By Isiah REYES

Glendale Galleria and DreamWorks have partnered to bring “Adventure to Santa,” an interactive magical journey for kids to search for Santa at the North Pole.
Located in the JCPenney Court at the mall, Santa’s cottage is a 2,000 square foot attraction that includes 15,000 LED lights and 300 watts of concert stereo sound that plays holiday tunes. Tom Schneck, field marketing director of General Growth Properties, said the idea behind “Adventure to Santa” was to take the traditional mall Santa and “turn it on its head” with help from Shrek and friends by getting rid of the long wait lines.
To experience the adventures, parents start at home by registering online. This allows them to arrive at the mall and immediately enter without waiting in line. Once inside the house, visitors view a 3-D interactive movie featuring Shrek who searches for the missing Santa.
The experience is similar to a Universal Studios ride albeit much shorter and kid-friendly. One activity for kids to do inside the cottage is design their own sleigh.     At the end of the 15-minute experience visitors arrive at Santa – capturing some memories and photos along the way.

The larger-than-life unveiling on Thursday featured Shrek and Santa along with Glendale Mayor Zareh Sinanyan who presented a proclamation declaring Nov. 6, 2014 as the official debut of “Adventure to Santa” across the nation. The interactive journey also premiered in eight other locations across the country.
“The unveiling event incorporated many other holiday elements including a live snow globe, holiday carolers, festive stilt walkers and, when the cottage was lit up, local kindergarten students were delighted with virtual snow on the house and real snow coming from the sky,” said Christina Riojas, marketing manager, Glendale Galleria. “As the only Los Angeles location with ‘Adventure to Santa’ and the first to debut the holiday cottage, we were thrilled with the customer response and have continued to see a flurry of excitement since the opening event.”

The physical construction of setting up the house took about 45 days to build and was finished a few hours before the Nov. 6 presentation.
“DreamWorks is a great partner to help continue the Shrek brand and, of course, with it being near Los Angeles it was an easy partnership,” Schneck said.
Reality star Khloe Kardashian was on hand to experience the adventure, being the first celebrity guest to tour the house.
“Adventure to Santa” will be open until Dec. 24. To make reservations, visit
www.GlendaleGalleria.com.

  crescenta valley, La Crescenta, montrose