Select a region
Keeping up the pretence about Santa usually involves leaving out a mince pie and a glass of milk. But one dad went a lot further when his son was worried Santa wouldn’t be able to find their chimney-less house – and sent out a drone to guide the reindeer.
Jonathan Silman’s eight-year-old son Hamza feared Blitzen, Vixen, Rudolph and co wouldn’t be able to find their home in east London, because they live on a new development, East Village, Stratford, and don’t have a chimney.
His dad even put up a sign outside their flat that said ‘Santa stop here’ but it wasn’t enough to put Hamza’s mind at rest. So decided to create a video showing the area from what would be Santa’s sleigh view, point out the house, and simulate him landing outside their new house.
Jonathan said: “Hamza was really worried that Santa and his reindeers wouldn’t be able to find his way to East Village as it’s such a new neighbourhood. Nothing would put his fears at bay. Even after I put up the sign, he asked me difficult questions like how would Santa find his way to our new home, especially because we haven’t lived here long.
“He believes Santa uses chimneys as a guiding point to find the good children, this broke my heart so I decided to take matters into my own hands.”
With the help of Get Living London, which manages the rented homes in East Village, to get flight permission, he sent a drone over the E20 neighbourhood to make a video. Jonathan even went to the trouble of attaching a red-nosed reindeer to the front of the drone.
He said: “I hope it inspires children in new neighbourhoods up and down the country, especially those living in houses and flats which don’t have chimneys.”
Neil Young, chief executive officer at Get Living London, said: “It’s great to see our residents putting E20 on the map. We were delighted to support Jonathan with getting flight permission to create this video, showing Santa doesn’t need a chimney to find us, and that he can find good children everywhere.
“It was great to see a smile on Hamza’s face when his Dad showed him this video.”
Let’s hope Santa has solid YouTube access.
