New city, same popularity: Santa’s House thriving at new location in St. Thomas, Ont.

Santa's House has kept its popularity at its new location in St. Thomas. CTV News London's Brent Lale has more.

Every time slot to meet Santa and Mrs. Claus has been sold out.

“People are just coming and having a great time seeing Mrs. Claus and myself, and we couldn’t be happier,” Santa told CTV News.

After a decade in London, Ont. Santa’s House is now located at the Elgin County Railway Museum (ECRM) in St. Thomas, Ont.

“It’s a lot easier for us because only five minutes from home,” said Emily White, who brought her family to see Santa.

“As opposed to like half hour drives and an hour round trip to London. It’s so much nicer to have so many more people coming into the community and I’ve found there’s not a whole lot of places in St. Thomas to even meet Santa, except for Elgin Mall, so it’s nice.”

Unable to find a permanent home in London, Leo Larizza, the founder of the house, worked out an agreement with the ECRM to bring the holiday landmark to St. Thomas. The house is part of a joint holiday theme with the Christmas Tree Spectacular.

“Everybody comes by after they’ve gone through the museum and they’re curious and are usually peeking in the windows at Santa and Mrs. Claus,” said Lindsey Massecar, events and hospitality coordinator for the Railworks Coalition, a community organization dedicated to preserving and celebrating St. Thomas’ railway heritage.

“It seems like it’s a start of a new tradition for a lot of families, and we have seen a lot of families also come back from London and the tell us their stories that they have visited this house every year with their family. So, it’s nice that the tradition can continue for those as well.”

The proceeds from the meet and greets with Santa along with the donations to see the Tree Spectacular go to the ‘Save Our Museum’ campaign. They are fundraising for renovations to the museum, and a portion of the proceeds go to the Coldest Night of the Year event.

Inside the museum, between 1,000 to 1,400 guests are coming out nightly on weekends to see the more than 300 decorated trees, sponsored by more 140 groups from around the community.

“Last year we saw 15,000 people come through, and our goal this year was to see 25,000,” said Massecar.

“We’re on pace for that and I think that we might actually exceed that this year. It’s really cool to watch the families interact with the different displays and just take a look at the trees. There’s a ton of photo opportunities and then online, we’ll see everything posted the next day. It’s just very joyous and it’s a lot of fun.”

Santa will be in his house until Dec. 23, and the trees will be on display until Dec. 28.