Days 349 – 355 of Project 365
349. MONSTER BINGO (… is the phrase that needs to be shouted out by the winner of the latest Orchard Toys game we're reviewing. I love the exuberance on his face here.)
350. Daddy Does Craft (This is not something which happens often in our house, in fact he groaned when I asked him to do this activity, "Homework; yes. Reading; yes. Craft; NO!" However, it was a super easy activity from Toucan Box with idiotproof, foolproof, comprehensive instructions.)
351. Intent (Watching his video message from Father Christmas via the Portable North Pole app, he was enchanted with the whole thing. Every time Father Christmas said his name, he nodded eagerly and smiled.)
352. Dear Miss… (Making his Christmas cards for his teachers, the effort was immense but he made a super job of it.)
353. Bedtime Reading (New pyjamas and books sent from Marks and Spencer for a bedtime reading project. I love seeing him in old-fashioned pyjamas, he looks so cute!)
354. Hungry (For a few months now we've visited our local nature reserve once a week to feed the swans, our confidence has grown as has their hunger. Yesterday they were starving, and with it a little bit nasty. For the first time, I felt nervous feeding them in the slipway area; one of them hissed at The Boy and flapped his wings, another pecked my hand. We walked up to the boardwalk as they can't manage it and it forces them into the water to have the bread; more controlled you see! Within thirty seconds of us being at the board walk, the 40+ swans had worked out what was going on and swum around to feed on our stale offerings.)
355. Best Buddies (We ventured to Tredegar House near Newport today to see Father Christmas in his grotto. Normally we go to Cardiff Castle but it was completely sold out weeks in advance, so we decided to try here in their first year as a National Trust property. The Boy was over the moon to see the Big Man himself, and the room was dressed so beautifully! He walked in cautiously, took one look at him and ran at him to give him the biggest, most heartfelt cuddle I've ever seen which was received warmly. Unfortunately the photo is too blurred to share as a 365, but it was a wonderful sight to see. And all for only £2.50.)
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A Message From Santa: Portable North Pole (Review)
Last Christmas I logged onto Portable North Pole, a video message service enabling Father Christmas to send personalised videos to children. The process was simple and I was able to input a few photographs with details about the event, and these were incorporated into the video to make it truly personal.
This year I was offered a review code for the video and I eagerly accepted as I knew how much he would like it. I sat down to start inputting the information and was met with a few hurdles along the way. First of all (despite being told the contrary) the code I was given was for the basic video, and I paid for the upgrade to the full version as I knew it would make the experience more exciting for him.
The process should be relatively simple; select 'nice' or 'naughty', boy or girl, input name (and check the pronounciation), date of birth, country of residence, etc. So far so good. There then follows a series of options about a target the child may have been asked to meet that year, and there were quite a good range. The next step is to choose what toy the child would like and this is the first problem, under the broad category of 'toys and games' there is the choice of: a certain toy (not customisable), Barbie doll, board game, construction game, doll, figurine, Lego, plush toy, or puzzle.
No car. The Boy wants a car.
It's a fairly innocuous choice of present, but it's not on the list. Therefore his video has the words, 'Wish list: a toy' on it, which I think it fairly poor to be perfectly honest. He's old enough to read those words now and he'll see that Father Christmas has no idea what his present request is, which is odd because one of the photographs I submitted was of him writing a letter to the big man asking for a car…
The next step is the first stage of spending additional money. An extra £2.49 will unlock the 'all the premium options' (additional scene selection, 3 additional pictures, twice as much video (almost 6 minutes), unlimited online views during the Christmas holidays, plus a bonus video from Santa for Christmas Eve). I paid it because I wanted to make his video even more special, but it's the first step of many of being confronted with the option to spend more money.
On the next screen is where the child's photo and one other is entered (if the premium package has been paid for then up to five can be entered). However once you enter the initial two photographs, then the options for what the photos can depict is significantly reduced to only five or so. If I'd known that I'd be having to choose a photo of a pet (we don't have one) or an object (really?) then I wouldn't have paid the £2.49 upgrade.
If you haven't upgraded, then you're prompted again before the confirmation screen with additional parental information. The video is then ready to play, again a range of additional costs appear; for example you can download the video for £4.49 because the website version is only available during the Christmas period (don't forget!).
£4.49.
On top of the £2.49 already paid.
Don't get me wrong, I think the video is a wonderful thing and Father Christmas is so genuine and warm in it that I know The Boy is going to find it magical.
However, if I purchase the downloadable version on top of the premium cost then I will have spent £6.98 on a six minute video for him. And I've got one child. If I had more than one, it's going to start getting costly pretty quickly. Added to this, the iPad app with a range of games and access to the video is £2.49. There is also an iPhone app, which is the one that I accidentally downloaded onto the iPad.
So far we're looking at:
- £2.49 for the premium video (a more customisable video)
- £4.49 for the downloadable version
- £2.49 for the iPad or iPhone app.
Is it just me that thinks this is wrong? There is something so intrinsically wrong about charging so very much for a simple message from Father Christmas for your child.
But of course parents do it because they feel they have to in order to feed the magic of the season.
I chose to pay for this product, however I wanted to write an honest review to show parents what to expect when visiting the site.
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Addendum:
I didn't need to download the iPad version of the app as the iPhone app worked perfectly well on the iPad. And downloading that has made paying for the upgrade worthwhile. When I installed the app I was given 5 credits which could be used in various ways. One of these ways was to download the video onto the iPad, downloading it via the laptop would have cost £4.49 however it was easily done onto the £2.49 iPad app. Bizarrely, when I started the download onto the iPad, it enabled it on the laptop without needing to pay the additional £4.49! In addition to this, there are a few other videos (birthday and Christmas Eve messages) which can be downloaded onto the iPad app, and there are games and an advent calendar. It's also possible to spend the credits on a 'telephone call' from Santa!
The Boy has watched the video several times a day, every day since I did the message for him. In the future I will happily pay for the premium upgrade (£2.99) and the iPad app (£2.49) but forgo downloading the HD version on the laptop because I don't think it's needed when you have the others.
Our Christmas, 2012
This Christmas has been the most magical so far, as The Boy's belief in Father Christmas has grown daily.
Yes I am sure that I should be teaching him about the 'real' meaning of Christmas but for someone who has not been Christened and was not married in a church, does not attend church accept for hatches, matches or dispatches, and as an R.E. major and co-ordinator isn't particularly comfortable tying herself down to one religion, I find it difficult. I've commented a lot lately on social media that I believe the Christmasses of the 21st century are an opportunity for people to believe in the idea of this one unifying event. Much like Americans celebrate Thanksgiving, people in Britain seem to take it as an opportunity to be thankful for what we have, as a time of joy and happiness and peace with mankind, to demonstrate love and acceptance with their families. And for me this tweet from @FayC sums up perfectly why I think it's ok to have my son believing in Father Christmas.
As I said to someone else who stated she (quite rightly as a Christian) didn't want her child believing in the lie of Santa, "The non-Christian would point out that Jesus is just as much a mythical figure as Father Christmas." If he wears sackcloth and ashes, or a big red coat and has a white beard not a brown one, what does it matter if that person symbolises hope, love, forgiveness and kindness?
I've digressed. I know, I'm as surprised as you are.
On Christmas Eve we needed to do a little last-minute panic buying and so set off for Ikea to have lunch and pick up some picture frames for presents. As I drove up to the solid steel barrier indicating it was closed, I willed it to lift just for us. Where else could I get the cheap photoframes from? And The Boy had been promised meatballs! We reconvened in Pizza Hut and came up with a plan of action while Edward the Elf and The Boy enjoyed a last pizza together for this year.
Having finally tracked down the elusive last minute presents we went home for The Boy to have a (late) nap before our traditional viewing of The Polar Express. When he awoke, he discovered Edward had returned to the North Pole to sort out his presents with Father Christmas and had himself left a present of a new set of The Gruffalo pyjamas and a dressing gown. I loved the dressing gown, The Boy not so much; I think he's frightened of it.
We headed downstairs for a picnic tea in front of the television (a very rare treat) and settled down to watch the classic The Polar Express. Last year, The Boy had watched it and enjoyed it for the most part. This year he was enthralled; completely captivated by the whole thing. We stopped it ten minutes before the end for his bath, and he'd been blackmailed persuaded to wear the new pyjamas and dressing gown, we all settled down together to finish watching it. And yes, I cried.
The Boy absolutely adored the film and was truly caught up in the magic of the sitation, so I took advantage of this to introduce 'reindeer food' to him; basically porridge oats mixed with glitter. We stood in the back porch and I explained about the reindeer food. His eager little face took it all in and wide-eyed he reached to open the door, then tottered out onto the back steps in his dressing gown, pyjamas and slippers flinging the feed out into the breeze. Glancing up at the sky, we saw a moving white light & I told him it was Father Christmas' sleigh overhead and that he needed to get into bead quickly. We removed the fireguard so the Big Man didn't get stuck, placed a stool on the grate treasuring the snacks for Santa like it was a pedestal holding it up high. And then The Boy made me go and put some water in a bowl on the back step for the reindeer in case they were thirsty.
I took him upstairs to bed, read 'The Night Before Christmas' and he settled down listening out for reindeer hoofs on the roof.
As I didn't get to bed that night until 3.30am, I was so grateful that he slept in until gone 8 o'clock! We all raced downstairs to open our stockings and The Boy was genuinely content with that being his only presents; he had no idea that there were more in the dining room. His favourite presents were the Chocolate Orange and Funky Straw set from Father Christmas, who also managed to find him the much talked about robot. He also adored his new Playmobil set (a playground) and his Tap-Tap Art set.
Food was a lot more relaxed than it has been in the past; I ditched the idea of a starter, failed to make a Christmas pudding and so we had a Blackforest Trifle two hours after we'd finished our mains.
I made a filo tart with a creamed spinach, leeks, mushrooms and quorn filling for mum and myself, dad and Mr. TBaM had a four bird roast, and The Boy had a sausage. Side dishes were: roast potatoes; mashed potatoes; roasted Brussel sprouts with parmesan and butter; honey-glazed carrots and parsnips, swede and butternut squash mash. I killed the stuffing.
In the evening, I laid out a simple buffet for people to pick at, and after any hunger pangs had been quashed mum and dad went home, The Boy went to bed and we settled down to watch the recorded Christmas television programmes.
An excellent Christmas, thank you 2012!
Christmas Wonder
Today we've been to Cardiff Castle to see Father Christmas ahead of his visit on Monday night. We went last year for the first time with my sister and her children, this year she went shopping with her daughter (for whom the big man hold no interest) and we took The Boy and my sister's son, with my mum, brother and his boy. Last year it was a really special trip, so magical for the boys, and we wanted to recreate that.
In preparation for our visit, we 'wrote' our letter asking for a robot and The Boy made a beautiful card.
The Boy was completely captivated by the experience and loved meeting Santa in such a beautiful and magical setting. He gave him his card which went down really well, and I helped to open the letter and then they had a very serious discussion about the requested toy, as you can see above. The elder cousins enjoyed it as well, but there was a small amount of scepticism upon their meeting. You see, there was a gap in the 'hair' of the Santa's moustache which showed the elastic holding it in place; a real shame.
Following this, we went and had a meal in Pizza Express which was great to spend time as siblings with the younger and older generation around us.
Originally the plan was to go over to the Winter Wonderland where the Coca-Cola trucks were visiting, along with a few of the mighty reindeers due to pull the sleigh on Monday night. It would have been brilliant, unfortunately the weather had other plans; it poured down and Cardiff was foul with surface water and dawdling shoppers. We came home instead.
However, we had managed to visit the Winter Wonderland a few weeks ago where old fashioned fairground rides proved a great source of entertainment for the three of us all as squeals of delight filled the air.
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Saturday 22nd December 2012 – 'The Big Man' (357/366)
Tuesday 11th December 2012 – 'Message From Santa' (346/366)
Sunday 2nd December 2012 – 'He Gave Me An Orange!' (337/366)
Naughty Or Nice?
Every Christmas with The Boy brings new magic and wonder.
His first Christmas was awash with wide-eyed wonder at the lights and sounds. It was a riot of colour and he couldn't get enough of it all. He also crawled for the first time within days of the big day. On his second Christmas he helped me to 'decorate' the tree, even though it had already been done, and the 'ope' (-ning) of presents was a magical experience. Last year was the first year that he understood the concept of Father Christmas coming and bringing us presents, and that it was a special day.
However, this Christmas?
I can't wait.
The Boy's started to ask when it is and we've talked about it being after Autumn (which is lasting an awfully long time in this house, all the way up until December 1st!). With the shops all decked out in tinsel and goodies to buy, it's hard for him not know that it's going to start happening soon. With our involvement in the 'Countdown to Christmas' in the craft blogging world, we've already been making cards and pictures, I have no fear that my son does not understand the concept of glitter!
The 'carrot' that is used by so many parents of Father Christmas bringing presents to good children is one that I never thought I'd use, but there has been occasion over the past fortnight when I've had to once or twice! I'm very keen for him to understand that he's not just going to receive a load of presents just 'because'. This is the first year that we're going to attempt to create a letter to the jolly man himself (who can of course interpret a whole load of squiggles into the toys that The Boy means) and in return he will receive a letter from Santa Claus himself. The fact that it will be a video with Santa actually saying his name and referring to events that have happened throughout the year will completely delight The Boy and drive home that Father Christmas is always watching!
Do you write letters to Santa with your child? Does he write one back?
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Wednesday 21st December 2011 – 'A Victorian Christmas' (354/365)
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