The division retailer boasts its personal grotto for pets to have some festive face time with Santa … and business is brisk
One definition of madness is to do one thing over and once more, anticipating a special consequence. Another could be to seek out your self in a busy division retailer on a Saturday morning, with two barely uncontrolled black labradors, sitting outdoors a Christmas grotto surrounded by “elves”, ready to see Father Christmas.
Or, as John Lewis name him, Santa Paws. Yet, lo, unto Oxford Street we did journey with our dogs Dexter and Rocky, none of us realizing what awaited us in a nook of the third ground close to the sofas and home furnishings part.
Eccentric doesn’t actually cowl it. The grotto is a festive characteristic of a variety of John Lewis’s shops, and this one opened for business when a platoon of elves marched in the direction of us chirping one thing Christmassy.
This refrain of cheerfulness would have charmed any kids ready to see the Big Man. And more often than not, the singsong is aimed on the little folks with huge hopes for what would possibly seem of their stockings on 25 December.
But it seems that oldsters and youngsters aren’t the one ones who need to have a nose to nose with Santa. Why ought to pets be disadvantaged of this particular expertise, requested (some) canine homeowners?
Why certainly. John Lewis began the Santa Paws Experience final 12 months, and it’s again by in style demand in 9 of its retailers. More than 500 tickets have been offered to date – up by a fifth from 2022.
On Saturday final week in central London, 20 dogs had been booked in; Dexter, aged six, and Rocky, six months, had been first up.
Though the elves had made a fuss of them, our dogs remained cautious as we dragged them into the grotto. To get to Santa, we needed to carry out sure easy duties on behalf of our pets. My nervousness ranges had been rising, even when theirs weren’t.
The elves did their finest to maintain smiling as I fluffed a query most four-year-olds would have discovered straightforward. The dogs checked out me with pitying eyes. Then, by means of the ultimate draped curtain we went.
And there he was! Fair to say, Dexter and Rocky initially took a dim view of the bearded man within the purple and white go well with sitting in entrance of them.
No quantity of “ho ho hos” would distract them from sniffing across the Christmas tree and sticking their noses within the goody luggage.
First makes an attempt to get them to take a seat on his lap had been unsuccessful. A level of brute drive and guarantees of treats lastly persuaded them to play alongside.
Dexter maintained the resigned look of somebody who had seen all of it earlier than (he actually hadn’t). Rocky, nevertheless, was all puppyish enthusiasm.
He had his eyes on Santa’s fluffy white beard, as his tail swatted a variety of baubles off the tree. Otherwise the assembly between them handed off peacefully, with all of us questioning what on earth we had simply been by means of as we headed again into home furnishings clutching two “doggie bags” stuffed with presents.
There, we discovered a protracted queue of individuals and pets ready to go in. One couple had a terrier in a Christmas jumper. Another man was wrestling with a canine in reindeer antlers. The elves had been ringing their bells.
Louise Black from John Lewis says clients “want to enjoy festive traditions with all the family”. She provides: “Well behaved dogs are welcome all year round in John Lewis shops and now they have a chance to tell Santa just how good they’ve been.”
• You can go to Santa Paws at John Lewis Cambridge, Cheadle, Cribbs Causeway, High Wycombe, Liverpool, Oxford Street, Peter Jones, Southampton and Welwyn. The cost of Dexter and Rocky’s go to has been donated to the Guardian’s Christmas enchantment.
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