by Russell Boniface
Associate Editor

How do you . . . use design and construction skills to spread Santa Claus' magic for kids and families?

Summary: Chicago Scenic Studios, Inc. has designed three interactive holiday village attractions for malls owned by General Growth Properties Inc. Unwrapped last month, the fantasy holiday villages, called Santastic, vary in size and are located in malls in Tucson; Columbia, Md.; and Baton Rouge. Each Santastic village offers families magical entertaining through special effects and four engaging interior village structures, including a station that tells Santa whether you've been naughty or nice.

Jeff Bartle, director of Creative Development at Chicago Scenic, began working with General Growth Properties, owner of 220 malls, in fall 2006 to design Santastic. Each village features four independent structures, roughly 20 feet tall: the North Pole Mail Center and the Santa Center, which both have a residential feel, and the industrial-looking toy conveyor belt structure and the Power Station's Naughty or Nice Meter. The intent is that you can spread these structures out, given the mall footprint, Bartle explains.

A magical place where Santa believes in you
Bartle says Santastic reinvents children's connection to the holiday experience. We wanted to reinvent the traditional experience that families have while mall shopping and visiting Santa. It is playful, fun, and has a character all its own. Kids believe in Santa. The experience conveys a destination where Santa believes in you.

After identifying mall touch points, three malls were geographically chosen to be Santastic beta tests against nearby, non-Santa General Growth malls. The final building of all three villages took 70 Santastic Elves, using 8,500 square feet of wood and 104 gallons of paint for a variety of colors. Special effects and two music scores add another splash to the Santastic experience.

Revealing Santa
Santastic keeps kids busy on their way to see Santa Claus, trafficking about 200 children and their families per hour. Santastic reveals Santa on a number of different sensory levels through four set pieces, explains Bartle.

• The Toy Conveyor, where toys are made. Kids see silhouetted elves moving in windows, and toys move along one length of a conveyor belt. The second length of the belt transitions through a second façade to where the toys are wrapped and then fall into a large toy bag. This forms the cue lines for visiting the other three components.
• Power Station's Naughty or Nice Meter. Kids press a button and there's a meter that moves back and forth. Different programs allow the needle to always land on nice, but the transition from its stationary position down toward naughty wavers, creating suspense in the animation.
• North Pole Mail Center. Children can go to the Santastic Web site at www.santabelievesinme.com and download their wish list for Santa. They bring the list with them to the mall and mail their list at a whimsical mailbox. As they open the mailbox door, there's a windy sound effect and snow blasting out of it. A bell rings and a weather vane spins with all its directional points reading south, as if from the North Pole.
• Santa Center to see the man in red. It's a large house facade with a large gift box and bow attached. Music plays, kids gather. The front of the box is fabric, tethered to a bungee cord in the back. Santa walks out the front door. Each set has a scalable chimney that releases magic snow. Kids can catch the snow on their tongue and run around in it. Santa waves his hand and the fabric disappears and travels into ductwork under Santa's chair. Santa's chair is revealed, and he greets kids as they come up.

Special effects also allow Santa to demonstrate how magic corn makes reindeer fly. In addition, kids are photographed at each station that parents can purchase afterward.

Santa Claus coming to town
Chicago Scenic Studios and General Growth Properties plan to expand Santastic to more malls next holiday season. There's been a lot of great feedback. There's that bottom line to get customers to spend more time at the mall, but this is couched with the sincerity of emotionally and physically moving children in a unique way. Santastic will create memories for both kids and former kids now with their own.