5mcintyres: Capital E Woodland Christmas and a Kiwi Santa

Last week my friend, Jude and I decided to take the kids to see Santa at the Capital E Woodland Christmas. It's in downtown Wellington so we took the ferry over from Days Bay. The ferry drops you off right in the middle of a beautiful harbourside walkway lined with great restaurants and a few shops. We had some time when we arrived in Wellington so we strolled along the promenade and had a latte by the water. Oh, it was sooo nice! It was Jude and me with her youngest son, Johnny and my girls. The kids enjoyed playing by the water and watching the big water fountain before we walked through the beautiful winter wonderland.

We started with a walk through a dimly lit room with gorgeous trees trimmed to the max. It was like walking through the North Pole, as I would imagine it would be. Fully decorated, smelling of pine and nature. We entered a room on the other side of the "forest" that had craft stations, Santa's sleigh and some other wonderful Christmas creations.

Just in time to see Father Christmas, we made our crafts (a cute felt mouse and felt snowman with candy canes) then made our way to his little cottage. There, Santa let all the children know they were supposed to be good and listen to their mommys and daddys and go to bed on time, etc... Then he asked all the kids what they wanted for Christmas.

Here's where our trip went a little south...all the kids were telling what they wanted and MaeMae waited patiently and then, very proudly, stood up and said, "I want a Barbie house and a Pony house". To which Santa replied, "How awful..." Now he did go on to say more and I'll explain but the first comments from Santa's mouth that MaeMae heard were "how awful" and she's couldn't understand why Santa told her she was awful. Oh my goodness, she was devastated. She was on the verge of tears so we quickly left after that. But, to back up, what Santa was trying to say was, how awful to ask for more than one thing. He wanted to kids to ask for one thing. Well, he must have missed the lesson on people skills when dealing with kids because he certainly didn't choose his words very wisely. I hope, for the sake of other children, he learned what he said and won't use that choice of words again when answering a child's sweet wish for Christmas.

Anyway, we went out of the cottage and had a little chat with MaeMae and Jude and I kept reassuring her that it was so nice she stood up so nicely and said what she wanted and I was so proud of her for doing so. Jude told her that sometimes Kiwis have a strange sense of humor, that that was his way of kidding or teasing her. MaeMae just kept asking why Santa was teasing her and that she didn't like the Kiwi Santa very much. I don't much blame her.

To end the story on a good note, Jude did go and let Santa know his choice of words were the best and that there were lots of tears over them. He did come out and talk to MaeMae and the Capital E manager gave MaeMae a special box of goodies from Santa. So all's well that ends well but I have to say MaeMae's Santa's experiences haven't been great this year (from the mall santa and refusing to sit with him and now this) but I hope she'll soon forget about it and it won't scar her. :)

After our fun time at Woodland Christmas, we walked around town and saw the beautiful Christmas window displays at Kirkcaldie's, one of Wellington's oldest department stores and had a wonderful time. Wellington is a great city and very pedestrian friendly. I look forward to exploring more of downtown.

We took the ferry back to Days Bay in time for afternoon kindie and school pickup. Calvin didn't miss out because his school class took a field trip there a few weeks ago. They had a great time as well! What a fun day!