http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-......omy.html

Nice article. Unrelated, but when I was doing Santa in Lapland last year I used cold reading techniques on the kids to make them think Santa knew far more than he did. It was very effective.

Funny you should mention that....my brother, a non-magician, used 'cold reading' like a master on the kids when he was Santa. They walked away believing he must have been the real one, cause he knew so much about them, personally.

He could never do the mental switch to 'read' other people other times, but he was astounding, acting on intuition, with the kids. Did it for decades.

That is some story, thanks.

What if Santa had a two person code act set up with a helper ELF!!!???
Or St. nicholas set up with Struwelpeter!!!???

As per the article, Santa would also either need to size up the parents or, better yet, have the parents involved in talking to the elf.

'Mum, that Elf keeps sticking two fingers up at Santa'

I didn't read that "at" first time around...

bad santa is the best every christmas movie...

I can tell children what they want for Christmas, whether they have been naughty, and exactly what they have done, and when.
my hit rate is about 95%.

One setup I remember had the elves questioning the parents on things that the child needed improvement on, then queued Santa. It was very effective in instant behavior modification.

Whoa, that would be VERY trippy as a kid.
Nice (in a kind of weird manipulative kind of way, still... nice).

My father- who has done Santa for years - actually had a two person code with his helper and did exactly that.

Santa would know the names of every child as they sat on his lap and even knew what they wanted for before they asked for it a lot of the time.

Talk about belief!

That's AWESOME!!!

I'm happy that it's been done. I hope to see it someday.

What a inspiring idea!