Cookies with Santa 2017

"T'was the middle of summer when preparations began,
Way too early to think of holidays plans.
But the idea had formed from a thought and a wish,
That when the weather turned colder we'd see old St. Nick.
So the Marathon elves designed and contrived,
A vision of Christmas soon to arrive..."

On Sunday November 19, 2017, Marathon held our first-ever "Cookies with Santa" event at the Marathon Headquarters. It was a wonderful time for our team members to come by the office with their families for story time, crafts, refreshments, and best of all, meeting Santa Claus!

It all started with this marvelous, festive idea from our office manager, Stacey Bradshaw. “Let’s host Santa Claus and invite all our Marathon children to come for cookies, pictures, and to tell Santa what they are wishing for Christmas!” Stacey enlisted the help of Cindy Vartuli, our Administrative/Marketing Assistant, and Erin Mullinax, a Senior Designer and our resident photographer, to help with planning the perfect event to kick off our holiday season. As they set about with planning and shopping, the idea grew into something magical. 

Setup began a few days ahead with the creation of a mini photo studio complete with Christmas tree, snowflakes, snow, and nice comfy chair for Santa Claus. Stacey and her children came by the office on Friday night to set up a beautiful, North Pole Christmas village that would greet all our guests as they arrived on Sunday to meet Santa. The morning of the event, we got several craft stations setup for the children to make reindeer hats, Christmas door hangers and picture frames, to bag up reindeer food, and write a personal letter to Santa, complete with a mailbox! We also had a table set up with goodies including cookies, muffins, and yummy hot chocolate.

Our Cookies with Santa event kicked off with our President, Harris Pezzella who donned his Marathon Christmas hat to sit and read "The Night Before Christmas" to all the children. Just as he finished the story, "... and to all a goodnight!" Santa and Mrs. Claus arrived and surprised everyone! Pictures, crafts, sweets, and good cheer ensued with everyone having a great time. We even had some time towards the end for the Marathon Man to get in a visit with Santa too. Kudos to all of our Marathon team who helped make this event a success, it's quite possible this could become an annual thing!