Santa's Grotto - The best way to organise Father Christmas using Classlist.

Running Santa’s Grotto

We get a lot of questions about this and the set up can vary between schools but here is our suggested way of running this event using Classlist.

Using a ticketed event and adding times to each ticket type means that parents can book and pay in advance for their slot. This means queuing can be minimised and Santa can maximise the number of children he sees in the allotted time. You can even add questions to check in advance who has been naughty or nice!

Create an event

• Set up an event with ticket descriptions that state the time eg every 15 minutes.
• Add the total quantity of children you want Santa to see in that time slot, in this example we have said 5 which allows for 3 minutes each with Santa. These people will be queueing together but can still visit Santa individually or in family groups. If you think a lot of families will have children going in together you may find you can accommodate a higher number of children during the time slot. 

Add Questions to your event

• You could ask questions with the event tickets so Santa can personalise the experience. Eg ‘Name of child?’ and  ‘What has your child been really good at this year?’ The elves could then help Santa by reminding him of the answers before each child goes in so he can tailor the experience to that child.

Ticket Allocation

• Once you publish your event parents can purchase their chosen tickets in one easy transaction in advance. They can also check their tickets/time slot from a button on the event page as well as in their email confirmation.
• You can download a spreadsheet of who has tickets at which time. For easy list sorting purposes you may want to add a letter to the beginning of the ticket descriptions eg ‘Ticket A. Santa’s Grotto 10am’, ‘Ticket B. Santa’s Grotto 10.15am’ etc (Please don't edit ticket descriptions once the event is live).

On the Day

• You could plan to provide entertainment while queueing such as having the elves help children make paper chains or another simple activity. 
• The children can then go in one at a time or in family groups depending on their preference.
• Elves/Santa would all need to manage the timings per child to ensure the whole group was seen within their allotted time.
• Grouping people in this way means that their maximum queue time is 15 minutes - so families can spend more time at other areas of your event.
• If anyone is a few minutes late, others in their group can easily be seen first.
• Santa’s time is maximised so he can see the most children possible.