This December families in Thame will be able to track down and bring the ‘Christmas Spirit’ to life on their smartphones thanks to Thame Town Council.
As part of Thame Town Council’s Advent Calendar of events this December they’ve teamed up with QR code trail experts High Street Safari to create an interactive story-trail that is designed to encourage children to walk, have fun, get engaged and most importantly, take their minds off the pandemic. The trail will run from Monday 7th December until Friday 8th January.
The trail is positioned around the Thame town centre with 10 ‘Christmas Spirit’ characters and takes on average about 1 hour to complete. It’s completely free for families and groups to take part in and they win a heart-warming Christmas e-book at the end. At around 1.5 miles or 3,500 steps it should keep families fit and active before the Christmas feasts too!
The trail works by utilising contactless QR codes, without the need for families to download or sign up to anything. 10 jolly window characters, all specially created for the trail have been placed around Thame for families to hunt down. There is no need to actually go inside the venues.
The Christmas Spirit Trail revolves around a magical story that includes Albert Claus, the less famous brother of Father Christmas. His job is to maintain the Spirit of Christmas by spreading joy bubbles on Christmas day, but he's gone missing! By visiting the trail stops and speaking to each of the cheerful ‘Spirits of Christmas’, players will learn what has happened to Albert and, finally, be able to solve the mystery, save him and read the conclusion with the free e-book at the end.
When families in Thame scan each character’s unique QR code the character will burst to life with an animation on their smartphone and they’ll learn their names, stories and gather clues. Younger children will enjoy spotting the colourful characters in shop windows and older kids, and grown-up ones, will engage by hearing the stories.
Martin Blackwell, former CEO of ATCM and the Charity Retail Association, who is coordinating the project nationally, said, “We’ve run several of these “safaris on the high street” and have just been blown away at the response. If something fun like this can help make families and kids feel good about going back out onto the high street in a safe way then we’ve done our job.”
To find out more about this trail and the rest of Thame Advent Calendar visit:
