Every year, right around the holidays, children stream into malls or town centres clutching their parents hands in excitement as they walk through Santa’s village for a chance to meet the man himself.
However, with the pandemic continuing to harass our daily lives and positive cases rising in Quebec, the tradition needed to be altered in order to accommodate the province’s health and safety guidelines.
Sabrina Bernard, a marketing coordinator at Le Centre Sherbrooke, told The Record that Santa Claus will be present at the mall, but only in a fashion fit for the new pandemic reality. Children can speak to him, but there will not be any contact.
“We built a plexiglass partition, a big one, in front of the Santa Claus where he will sit on a chair,” said Bernard. “We also have a two metre distance and another chair for the children.”
Santa Claus is still coming to town
By Michael Boriero - Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
