Westgate Shopping Centre wanted to bring some Christmas cheer to its visitors this year, so the team got creative and turned a shipping container into a temporary Santa’s grotto.
Filling its carpark with containers wrapped up as a gingerbread house, creating Santa’s grotto in a container wonderland.
The centre, in west Auckland, needed a temporary and weatherproof space to house the 4-week festive pop-up in its carpark and a 40-foot Royal Wolf office container ticked all the boxes.
The container was modified with a festive, gingerbread house-style wrap, decorated with a blow-up Santa and the interior transformed into a winter wonderland complete with Christmas trees, candy canes and of course the opportunity to get a photo with Santa himself.
The office container was the perfect solution as it comes complete with flooring, walls, lights, power points and air conditioning units. Lighting was essential to ensure the photos came out perfectly, and it is well air conditioned to ensure Santa – who’s not accustomed to hot and humid Auckland – was comfortable.
Paul Creighton, Royal Wolf Executive General Manager, says it is exciting when organisations approach us with new and creative ideas about how they want to use containers.
“We provide containers for all kinds of projects but turning a container into Santa’s wonderland is one out of the box – and it’s a great example of the versatility of containers.
“On an everyday basis, containers can be used for anything from dry storage to chemical storage and pop up retail solutions. But even though they are an incredibly solid structure they are very adaptable and able to be used in highly creative ways.”
