We speak to this year’s Santas, and an Elf making sure children hard of hearing can have a magical experience with Father Christmas.
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00:00Well, this is the 26th annual Ministry of Funds Santa School, where we gather together
00:06with professional actors and performers to teach them the art of playing Father Christmas.
00:13So yeah, we come together, share experiences, learn all the key ingredients that are necessary
00:17to be able to deliver a magical Father Christmas experience for a child in a grotto or a Christmas
00:23market, Christmas fair, wherever it may be, and share experiences.
00:28So different Father Christmas performers are able to share their experiences from previous
00:32years.
00:33We learn all sorts of things.
00:34We learn the key things that they should do, things they shouldn't do.
00:38We learn about the new toys that might be in demand this year that children would ask
00:42for, and just generally hone the skills to make sure that the performance they give and
00:48the experience they give the child is a magical one.
00:52Santa is the most magical job of all.
00:54It's very important and very rewarding.
00:57It's an important job to keep everyone happy as well, a lot of responsibility, but also
01:03to give that little bit of magic as well.
01:06Keep the magic going.
01:07It doesn't matter what age your child is or whoever comes into the grotto, one, two,
01:12three, four, five, all the way up to the teens, very important to keep the magic.
01:18Have you heard of the singer Adele?
01:21Yes, she came to see me in one of the department stores.
01:25She was lovely.
01:27And there's another one.
01:28What's his name?
01:29Oh, yes.
01:30Arnold Schwarzenegger.
01:31Do you know him?
01:32Yes.
01:33Very big man.
01:34Yes.
01:35He came to say hello to me.
01:36It doesn't matter what age you are, whether you're a celebrity or otherwise, come and
01:40see Santa and get that Christmas magic back.
01:44So we've been introducing BSL to Santa school now for the last three, I think this is our
01:49third year.
01:50We just think it's really important that everybody, every child at Christmas feels included.
01:56And I think it's really important that Santas have just a basic understanding because obviously
02:00Santa is so magical to children and he is the all-knowing and all-seeing.
02:04So to have that level of communication with non-verbal or deaf children is really special
02:10and really important to us here at the Ministry of Fun.
02:12Yeah, last year, actually, we had two moments which were magical.
02:16So I was an elf and then with my Santa, who could also sign because he learned some basics,
02:21we had two meetings, one with a deaf child and his brother and sister were hearing,
02:26but he was completely deaf.
02:28And his brother and sister said to us, oh, don't worry about him.
02:30He can't hear you.
02:31And I said, well, that's OK because Santa can speak sign.
02:34So we started signing with the child and then the oldest said, I'd stop believing in Santa
02:39until I've seen that.
02:40And it was so magical.
02:41It gets me really emotional.
02:42Oh, it's lovely.
02:43So that was really nice.
02:44And because the elf could sign as well and I was chatting to them, I introduced myself
02:47and I asked them what they wanted for Christmas and I did a bit of singing with them, with
02:52the hearing children to their deaf brother.
02:54It was really magical and they really took that to heart and they said it was the most
02:58wonderful thing.
02:59And the mum was crying.
03:00It was really lovely.