Yesterday, 3 December 2016, Verbier hosted its opening day, an event where they attempt to assemble a record number of skiers dressed as St. Nicolas, or his redder equivalent: Santa Claus.

This year, the sun shone, the snow was decent, and a new Verbier record was set when more than 1,200 Santas assembled at 2,500m, high on Verbier’s slopes. Le News was there to capture the festivities.

According to the Guinness World Records, the largest gathering of Father Christmases was 18,112 during an event organised by Thrissur Citizenry and Thrissur Archdiocese in Kerala in India on 27 December 2014. It is unlikely that these Clauses were on snow. It is equally unlikely that they sang and waved to the song YMCA by the Village People – see video below.

Lift operator Televerbier provided all who were sufficiently red and bearded with a free lift pass, drinks, end-of-day raclette and a 2-for-1 ski pass, for use during the season.

We’ll ski to that.

The next open day is on 7 December 2019.

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