Christmas on Koh Tao with kids

Scuba Santa arriving on the beach to deliver gifts to all the children on Koh Tao 

Santa's elf arriving but where's Santa?

Christmas is my absolute favorite time of year on Koh Tao, despite missing the traditions of a snow festive morning and trudging through the rain with bags of shopping. Hahaha!  On Koh Tao, we like to celebrate it in style with bikini's and Santa hats, roast dinners and parties on the beach. For the kids, it's a completely unique experience and one they may never forget...

Here he comes...

The Koh Tao kids Christmas party began back in 2008, the idea came from my mother Gigi, who grew up on a tea plantation in Darjeeling, India. Every year one of the expat tea planters (one of the lucky dads) would be selected to ride in on an elephant dressed as Santa delivering presents to all the children on the tea estate. So my mum and I thought it would be a really fun idea to have Santa visit Koh Tao and deliver presents to all the children on the island, with a little help from their parents.

Koh Tao doesn't have any elephants, they did try to bring a couple to the island and one of them passed away followed by its mate dying of what can only be described as a broken heart... So instead we had Santa arrive on a long-tail and it was an absolute hit! We had parents deliver a present for their child to our house, located next door to the Koh Tao Playskool and Daycare, wrapped with their child's name written in big letters. We also had some spare presents labeled 'boy/girl' which were kindly donated by the other parents so no child would be left out.

Getting ready to perform Christmas carols

Since then we have held this event the last weekend before Christmas and it has grown, starting with just 18 children and babies the first year and 8 years on has around 70 children. Now we have a scuba diving Santa that arrives at Fishbowl, our latest and favorite venue. Santa's elf arrives off the long-tail to tell all the children 'Oh no kids, I've lost Santa, he thought he saw a whale shark and jumped off the boat'... Moments later the bubbles appear and out comes Scuba Santa himself. It's an absolutely magical experience!!

The Koh Tao Playskool children also perform Christmas carols before the main event and sell Christmas cookies they helped decorate to go towards buying more books for the school. I have yet to see our children perform as I'm always Santa's elf but we have some sweet videos of them performing on our youtube channel.

Our next party will take place on the 23rd December 2017, please bring your child/children's present to our house located next door to the Koh Tao Playskool, wrapped, clearly labelled and no more than the value of 300 baht. There will be a box with a lid labelled 'presents' on our doorstep, just pop it in there. We are usually in so feel free to pop your head in and say 'hi'.