SOURCE: SantaSpeaking.com

Santa Gets Personal -- New Trends in Santa Claus Experiences for 2004

SIOUX CITY, Iowa, Oct. 4 /Xpress Press/ -- Santa's Lap is OUT, children and parents are getting a new and improved Santa this year. SantaSpeaking.com launches this week on the cusp of the holiday season promoting personalized Santa Claus experiences. With the busy holidays up ahead, Santaspeaking.com will make new and improved Christmas memories for children.

Parents will be excited to learn that they can now get a more realistic Santa experience and do so in their own homes -- no more long lines at the mall waiting for Santa during cold and flu season.

SantaSpeaking.com offers live personalized Santa experiences, including phone calls from professionally trained Santa actors and, as a keepsake, the recording of the conversation is available on CD.

The personalized phone calls from Santa answer an unfulfilled need, many parents say.

"Children today are very smart, and taking them to sit on a man's lap that is dressed in a Santa suit isn't always the magical experience you hope for," says Anne Gaskell, owner of SantaSpeaking.com and mother of two Santa Believers. "For kids under 4, it can be very frightening sitting on a stranger's lap, and for those in school, it can be less than believable. Santa at the mall isn't able to know personal information about the child to reinforce the legend that Santa knows if you are good or bad and sees you when you are sleeping, like Santa at SantaSpeaking.com does."

According to International Council of Shopping Centers statistics, approximately 20 million children visit Santa at malls across the US. Santa is as popular, if not more popular online than he is offline. According to About.com and Google Zeitgeist (online search rating companies), the term "Santa Claus" was the 9th most popular search on the Internet in December 2003.

Phone calls are $15 before December 15 and $20 after December 15. The calls are 3-5 minutes long and personalized when the order is placed on the website (http://www.santaspeaking.com). The recording of the conversation is $10. Also available are letters from Santa that smell like cookies ($8) and Santa's Arrival Phone Messages on Christmas Eve ($4.99).

For more information: Anne Gaskell, press(AT)santaspeaking.com, 712-251-4075, http://www.santaspeaking.com

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