High-tech Santa visit enlivens Cherry Hill Mall

Though the family has moved from Cherry Hill to Upstate New York, Anita Amidon still takes her two sons, Jake, 12, and Cole, 4, to the Cherry Hill Mall every holiday season to see Santa. This year, their visit was particularly spectacular.

Anita remembers the holidays at the mall as a time when children waited for what felt like an eternity to sit on Santa's lap only for a brief second.

However, DreamWorks Animation has brought Santa to the high-tech realm at Cherry Hill with its 2,000-square-foot, interactive "Adventure to Santa - a DreamWorks DreamPlace."

"It was all really cool. I liked how it was interactive," Jake said.

Cherry Hill is one of eight malls across the nation that have the DreamWorks holiday adventures.

On Friday morning, Pennsylvania Real Estate Investment Trust (PREIT), the owner of the mall, debuted the five-room palace, where children from Nemours DuPont Pediatrics were the first to experience the project. DreamWorks characters Shrek and Donkey led children through the different rooms, in which they designed their own sleigh, took a sleigh ride to the North Pole, played electronic games, and finally met up with the big man himself - live.

"We thought it would be most appropriate to partner with something that had to do with kids," said Joseph F. Coradino, CEO of PREIT. "It was just a perfect fit for DreamWorks."

Coradino did not disclose what the mall paid for holiday project but quipped: "It was a lot of money, but we didn't bat an eye for it."

"I'm most excited for the sleigh ride," Mackenzie Plocharz, 10, of New Castle, Del., said while anxiously awaiting entering the castle with her parents, 3-year-old brother Landen and 7-year-old sister Lilly, a Nemours DuPont Pediatrics patient.

PREIT covered the expenses of the patients and their families. Prices for others range from $29.99 to $99.99 per family, depending on the package. All include three pictures with Santa, and the upgrades can get high-resolution pictures on a USB, a video clip of the adventure, personalized greeting cards, a Shrek holiday DVD, and a plush toy.

"It was definitely worth it," Anita Amidon said while deciding which package she should buy.

"We wanted to get pictures with Santa for the family," Brian Dochney of Haddon Township said after buying the largest package.

"Grandma is going to love these cards," he said to son Charlie, 3, and his 5-month-old cousin, Amelia, with whom Charlie shared Santa's lap.

Toys and fancy sleigh rides aside, the biggest attraction for most children was meeting that bearded man in red.

"The best part was seeing Santa," Lilly Plocharz said. "I got to sit on his lap."

Visiting Santa can be traumatizing for some young children. The aim of "Adventure to Santa" is to make the journey more inviting by having two popular characters - Shrek and Donkey - lead the little ones to St. Nick.

"The thing we really valued most was the Shrek experience and how the kids really felt welcome in the environment," Coradino said.

"Adventure to Santa" will be open until Christmas Eve, and families can skip the line by making reservations at Cherryhillmall.com or downloading the PREIT Malls Apps for smartphones. About one thousand families have reserved a spot between now and Christmas Eve.

"It was great because you didn't have to wait on that line," Amidon said.

For those who want to wait near Santa instead of shopping, the mock castle, which extends to the second story of the mall, contains more than three million pixels and 15,000 LED lights. The display changes every hour.

"It was really cool," Lilly Plocharz said of the visit.