I’ve seen Santa a few times over the past week but today I decided to visit him in one of his most famous spots – Macy’s on 34th Street.

Rachel and I prepared our wish lists and angelic faces before heading to Santaland on the 8th floor of Macy’s, the world’s largest department store. All I knew of the experience had been gleaned from Miracle on 34th Street, so I was expecting magic, music and a multilingual Santa.

Thankfully we didn’t have to queue for too long. The store shuts at 9pm so we arrived for 8pm and joined the line that snaked through Santaland. And along the way, there was plenty to keep us entertained: toy trains, moving reindeer, Christmas trees and very enthusiastic elves.

Around half an hour later, we finally got to Santa.

There was no speaking Dutch or sign language, but he was still very impressive. He really took time asking us lots of questions in a booming voice and promising to try his hardest when I asked for a puppy and Rachel asked for a boyfriend (a nice and rich one). We posed for awkward pictures and after promising him that we’d leave him mince pies and carrots next week, we said our goodbyes.

(Now, I don’t want to ruin the magic, but I think Macy’s probably has several Santas to hand. We’d been led to one little hut and the people who went ahead of us had not been ahead of us in the earlier queue. It’s all very discreet though, and I’m sure it helps with the queuing situation.)

While this is definitely an activity for children (they helpers at the picture desk asked, ‘Where are the kids?’) its fun wasn’t lost on us – and I particularly liked how Santa gave us as much time as if we were little.

With a wave from the boisterous elves, we left grinning. I can’t wait for my puppy.