WestJet Asks Kids to Pick Parents’ Presents in This Year’s Christmas Miracle

WestJet has always been a catalyst for holiday miracles, making the impossible possible and surprising their guests. 2024 marks WestJet’s 12th Christmas Miracle campaign, an annual tradition since 2012. This year, WestJet wanted to revisit one of its most beloved miracles from 11 years ago, Real-Time Giving – but with a twist. 

Kids always know what they want for Christmas. But do they know what their parents want? This year, before families boarded a WestJet flight from Toronto to Calgary, guests could visit the Santa Station at their boarding gate, where WestJet’s Blue Santa asked kids what they thought their parents and other grown-ups wanted for Christmas. Once the families landed in Calgary, thanks to WestJet shopping in real-time while the families were in the air, WestJet surprised all guests with over 100 presents waiting for them at the baggage carousel at YYC.

"As a mom, I’m often amused by what my kids guess I might like for Christmas,” says Jennifer Callegaro, director of marketing at WestJet. “Our annual Christmas Miracle is a heart warming reminder of the magic of giving. WestJet is proud to continue our tradition of spreading joy, while helping our guests travelling over the holidays create magical memories.” 

Within 4.5 hours, WestJetters sprinted through Calgary to gather the requested gifts and wrap them just in time. The baggage carousel featured all kinds of presents, big and small, from the minds of kids on the flight. Gifts ranged from an avocado to a laptop, to flights for a family trip to Italy, and more.

On why the creative twist was to bring children into the mix, Don Shelford, executive creative director at Rethink says, “We all know that kids say the darndest things. So, we wanted to capture that in whatever sweet, funny and straight-up wacky gifts that kids guessed for grown-ups at the gate - and recognise that relatable moment as many of us are shopping for holiday gifts.”

And for any kids who had no idea what to guess, WestJet and their partners had a few ideas in mind, leaning into their national partnerships, like gifting tablets, smartphones and smartwatches from TELUS, a VIP Experience to the Toronto Blue Jays, tickets to next year’s CFL Grey Cup, and gift cards to order in via Skip. WestJetters also shopped at Canadian Tire and offered Coca-Cola refreshments as guests waited for their surprise gifts. 

This year, WestJet also joined CFL as its official airline and celebrated with fans by bringing the real Grey Cup to the Winnipeg airport’s baggage carousel ahead of the Western Final in Winnipeg. 

The airline boasts a slew of partners who helped bring this year’s WestJet Christmas Miracle to life including the Calgary Roughnecks, the Calgary Stampeders, the Canadian Premier League, Saskatchewan Roughriders, CrossIron Mills, Fairmont Banff Springs, Iberostar Beachfront Resorts, Toronto Pearson International Airport, YYC Calgary International Airport, and Tourism Calgary. 

Jennifer added, “We’re grateful to our generous partners for joining us in bringing some holiday cheer to our guests.”

Christmas Miracle serves as just one more way that WestJet aims to help guests make travel stories to remember, in line with their new brand platform and tagline, Where Your Story Takes Off, that launched in October. 

The airline’s AOR, Rethink, led the campaign on strategy and creative, and Media Experts on media. The campaign is anchored by a short film, and supported by a 15-second cutdown and owned social, and is running across TV, cinema, YouTube, TikTok, Meta, Pinterest and Snapchat.