by Alan Jacques
LAST weekend I took the two eldest of my three boys, aged 6 and 9, out to Shannon Airport to take to the skies for the annual Santa flight to meet the big man himself.
However, when I broke the news to my two mischief-makers about our festive adventure, I was a bit taken aback by my six-year-old son’s response.
“I don’t think that’s such a good idea daddy. A plane was shot down over Turkey you know,” he informed me in a matter-of-fact manner.
The two boys had never been up in a plane before so I was expecting the announcement to me greeted with far more enthusiasm than it received. But that’s kids for you; they’ll always surprise you when you least expect it.
Once reassurances were made that nobody would dare shoot Santa Claus out of the sky they started to warm to the idea and were even a little excited about our high-flying Christmas jaunt.
Of course, once we set foot in the door of the terminal building at Shannon Airport last Saturday morning it was impossible not to get caught up in all the excitement. Daddy included!
Airport and Ryanair staff had pulled out all the stops to make it the most memorable and magical of Christmas trips. Over two days and 12 special Santa Flights, hundreds of children and their parents were gifted with another, soon to be cherished memory, filled with fun and laughter at Shannon Airport.
While checking in for our flight to Fictitious Point, my children engaged playfully with Santa’s elves and his many cheery helpers.
“Do you like Christmas songs?” head elf Jingle asked them.
“No, we prefer U2,” they impishly replied.
In the departure lounge, they were greeted with lollipops, colouring books and smiling faces aplenty as a DJ blasted out festive tunes over the speakers to the kids delight.
After requesting he play their favourite pop hit of the moment ‘Shut Up And Dance’, their attention quickly turned to exploring the airport.
Mick Wallace and Clare Daly won’t approve, but my two boys got more excited about meeting American troops and getting their pictures taken with a real-life soldier in the departure lounge than they did the news of going up in a plane to meet Santa.
Having said that, the enchanted sparkle in their eyes as our flight left the runway in Shannon is going to take some topping. They loved every minute of their time airborne and gladly took Santa Claus up on his encouragement to keep asking daddy the whole way home: “are we there yet?”
Days later we were still flying high after our fun-filled, and, already cherished, experience.
As American author Peg Bracken once noted, “Gifts of time and love are surely the basic ingredients of a truly merry Christmas.”
