The holiday tradition of meeting Santa at the Santa House in downtown Naperville has always happened from the Riverwalk Pavilion. But this year Santa has up shop at the Riverwalk Café, with the help of the Naperville Park District.Santa’s Workshop is officially open!
“This year we decided to do Santa’s workshop …We felt that this was a great opportunity that families could come to the workshop, get to visit with Santa but do it in a safe manner,” said Andrea Coates, Superintendent of Recreation with the Naperville Park District.
Santa’s Workshop Works in the New Normal
At Santa’s Workshop families walk through the patio of the Riverwalk Café, and if they look through the windows, they just might see some of Santa’s elves hard at work making their favorite toys.
Santa himself is overseeing the toy making from inside the workshop as well, where kids can tell him what they want for Christmas through a special microphone. They can even pose for a picture, at a safe distance.
Having Holiday Fun
“We kind of have set it up to be like a Macy’s window where you go through a series of windows and you get to look inside a workshop and then on the safety end of it we’ll have one or two families at the most on the patio at a time. Then they’ll get to go around and have a conversation with speakers, we call it our North Pole technology, that you get to have a special conversation with Santa,” said Andrea Coates, Superintendent of Recreation with the Naperville Park District.
Though walk-ups are not an option this year, all you have to do to see Santa is schedule a time online, or call the Naperville Park District.
Santa’s Workshop will be open at the Riverwalk Café every day from 4:30 – 8:30 pm, and will run until December 23rd.
Naperville News 17’s Ryan Skryd Reports
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