Santa to trade snow for sand

THE man in the big red suit will be swapping snow for sand this festive season when he returns to the Bellarine Peninsula

Throughout late November and December, Sandy Santa will provide locals with the opportunity to have memorable pictures taken with Santa Claus in between palm trees and surfboards on the beach in Ocean Grove.

Sandy Santa co-founder Reife Braun said popular demand has seen the team bring back the initiative for a second year.

“More than 160 families came down last year to get their groovy, summer filled beach pictures with Santa. It was a such a huge hit, so we thought why not bring it back again?

“There seems to be a really good buzz around it again and plenty of people in town are really looking forward to getting their pictures with Santa.

“It brings people together, which ultimately is such an important and fantastic thing to do at Christmas time.”

Mr Braun said since launching the online booking site earlier this month, local families have been quickly snatching up available spots.

“We’ve already got about 150 bookings thus far, which is just epic!

“While we’ve set a pretty lofty goal of trying to get 1,000 bookings; we think with the early success of it, we are well on our way.

“They’ve just been flying through. Hopefully that continues.”

Sandy Santa will kick off on Friday, November 22 and continue on Friday nights and Saturday mornings in the lead up to Christmas.

The meeting spot will be located at the first beach carpark on the Ocean Grove side of the Barwon Heads bridge.

To book, head to sandysanta.square.site