HO, HO, HO at Macy’s

City-Kid Review:

City-Kid: Does Santa live here?
Mama: Uh….I don’t think all the time
City-Kid: I want to live here.

Macy’s never let’s you down.
It really doesn’t. The Thanksgiving Parade is a marvelously fun American tradition, followed immediately by Santa on the 8th floor.

The Santaland experience is, reliably, always the same.
Until this year, when it was reliably…different!

The staff are still well-organized, well-trained and know exactly how to manage a crowd. We had fun asking all of the elves for their names and their special magic skill. Not a single elf skipped a beat – they had all done their character work. Even the manager, dressed entirely in black and donning a headset, had a character name, declaring she was part of Santa’s secret service

Last year, we went early-ish in the season and it was had a 90 minute wait in line in the bowels of the store. So, I decided to utilize the express line (details below). This means you skip most of Santaland but it is much less of a wait. Once we came out, the line for the main Santaland was short, short, short! We stood in line so City-Kid could see the train, walk through the caboose and amble through Santaland itself.

This year, they are managing it all a bit differently with an appointments only system for the entire experience. Please bear in mind that this is an appointment to get in line. Of course, there will be some transition confusion as everyone adjusts to the new system. However, what it meant for City Kid, was that we had Santaland virtually to ourselves. We booked our appointment for between 2-2.30pm on a Tuesday, and it was virtually empty. Elves stood in groups chatting  but were ready for City Kid’s questions with beaming smiles.

Santaland at Macy’s is totally worth it. The Santas are experienced at geniality, calm and having all of the right answers.

My understanding is they have diversity in their Santas now, although that has not been our experience.

Need to Knows:

Santaland is open from 9am-9pm but at peak times they open at 7am. Give a call ahead of time to check, although the booking system has all of the available times to chose from. Santa is located on the 8th Floor of Macy’s flagship branch, in Herald Square, 151 W 34th St, New York, NY 10001

To book your appointment to join in line, you need to go here.

Top-Tip:

City-Kid and I went down to the food ‘carts’ in the basement, had a little tinkle of their floor piano, ate some surprisingly delicious veggie ramen (city-kid wolfed it down), then headed upstairs for our visit with Santa.

Also, check out their cute window piano just north of the corner at 7th and 34th. Hmm…pianos are a theme, here!

Have any more tips to share? Can you recommend any other Santa sightings? Comment in the box below. And, don’t forget to sign up for more city-kid adventures.