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The event’s creator hopes to provide accessible Christmas activities for families to enjoy.
A new holiday experience designed for children and families is coming to Excelsior this winter. Santa Claus Lane, created by Paige Terwilliger, seeks to provide affordable, daytime holiday fun.
Santa Claus Lane will transform Camp Fire Minnesota into a winter wonderland with an immersive Santa experience. Visitors can enjoy live performances, including a fire show and a magician, a bustling holiday market with 20 unique vendors and additional activities for purchase. It will be open 10 a.m.–6 p.m., Friday–Sunday, November 29–December 22. Visitors can purchase a two-hour time slot admission, full-day tickets or season passes to explore the rotating workshops and performances Santa Claus Lane has to offer.
The event will also partner with a charitable cause each year, with the first being a virtual toy drive for Children’s Minnesota.
Terwilliger shares more about her plans for the event’s inaugural year.
What inspired you to create Santa Claus Lane?
PT: After this last holiday season, I did a competitive analysis of the area and figured out that the holiday events fall into three different categories. They are a market, ice castles or holiday lights. The markets are more for the adults and not the children. It’s the lights and the ice castles [that are kid-friendly], and those are primarily open at 5 p.m. or later. For those families with small children who like to be on a schedule, like mine, that can be really hard to get to. We said, “Let’s create a holiday-focused immersive activity.” Something that’s focused on the experience. You can come in and interact with things, you can do different activities, it’s not focused on lights, it’s not focused on ice castles—and let’s make sure it’s open during the day.
What are the add-ons that visitors can purchase?
PT: We have four family-friendly food truck options that will be there full time. We will have hair tinsel and face painting. A larger add-on is Santa Brunch, which will happen every Sunday between 10 a.m.–noon. We will have both live music and a magician at all of our Santa brunches. I have found in the past with my kids—I can’t speak for everyone—they’ll get bored after an hour. The magician will help inject some life back into the event before they can elect to go out into Santa Claus Lane. General admission tickets are discounted for those who have purchased a Santa Brunch ticket. It is catered by Kowalski’s in Excelsior.
In addition to that, we have Santa’s Workshop. We’ll have four to five workshops that happen every day, and they’re all different. Attending the workshop requires a ticket to Santa Claus Lane. Space is more limited for these [events].
I created this [event] to bolster and bring together our community—it’s truly a labor of love. To see it all together, I think it’s going to feel very rewarding.
Lake Minnetonka Magazine is a proud sponsor of the December 8 Santa Brunch.
Santa Claus Lane
Camp Fire Minnesota, 3300 Tanadoona Drive, Excelsior
10 a.m.–6 p.m., Friday–Sunday, November 29– December 22
Facebook: Santa Claus Lane
Instagram: @santaclaus_lane
