The North Pole may be too chilly for a swim, but the pool at Centennial Fitness Center in Park Ridge offered a festive alternative as dozens of families turned out there Saturday to splash around with Santa.
The Park Ridge Park District hosted its annual “Swim with Santa” event Saturday, giving children a chance to dive into the holiday spirit ahead of Christmas Day.
Forty-three guests gathered at the Centennial Fitness Center for the one-hour seasonal swim that was open to children age 3 through 13. Families were welcome to stay for beyond the hour for open swim, which was included in the event cost.
“There’s games, toys in the pool, crafts, and we do Christmas cards so when kids take their picture with Santa, they can stick them on their card,” said Jenna Jezek, the aquatics supervisor.
Upon arrival, children received goodie bags filled with crayons to set the tone for the day. Beyond the opportunity to splash in the pool to the sounds of holiday tunes, attendees could participate in an array of Christmas-themed games, activities and prizes on the pool deck.
“Kids who aren’t as comfortable in the water, or don’t want to spend the whole time in it, have plenty of other things to do,” said Jezek.
The Park District put the community pool at the center of its festive programming.
“We have a pool, so we want to use it to its maximum capacity and provide value to the community,” Jezek said. “We do an Easter and Halloween event, and we try to do one per season to get families in the pool.”
About 20 minutes into the swim, the excitement reached a peak as Santa, himself, made a grand entrance. Children cheered and gathered around to greet him, later showing off their swimming skills as Santa joined them in the water. Prizes, including holiday-themed pencils, snowflake sharpeners and finger puppets, added to the holiday cheer.
Among the attendees was Lucas Miles, who traveled from Bloomington with his wife and their two children, Bennett and Merritt, as part of their ambitious mission to see 100 Santa Clauses before Christmas Day.
“We’ve done breakfast with Santa, roller skating with Santa, mall Santa, pizza dinner with Santa. But this is our first swimming with Santa,” Miles said.
The Park Ridge event marked their 87th Santa sighting, leaving just 13 more to go before their Christmas Day deadline. Their Santa journey began in July, a tradition born out of Miles’s desire to create lasting holiday memories following his deployment to Iraq with the Illinois National Guard from December 2019 to December 2020, during the height of COVID-19 restrictions.
“[In] 2022, we saw a decent number of Santas. But last year, 2023, just through the power of Facebook and the algorithm popping up — there’s this Santa, and that Santa — and in no time flat, before Thanksgiving, we had seen several Santas,” Miles said. “I was like, ‘man, we’re on pace to see 100.’ We ended up seeing 89, my son and daughter together, and my daughter saw two extra, so I was kind of bummed that we didn’t hit 100. So this year, I was like, we’ve really got to up the ante and try to get to 100.”
First-time attendee Valerie Reynolds, of Park Ridge, brought her two children, Wyatt and Caden, to experience the event.
“I liked that it was different from an outdoor or regular ‘meet Santa’ event,” Reynolds said, adding that her family enjoyed the unique way to embrace the holiday spirit.
Kaitlin Mikrut is a freelancer.
