Santa’s Cave Waikerie opened on November 24 and has attracted nearly 3000 visitors by this week.

It will no doubt be popular with tourists and locals until Christmas Eve.

The annual Christmas exhibition is sponsored by the District Council of Loxton Waikerie and the Rotary Club of Waikerie also assists with decorations and storage.

Santa’s Cave Waikerie began in 1996 and enables children in the Riverland to visit Santa without having to travel to Adelaide. Photo: Paul McCormick

Volunteers from the Waikerie Men’s Shed, local CFS, Apex, and Lions Clubs have also all contributed to the attraction over the decades.

Gwen Webber, 86, was on the original committee and is still a volunteer at the popular Christmas attraction.

She says in 1996, two months before the Christmas season, a group of Waikerie locals banded together to establish a Santa’s Cave for the town.

“It was a hard time for Waikerie people that year,” Webber recalls.

“Many of our region’s families were finding it difficult to afford travelling to Adelaide to see Santa at the Magic Cave in John Martin’s,” she says.

Webber says the group approached the then Waikerie Council to see if they could use the historic Waikerie Institute/ Soldiers Memorial Hall to house the display and the idea was approved of and welcomed.

She says Santa’s Cave started out being in just a small corner of the institute.

“At the time we only had limited ideas and a very modest chair for Santa,” Webber says.

Ann Russell, 71, and Albert Noll, 94, both of Waikerie, are among the community volunteers at the town’s Santa’s Cave this year. Photo: Christine Webster

She says the first display featured balloons, streamers, Christmas trees, tinsel, stars, and other decorations given to the committee by members of the community.

Webber says they faced a hiccup on the first day when all the balloons went flat ahead of the official opening.

Fortunately, a local trader was able to fill the balloons with helium.

Webber says the committee never dreamed that their Santa’s Cave would become the success it has.

The Waikerie Christmas attraction has grown substantially over the years and now fills the whole hall with Santa seated in a spacious area on the stage.

Webber says a yearly theme is chosen and is often inspired by what is popular that year with children.

In 2001 Santa’s Cave won the Banrock Station Riverland Tourism Awards Indirect Tourism category.

Webber says by 2017, the Waikerie Christmas attraction had recorded more than 100,000 visitors from SA, interstate, and overseas since its establishment 21 years before.

Loxton Waikerie Mayor Trevor Norton, Santa’s Cave Waikerie committee president Amy Stephens and secretary Naomi Moxham and Loxton Waikerie deputy Mayor Clive Matthews at a preview event of the Christmas display last month. Photo: Christine Webster

The committee is undergoing generational change and Webber is excited at the way the Santa’s Cave has evolved.

Last year, the popular Christmas display was in danger of folding after some of the committee decided to step down due to other commitments.

But current Santa’s Cave Waikerie Committee president Amy Stephens and a few other community members put their hand up to join.

“Thankfully a few of us attended the meeting and Santa’s Cave has kept going,” she says.

Stephens says the most rewarding part of volunteering and establishing the display was the public’s response.

“Our reward is pageant night and seeing everyone’s faces and the feedback, that is our incentive for doing this,” she says.

Waikerie’s iconic Christmas display is ideal for Instagram and family photos with backdrops and characters such as this gnome. Photo: Paul McCormick

The Christmas attraction is keeping up with the times. In 2021, during the Covid-19 pandemic, the committee purchased a Covid safe chair for Santa, that can be wiped down with sanitiser after his shifts.

Interaction is a key part of the town’s Christmas exhibition this year, with several new backdrops and items designed for Instagram or family photo opportunities introduced.

These include a sleigh made by Allan Reid from Spellbound Play-House Creations in Adelaide, a pink Barbie scene, an enchanted tree, and a gnome on a log.

Stephens says people have enjoyed taking photos of themselves in these backdrops, and are full of praise for the modernised Santa’s Cave.

“We have had amazing feedback, with regulars loving the refreshed feel,” she says.

“On Facebook we have received a couple of comments from tourists who visited from the city who said it would become their annual tradition to visit our Santa’s Cave.”

Stephens says children have also commented “this is amazing,” on the blackboard in the Kid’s Corner.

A gift shop has also been part of the Waikerie traditional attraction with hand-crafted items, candles, jewellery, ornaments, paintings, dreamcatchers, and knitwear.

This year, more school holiday activities and a dedicated children’s corner have been introduced for youngsters.

These include ornament painting, DIY Christmas mug workshops, wire wreath decorating, making fillable bauble decorations, and Christmas succulent pots.

A Christmas wreath-making and sip event for adults run by Waikerie flower farmer and florist Natasha Waanders was also held earlier this month.

“That went really well, a group of 11 ladies came and made fresh wreaths, that they took home for their own decorations or to give as gifts,” Stephens says.

“We have been exploring different ways to attract people of all ages into the cave, not just children.”

Santa’s Cave Waikerie opens after the town’s pageant each year when Santa makes his first visit and is open daily until Christmas Eve from 10am to 5pm. Entry is a gold donation.

Bookings for groups will be accepted up until New Year’s Eve.