CHRISTMAS DAY 1987 AT THE JEBEL ALI HOTEL, DUBAI
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| Who’s this, arriving in a Rolls Royce all covered with balloons? |
When there are no chimneys to speak of, how does Father Christmas, a.k.a. Santa Claus, arrive? Well, when I worked at the Jebel Ali Hotel in Dubai, UAE, he visited the residents in a Rolls Royce!
Sammy Sunshine greets Father Christmas with our beloved F&B supervisor, Pedro Pido, looking on and smiling.
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| Sammy Sunshine greets Father Christmas! |
For the children, it made no difference how Father Christmas chose to visit them, there were over the moon with excitement.
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| Yvette Skinner helps Father Christmas prepare to greet the children |
In those days, I struggled with the incongruity of Santa on the beach surrounded by palm trees and a lounge band; now I see only the joy of the children and the efforts of their parents to make Christmas real for them. There’s no doubt that capitalism is the name of the game but at the same time, I know how hard Yvette Skinner, a brilliant organizer, and the rest of the hotel employees worked to put this together. There was something quite special happening here, though it’s possible that I didn’t quite get it at the time.