Santa goes virtual to keep grotto fun alive

A Stirling tourism business has stepped in and helped Santa go virtual this year after fears that families won’t get a chance to visit grottos in the run up to Christmas.

The new ‘Surprise Santa’ personal video service was inspired after an independent Scottish tourism initiative decided to take action to safeguard Christmas.

Open Pass Scotland operates the Stirling and Edinburgh City Passes as well as running a popular visitor attraction in Stirling.

Founder of Open Pass Scotland, Geoff Morrison recognised the opportunity to create the online service as grottos face uncertainty due to Covid-19.

The personal video service offers a lifeline for families to get in touch with Santa from the comfort of their own home - with the help of Open Pass’s David Kinnaird, best known locally for leading the popular Stirling Ghost Walks.

Parents can upload letters to Santa online and receive a personalised video response from the man himself, all safe and in plenty of time for Christmas.

Geoff explained that the online service has launched with the aim of reassuring families and spreading some much-needed festive cheer.

“With so much uncertainty we reached out to Santa and offered to help out.

“If families aren’t able to come to him, we would bring Santa to them.

“We’ve created a safe way to upload a letter to Santa and then receive a truly magical and genuine personalised video response.

“We have all had to adapt as a result of coronavirus and hopefully Surprise Santa will be a reassuring stepping stone on the journey back to normality.”

Surprise Santa is also supporting the Eilidh Brown Memorial Fund with £1 from every online sale via the website going directly towards the building and maintenance of a respite holiday home in the Stirling area for young people and their families who are in treatment or recovering from cancer.

Eilidh sadly lost her fight against cancer aged just 15 years old on March 25, 2010.

Since then Eilidh’s family have been working tirelessly to build a stunning countryside respite holiday home near Thornhill, which is nearing completion.

To find out more about Surprise Santa visit Surprisesanta.co.uk