Swimming with Santa at Adventure Bay

By Prabsimar Kaur

Santa Claus traded in his boots and suspenders for swimming trunks at Adventure Bay this past weekend.

The Windsor waterpark hosted its fourth annual Swim with Santa, sponsored by Blackburn Radio and Snapd Windsor. The event had local people coming to see Old Saint Nick at the water park with their families.

Santa posed for pictures with children in the main lobby of Adventure Bay before changing into his bathing suit to swim.

Children were seen enjoying Santa in this new way where he swims and plays in the water with them.

“The first year when we were opening around the Christmas time, we thought we had to do something fun to celebrate and what better way to celebrate than actually having Santa here, so we invited him,” said Michael Chantler, organizer of the event. “He arranged his elf and himself… they had a great time, and this has been something we have been doing every year.”

Chantler said it is a great event for kids.

“We offer discounted rates to lot of people and it is an opportunity to see Santa Claus a bit differently and it is of course the opportunity to see him right beside the tree and sit on his chair besides the tree and sits on Santa’s lap but the here the added feature is that u go to water park after and you actually get to swim with Santa,” Chantler said.

This was the fourth event and according to Chantler, the response has been great.

“It is always a fun festive day and brings a lot of people out. The turnouts has been great and everyone is having a fantastic time,” he said.

Parents were seen clicking pictures of their children with Santa while he swam with them.

“We are having a great time. It’s a great idea to have Santa Claus over here and swimming with the little ones,” said Ernesto Nino, a parent of one of the kids taking part. “We are members of the water park, but we made sure we came to see Santa. When we found out Santa will be here we decided to come and take advantage of the opportunity.”

Saturday’s snow added to the festive mood and Santa was seen splashing in water with kids. Chantler hopes the success of this year’s event means it will take place again next year.