{"id":49849,"date":"2012-12-14T05:56:51","date_gmt":"2012-12-14T12:56:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.wend.ca\/?p=49849"},"modified":"2020-04-11T20:32:23","modified_gmt":"2020-04-12T00:32:23","slug":"santas-village","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wend.ca\/?p=49849","title":{"rendered":"Santa’s Village, Market Mall"},"content":{"rendered":"

Location:<\/strong><\/em> Market Mall, Calgary
\nDates:<\/strong><\/em> Nov 18, 2012 to Dec 24, 2012
\nCost:<\/strong><\/em> Free. Photo prices vary.<\/p>\n

No Christmas with kids is complete until you’ve visited Santa. Remarkably (and somewhat surprisingly), we’ve been visiting the same Santa at Santa’s Playland in Market Mall for the last 8-years. He’s our favourite and really the only Santa that La Ni\u00f1a<\/em> knows. <\/p>\n

He’s popular… very very popular. So much so that on the best of days the wait to see him can be 30-minutes long… on the worst it could be hours. Over the years we’ve discovered that the best time to visit is on weekday evenings. This year we went on a Friday and only waited 5-minutes to see the big man.<\/p>\n

The good news is that there’s lots to do and explore while in the village: movies, funny mirrors, a slide, puzzles, games, giant teddy bears, and a whole heck of a lot of bright colours and noise.<\/p>\n

This will probably be the last year that we visit Santa. On the way to Market Mall, La Ni\u00f1a<\/em> wondered if the experience was “getting old.” And, after she was slightly sad and disappointed. In hindsight, a good end to an 8-year run would have been the Santa Breakfast.<\/p>\n