Dec 19, 2022
LE ROY — Santa Claus spread joy and the Christmas spirit when he stopped at Farmer’s Creekside Tavern and Inn to spend the day with families Sunday.
Farmer’s Creekside Tavern and Inn was suitably decorated with Christmas trees and lights, as well as a small post box for children to send their letters to Santa at the North Pole. Sarah Farmer, one of the owners, said they receive over a hundred letters. She helps Santa out by writing back to the ones which have return addresses on them.
Ericka Wilson, executive assistant, was helping out Santa, Ron Dalle, as an elf. Dalle, from Greece, has been Santa for the past 10 years.
“There’s been a lot of good children today,” Wilson said.
Dalle said he loves seeing the children happy and watching the Christmas spirit in their eyes.
“They’re just entranced with Santa and being near him,” he said.
Santa started coming Farmer’s Creekside Tavern and Inn last year.
“I’m one of the owners, so I obviously work weekends here and away from my family,” Farmer said. “I used to do Breakfast with Santa in other areas, and we just couldn’t attend because I’m here. So I had this idea last year to have to do Breakfast with Santa.”
Last year, Santa arrived on a fire engine. This year, an elf was there to help him. The kids received antlers, bells and Christmas cookies from Premier Pastry in Rochester.
“We structure our Breakfast with Santa a little different. In a lot of places, Santa would be positioned in one spot and you line up and you kind of see him,” Farmer said. “With COVID, we kind of adopted this thing where we had Santa move from table to table. So he can kind of make a couple rounds, take some photos. Really get that experience where you are getting that one-on-one attention.”
Every year, the event has been sold out. Farmer says they start accepting reservations the day after Thanksgiving. Farmer said people were calling about Breakfast with Santa in November and the event was about sold out a week ago.
By around noon, they served around 75 children. Farmer said about 50% of reservations are kids.
Later in the month there will also be a New Year’s party. Farmer’s Creekside Tavern and Inn will have a six course tasting menu. They will be having fireworks over Oatka Creek to celebrate the end of the year.
