We’re huge fans of The Portable North Pole around here, and this is the third year we’ll be using this website to enhance and enrich Christmas for my seven and four-year-olds. For a long tim,e I wasn’t sure what I was going to tell the kids about Christmas. I have many friends who don’t do the whole ‘Santa’ thing, and that’s of course, entirely their choice. For us though, it kind of took care of itself when, at 4, Ameli declared that she didn’t really believe in the existence of Santa, but that she’d be happy to pretend for her sister’s sake. (This is the same child, mind you, who believes 100% in the existence of the tooth fairy!) 
Last year we used The Portable North Pole phone calls as part of our advent calendar, and this year – we’re doing an awesome Bookmas Book Advent – we’ll be doing the same again: using phone calls and emails from Santa to underpin our Christmas story for the day and enhance our stay at home days.
There are loads of new messages from Santa this year – I must admit sitting here listening to them has made me feel quite festive. I just love the PNP Santa’s voice.
Phonecalls from Santa start with a “Hello” with a short break, like there would be in a conversation, and the kids always respond to it with enthusiastic hello’s of their own. The phone calls are categorised into Congratulations, Behaviour to Improve and Encouragement, which I think is great as you can cause Santa to be intuitive to your style of parenting. For example, my girls know that Santa will come, no matter their behaviour, because our house is filled with love, and celebrating Christmas isn’t a ‘reward’ for good behaviour (because let’s face it, I’m not going to cancel Christmas, so why threaten that I am!?) If you do play the ‘Naughty or Nice’ game though, there are messages that support it. If you don’t there are messages of encouragement and congratulations to choose from, so there are options, which I love.
There’s also a special category for Christmas eve calls – there are four, in all – so you can send a different message for each child too. 
There are also six new (Premium) videos this year, as well as 4 story time videos that can be personalised with your child’s name, so Santa reads them a bed time story.
Honestly, for the £9.99 Magic Pass, there is so much magic in one place, it’s hard not to love it!
My kids actually think the PNP Santa is the ‘real’ Santa (as real as a pretend Santa can be – it’s complicated!) and the ones we see at the various grottoes are his helpers!
With the Magic Pass you will get Unlimited Premium Videos, including Santa’s Verdict on the child’s behaviour, unlimited Santa Calls, loads of call scenarious to choose from, HD downloads so that you can keep your messages, Storytime with Santa, and you can get a Santa-Approved Certificate to print for each of your videos.
New this year is also the Reaction Recorder with the mobile app. I think this is particularly lovely if you want to share your child’s excitement with a non-resident parent or relatives who can’t be there.
If you want something tangible to add to the whole experience, John Lewis is stocking an absolutely gorgeous range of Portable North Pole gifts and accessories including a physical Golden Pass that can be personalised and sent to someone else.
How can you use the Portable North Pole to make Christmas magical?
Here are some ways I’m planning on using our Magic Pass this festive season:
The first day of our Book Activity Calendar, there will be a parcel for each child containing a Christmas jumper, a new Christmas mug and the amazing The Magical World of Father Christmas book, which is the ultimate book on Christmas and the life and times of Santa Claus. With that, the girls will each receive the Your Big Book video (screened separately!). This video shows the elves getting ready for Christmas, Santa looking over the deliveries and then taking some time to review the year with your child.
The Secret Places video shows the children beautiful ‘behind the scenes’ footage of Santa’s workshop, and fixing the sleigh, so those are good to watch on the day we read ‘The Night Before Christmas’.
We’ll also be getting a call on the day ( Mrs. Clause is baking cupcakes) on the day we do our Christmas baking. I know the girls will be thrilled that we’re baking on the same day as Mrs Clause!! 
There are so many different options with the Magic Pass, that I think it is entirely worth the money (£9.99). Just sitting here for the last hour watching all the new videos made my heart want to burst, and I’m not even on the receiving end! I know, from experience, that it’s the most magical phonecall or email for a child to receive.
We received a free Magic Pass for sharing our thoughts. Opinions are our own. Some links may be affiliate links. You will not be charged for using them.
