The Naughty-or-Nice-O-Meter
Before anyone may travel north, the Spirit-Ometer must have its say. It hums and ticks and considers each child rather seriously — and in all its winters, it has never once turned one away.
How it began
It started because a two-year-old had no Santa to visit.
In 2020 the malls were dark, the Santas had all gone home, and Heather — who runs Once Upon an Island a few doors down — had a small empty space next door and a toddler named Cruise. If there was no Santa to take him to, she would build one.
It was meant to last a single winter.
What she built instead was the thing every mother has quietly wanted since the first time she stood in a mall queue mouthing her child’s name over a stranger’s shoulder. No line. No rush. No performance. A Santa who already knew.
Seven seasons on, it is still made the same way — by Heather, Brad, and a crew of designers and fellow parents who build every room by hand on Balboa Island, and who care more than is strictly reasonable about whether the toys are the right ones.
Her hope has not changed since that first winter: that your children walk out feeling as cherished as her own.
