skyping with children from across Canada. By signing up through Eaton Centre, you can arrange a 10-minute Skype session with the man in the big red suit. Both storytime and the Skype session are free to take part in.
Marketing director Meredith Vlitas says the reason for Santa's new Skype account is that the mall wanted to create an experience that would be more fun for parents and their kids. Vlitas also highlighted the fact that the line to see Santa in previous years was sometimes three hours or more. However, some parents are unhappy with the idea that Santa isn't going to be at the mall every day.
"The fact that a kid can't get on a Santa's lap, have him put his arm around him, hear his real voice, cuddle up to him and have the whole experience is a real shame," Jennifer Jasey is quoted by the Canadian Press as saying.
If Jasey really is desperate for her 2-year-old son Zidane to have the traditional mall Santa Claus, she isn't completely out of luck. If Skype or storytime doesn't cut it, she can go across the street to the Hudson Bay Company whose Santa is on site seven days a week.
- Google Feeding Ice Cream Dogfood to Employees' Nexus S
- iPhone, iPod Touch Cases Recalled Over Fire Concerns
- Researchers Prove Violent Video Games Change Your Brain
- Augmented Reality Lets Shoppers Interact With Dinosaurs
- China to Match U.S. Oil Demand by 2040
- Acer's New Iconia Tab A200 Packs Tegra 2, ICS Soon
- Verizon Confirms Xoom 2 as Droid Xyboard for December
- The Saga Continues: Latest on the Carrier IQ Uproar
- RIM Takes $485M Charge Due to Unsold PlayBooks
- Samsung Galaxy S II Burns Inside Man's Pants
- Sony's New PS Video Store Commercials are Insanely Cool
- Acer Iconia Tab A501: Is it Worth 3X the Kindle Fire?
- Bitdefender Releases Carrier IQ Finder for Android
- US Judge Denies Apple's Bid to Block Samsung's Galaxy Tab
- Wii U Specs Possibly Leaked: PowerPC CPU, AMD GPU
- 1 in 10 American Smartphone Subscribers Owns an iPhone
- Patent Troll Sues Nearly the Entire Mobile Industry
- Google Launches Android Retail Shop: Androidland
- Syria Bans the iPhone to Silence Citizen Journalists
santa will finally have a christmas on which no kid has urinated upon his clothes.
viva skype. viva technology. viva .... microsoft.
In the year 2080, Christmas is no longer celebrated as the birth of Jesus Christ but the coming of Santa.
Christmas will loose all its religious meaning and it will become a purely commercial celebration.
2080 you say?
Christmas is a funny holiday, where all the non religious people celebrate a religious holiday.
Total BS, I hope this fails miserably but knowing the mentality of some people, it won't.
Sad but you make a good point.
Romans 10:9
Everyone loves Christmas.
christmas is to rest for the new years party ^^
In the year 2080, Christmas is no longer celebrated as the birth of Jesus Christ but the coming of Santa.Christmas will loose all its religious meaning and it will become a purely commercial celebration.
You realize that happened years ago right? Jesus wasn't even born around christmas, and most of the christmas symbols have nothing to do with christianity anyway, I mean really a pine tree, where would you ever find a pine tree Bethlehem?
While skimming the headlines I read this article as "Mall Has Kids Skype Santa Instead of Visiting in Prison". Just thought I would share
Jesus was made in china!
Great... another job soon to be outsourced to a foreign county... jk
Since we're talking about the commercialization of Christmas... I wonder if they'll eventually take this into the direction of having a paid service so parents can have their kids Skype with Santa straight from home. Parents then don't have to deal with all the hustle with getting to the mall around Holiday time and all that jazz...
In a few years, technology will allow Santa to be outsourced to overseas call centers.
Great... another job soon to be outsourced to a foreign county... jk Since we're talking about the commercialization of Christmas... I wonder if they'll eventually take this into the direction of having a paid service so parents can have their kids Skype with Santa straight from home. Parents then don't have to deal with all the hustle with getting to the mall around Holiday time and all that jazz...
Eventually, Black Friday and year-end clearance sales will be the holidays, not Christmas and New Years Eve.
Well at least there's gunna be a lot less kids runnign around the Eaton Center, thank god. (i go to school next to it)
Retailers have been doing everything they can to make Christmas absolutely unbearable since the mid 90's but eliminating the Mall Santa is something I have a hard time with.
In a few years, technology will allow Santa to be outsourced to overseas call centers.
Since Santa lives at the the North Pole, wouldn't a call center in any country, including the US, be outsourcing?
Christmas will loose lose all its religious meaning and it will become a purely commercial celebration.
I don't know about losing religious meanings, but most of English speakers have already lost their ability to distinguish between lose/loose, your/you're, their/they're and so on. At this point, I don't give a $h!t about religion (in fact, I'd love it to disappear from people's lives), I just want everyone to proof-read their posts... doesn't your browser have a spell checker?
Christmas will loose all its religious meaning and it will become a purely commercial celebration.
Already happened
I don't know about losing religious meanings, but most of English speakers have already lost their ability to distinguish between lose/loose, your/you're, their/they're and so on. At this point, I don't give a $h!t about religion (in fact, I'd love it to disappear from people's lives), I just want everyone to proof-read their posts... doesn't your browser have a spell checker?
There is a difference between spelling errors and grammatical errors. Although browsers have a built in dictionary to correct spelling, I don't think they, as yet, have the ability to correct the misuse of words.
I don't know about losing religious meanings, but most of English speakers have already lost their ability to distinguish between lose/loose, your/you're, their/they're and so on. At this point, I don't give a $h!t about religion (in fact, I'd love it to disappear from people's lives), I just want everyone to proof-read their posts... doesn't your browser have a spell checker?
Your right. They're is much more to loose before Christmas is all about Santa!
Better?
whatever, the traditional meaning of christmas is dumb anyways.
To christians: Not only are you dead wrong about the "true meaning" of christmas (it was a conglomeration of pagan holidays adopted to ease conversion from other religions just around the time christianity was becoming "the cool religion"
To everybody else who celebrates: Christmas isn't about santa coming to give presents etc etc, just about spending time with the people that you don't see for the rest of the year.
That and spending money for the economy.
christmas is to rest for the new years party ^^
WORD!
In the year 2080, Christmas is no longer celebrated as the birth of Jesus Christ but the coming of Santa.Christmas will loose all its religious meaning and it will become a purely commercial celebration.
It's been that since the creation of Christmas. Christmas is nothing but a day for The Man to make quick profits from the people. Same goes for Valentine's Day and Halloween. All created purely for business
OMG there's more than 1 santa? Clones?
I've always thought Santa was created so that Christians could ease their children in to the idea of Christ. I mean think about it, although you may not agree with these statements these are the things Christians would want their children thinking of God as: lovable, giving, caring, immortal, self-sacrificing and wanting to have a replationship with you. Compare that with Santa and it's like a perfect match. I don't like this idea, but I see why they did it. Unfortunately, you can't just have two Santas.
It's been that since the creation of Christmas. Christmas is nothing but a day for The Man to make quick profits from the people. Same goes for Valentine's Day and Halloween. All created purely for business
Um, no Chrismas was celebrated originally to celebrate Jesus's birth. It was not created for gift giving. The only reason people give gifts is because the Wise Men gave gifts to Jesus on his birth which were then used to let Jesus and his family escape to Egypt. Unfotuanely, Christams is extremely overcommercialized. It really is disgusting sometimes how bad it has gotten. Valentine's Day was created in 496 by a Pope and I'm pretty sure he didn't intend for it to become a day about money. As for Halloween, yeah it's all about money nowadays, but it used to be a pagan celebration of the dead.
Christmas is a funny holiday, where all the non religious people celebrate a religious holiday.
Riiiight. Because an old fat man with white hair, reindeer, elves, the north pole, and christmas trees, and free toys for kids, are all religious customs.
Great... another job soon to be outsourced to a foreign county... jk Since we're talking about the commercialization of Christmas... I wonder if they'll eventually take this into the direction of having a paid service so parents can have their kids Skype with Santa straight from home. Parents then don't have to deal with all the hustle with getting to the mall around Holiday time and all that jazz...
uh...kids used to write letters to santa. There was a time when malls did not exist ya know. and it wasn't really that long ago. The first strip mall ever built was in omaha nebraska 1956ish. The first covered mall came after that.
Too bad he's a fake! haha. I think that this will be pretty good, since it's something new and a use of the technology that's becoming a more common part of our culture. He's still gonna show up, so it's not like you can't go and listen in on your kid saying what he wants for Christmas.
In the year 2080, Christmas is no longer celebrated as the birth of Jesus Christ but the coming of Santa.Christmas will loose all its religious meaning and it will become a purely commercial celebration.
I think you made a typo....and meant 2008. Has already happened. You can thank First Amendment rights for that one. Yep, now everyone can come to the USA, say what they want, went they want, celebrate what they want and completely ignore traditions that our forefathers had. Pretty soon, Thanksgiving will be about turkeys only instead of the Pilgrims and Indians, and we'll no longer celebrate our own Independence Day, but we'll be celebrating Chinese New Year and Mexican Independence day like no tomorrow!
Back on track, I really think this is a blessing and a curse. I like the idea of introducing technology to children at an early age, but at the same time, I'd prefer to have Santa right in front of me. A real person is much more meaningful than someone you can see through a computer screen. I really hope the tradition of having a Santa at each mall (or many) never lies out. You cannot create the same magic in a child's eyes through Skype as you can in real life, much less any teenager or adult, for that matter, either. Think about it. Your mom or dad is fighting a war in Afghanistan. Would you rather see them on Skype, or have them home? I think that's a no brainer.