Visiting the Magic Cave

An Adelaide tradition, from before even I was born, is to go and see Father Christmas in the Magic Cave in the lead up to Christmas. As Nanas love nothing more than taking their grandchildren to see the guy in red, it was that my mother, Sebastian, Jude, Zachary and I headed off to town on Christmas Eve to meet Carolyn, Josh and Vanessa so we had a double-Nana and lots of cousins event.

We went early as the last time we were in Adelaide at Christmas, the line to see Father  Christmas was ridiculously long, so we had avoided him altogether. The line at 9.15am was not too bad. While we waited, Zac stared longingly at the giant wooden horses, hoping for a ride eventually, while the older boys were fascinated by conversation with the Talking Tree…

We weren't allowed to take photos of the boys with Father Christmas as this is how the store gouges parents on the otherwise free Santa visits. Zac took one look at the funny man in red and ran away. Jude, Sebastian and Josh all sat on his lap and reported on what they wanted. Father Christmas asked them wanted to do when they grew up. While Josh and Sebastian didn't know, Santa almost fell off his chair when Jude asserted that he wanted to be "an archaeologist."  Jude had recently told me that he really wanted to be an archaeologist and was never going to change his mind because it is the best job anyone could have.

Once the formalities were over, the boys got to ride Nipper and Nimble and the mini merry-go-round and look at themselves in the crazy mirrors and check out the tableaux of elves. Zachary was very confident getting on and off the merry-go-round. All the big boys had a ride on Nimble…then the grown-ups decided it was time to retire for refreshments. So it was milkshakes and spotty biscuits before the big boys went off to their second cousin's house to play and Nana and Zac and I had a long slow walk back to the car so Zac could go home and sleep.

Another Christmas tradition fulfilled!

Read and post comments | Send to a friend