35) Take in five cultural experiences

3) Santa Cruise

Christmas 2013 was probably the first of my son's Christmases where his excitement was without compare. He totally got it, he learnt his songs for nursery and pre school nativities and was very aware of Father Christmas and that you did need to be good.

He probably got to meet the big man himself about six times over the festive season, I just couldn't resist seeing his face each time. But one thing we really wanted to do for him was something I had never heard before - a Santa Cruise!

No, not in Hawaii or other far flung warm places. It was less than a mile from our house (and we live in exotic Buckinghamshire). Since becoming home owners, we have been fortunate to live very close to the Grand Union Canal. In our first home, our road actually owned a part of the canal (well we had a residents committee and funds so that we could pay for it's upkeep - you probably got more from it if you lived at that part of the road, not higher up the hill like us!) and now we also live close to the canal.

But, it's been a while since we've been on the waterways themselves so when I saw the Santa experience advertised by our local company Grebe Canal Cruises, I decided we had to get involved!

Our Santa boat awaits

On the Saturday before Christmas, we boarded our boat and set sail down the canal. The elves brought around mulled wine and mince pies for the grown ups (mulled wine was lush) and soft drinks and choice of biscuits and lollypops for the children. Happy toddler already.

We were told that they had heard from Santa and he was currently in Leighton Buzzard and would be with us in about fifteen minutes. Mmm, we thought, wonder where he actually is. Not long later we were told he can't pick out our boat from the others so could we start singing Jingle Bells. So we all did, Joshie very excitedly so. The next thing we heard was a thud on the roof and lots of banging of footsteps and hooves. He's arrived! Joshie was squealing with excitement, as then a pair of boots arrived from the roof through the gap and in walked Father Christmas. 

Someone is a little excited!

Each child was called in turn to Santa's grotto. Joshie was starting to fear his name wasn't going to get called as they were obviously picking things out of the sack one by one and his present was down the bottom, but he was very patient and worth it for his bus in the end! We had a lovely sail down the canal including going through a lock to turn around and come back which we all enjoyed watching the boat rise up and the walls magically disappear! 

It was a 45 minute sail in all and it was a thoroughly fantastic experience. The team really put the effort in, we got to have a sail which they hadn't done before, and all got their own time with Father Christmas without a lot of standing up and queuing which we'd done a fair bit of already at other events. The only downer was the weather and that Granny wasn't well enough to come but nothing the organisers could control. And they managed to warm us up with seconds of mulled wine so I think my hubby is booking for next year already! 

Freya weighing up the present from Father Christmas