Santa visit kicks off West Park Mall's Christmas schedule

Santa Claus will make his first appearance of the year today at West Park Mall in Cape Girardeau.

Scheduled for a 10 a.m. arrival, Santa will greet youngsters in his newly designed home, Santa's Candy Court. Among the activities scheduled for Santa's first day at the mall is a Salvation Army Tree of Lights ceremony at 10 a.m. and carols sung by the Alma Schrader Elementary School choir at 10:45 a.m.

Santa's Candy Court is a 18-by-24-foot display with more than 150 feet of garlands, roughly 900 ornaments, 150 pounds of glitter and about 3,500 lights on trees and arches. Twenty-five people worked on the court for more than four months.

Santa will remain there until Christmas Eve.

Santa's arrival will kick off the mall's holiday special events, which run through Dec. 20.

"We are very excited to bring this caliber of holiday decor to our community and are looking forward to a memorable holiday season," said mall general manager John Dickey. "This year's season will not only energize our loyal shoppers, but we expect to attract a variety of first-time shoppers as well. We have big things in store."

Other events scheduled at the mall include gift card giveaways, toy, clothing and blood donation drives, holiday concert series, gift wrapping, cookie decorating, craft and story time party with Santa and pet night.

West Park Mall will switch to holiday hours Nov. 28. Called Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving is the traditional beginning of the Christmas shopping season and has been referred to as the beginning of the period in which retailers hope to be in the black, or turn a profit. On that day, the mall will be open from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m.

Other holiday hours vary depending on the day of the week and run through the end of December.

bblackwell@semissourian.com

388-3628