Father Christmas at school fair and queues, tips please.

[WynkenBlynkenandNod]

We're just sorting Father Christmas's Grotto for the school fair and thought we'd look at doing something different this year to keep the queue down which gets very long as Father Christmas does love to chat!

If you are at a school where the queue issue is cracked, please could you let me know how it is done. We're thinking time slots or numbers but are interested to know whether these things make a difference. Many thanks.

Shame you can't have more than one Father Christmas.

I say have several & claim it's mirror-related trickery. They're kids, what do they know?

There you go then. Problem solved.

Didn't think anyone would be up this time of night. Thanks for the idea but Father Christmas takes his job very seriously and wouldn't stand for being anything but unique so I think we'll have to go for sorting the queue somehow!

Tell him to stop being such a diva. Unless he's grown the beard himself, he's not invested enough in his role to call the shots here. HIBU.

Tell him to sort the queue himself, lazy get.

Give him an egg timer?

ticket the kids like at a delhi counter. call the kids over in groups of 10-15. santas little helpers could also blow bubbles at the kids in the q!

We used timed tickets - so you book for 6 tickets for a 30 minute window.

Thank you. Do you find that these methods do actually work and people don't have to wait very long ? I think there's talk of a DVD running they can watch whilst waiting.

We had a fairy grotto next door to Santa's. It was beautiful, manned by 4 angel/princess/fairy-type teenagers (daughter of school sec and friends)
It was SOOOOO girly, pretty lights, sparkle everywhere...
They did magic Christmas spells, a bit of fairy glitter face paint and pretty tattoos.
The littler girls particularly loved it and it certainly took the pressure of the big man himself.
But also timed tickets is very helpful

Timed tickets in groups of 5-6 in a 15min slot, larger room to wait in for Santa with toys and an elf or two to entertain them, then called in one or two at a time to Santa in a smaller room/curtained off section.

I love the idea of the fairy grotto but I think the chair of PTA will have a breakdown if I suggest it now, will keep that one for next year !

We've had to abandon timed slot idea as we reckon it will go badly wrong with Father Christmas being so talkative down here. Current plan is to stick a DVD on and try to keep queue entertained. I personally think the deli counter system would be a good idea but never mind. Thanks for all the help.