OK, for the latest Santa update I'm going to take you through a day on the "Hello Santa" line. I operate out of the front room, which means the backdrop bisects the room and banishes Mary to the bedroom or all the stores on the Outer Banks! So far this week she has had to fill up the car with gas twice, and its only Monday!
Anyway, backdrop down, Santa hat and coat on, gloves ready, I sign into the site we operate out of about 3 minutes before 11, or 8 PST. I take a quick peek at the reservations and see that it looks to be nonstop again today. Yesterday in my 4 hour shift, the longest time I had between calls was 45 seconds! So today I decided to keep track of the calls and where they came from, I had previously talked to the United Kingdom, Canada, and Sri Lanka. I think we had three of us fielding calls today which does help a bit when you have 6 calls come in at one time. We try to limit the calls to 3 minutes or so.
The calls came in at a steady pace but not quite as hectic as yesterday, I at least had a chance to catch my breathe between calls and sip some water. Today I worked 4 hours, took an hour off and worked another hour. In the 5 hours I was on the line I took 62 calls, talked to 80+ children, and spoke to people from the United Kingdom 4 times, Mexico 3 times and the following countries once each, Canada, Puerto Rico, Norway and New Zealand. I felt like I was hosting the United Nations in our living room! There were a couple of interesting requests, one boy wanted a rat, a toy rat he was quick to add. When I asked what he was going to do with it, he said he wanted to sleep with it! To each, his own! The other unusual request was the little girl from Puerto Rico, who wants a trampoline and a piano! Her Mom was sitting there and I saw her expression when "Piano" came out of the little girl's mouth. So I immediately explained the hardship of getting a piano in the bag and on the sleigh, so she agreed that maybe a keyboard in the near future would be a good start! And that's the latest from Santa's lap!
This was the nicest list I received this year!
Anyway, backdrop down, Santa hat and coat on, gloves ready, I sign into the site we operate out of about 3 minutes before 11, or 8 PST. I take a quick peek at the reservations and see that it looks to be nonstop again today. Yesterday in my 4 hour shift, the longest time I had between calls was 45 seconds! So today I decided to keep track of the calls and where they came from, I had previously talked to the United Kingdom, Canada, and Sri Lanka. I think we had three of us fielding calls today which does help a bit when you have 6 calls come in at one time. We try to limit the calls to 3 minutes or so.
The calls came in at a steady pace but not quite as hectic as yesterday, I at least had a chance to catch my breathe between calls and sip some water. Today I worked 4 hours, took an hour off and worked another hour. In the 5 hours I was on the line I took 62 calls, talked to 80+ children, and spoke to people from the United Kingdom 4 times, Mexico 3 times and the following countries once each, Canada, Puerto Rico, Norway and New Zealand. I felt like I was hosting the United Nations in our living room! There were a couple of interesting requests, one boy wanted a rat, a toy rat he was quick to add. When I asked what he was going to do with it, he said he wanted to sleep with it! To each, his own! The other unusual request was the little girl from Puerto Rico, who wants a trampoline and a piano! Her Mom was sitting there and I saw her expression when "Piano" came out of the little girl's mouth. So I immediately explained the hardship of getting a piano in the bag and on the sleigh, so she agreed that maybe a keyboard in the near future would be a good start! And that's the latest from Santa's lap!
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