Ep. 174: Fluffing the Trees: Behind the Holiday Magic

[00:00:01] The holiday season is officially here. All our decorations are up, the mall's looking festive, and our team recently came together for tree fluffing. This week we're taking you behind the scenes of this special tradition and introducing some of the people who helped bring it to life. There's plenty happening around the mall too. On Friday, November 13th, the Lego store hosts a reindeer make and take from 5 to 7pm for ages 6 and up while supplies last. Hunger Games fans can join the Sunrise on the Reaping Costume Contest from 6 to 8pm in the Rotunda.

[00:00:30] On Saturday at 11am, Trisha Paytas celebrates her book, Crying on the Kitchen Floor. The event is sold out, but you're more than welcome to come and watch. Planning your holiday visits? Well, starting November 10th, MOA Insiders can earn double points on up to 5 purchases every Tuesday. Santa appointment reservations are now live too, so choose a date that works best for your family. And find all the holiday events, deals, and new stores on our website's Holiday Hub. Now let's go behind the scenes.

[00:01:00] Mall of America. It's home to world-class shopping, great dining, and amazing attractions and events. And these are our stories. Presented by Bloomington, Minnesota Travel and Tourism. Welcome to this very special edition of So Much More. I'm your host, Dan Jasper. Jill's going to be joining me along the way. Today we're actually in the middle of the action.

[00:01:20] It is our annual tradition tree fluffing at Mall of America, where our different team members come together and we work together to fluff hundreds of silver trees throughout Mall of America. For those of you who can't see us, but are listening to us in the car, I'm standing in the rotunda in front of two 44-foot tall trees, the massive rotunda trees.

[00:01:42] Along the way today, we're going to talk to different team members at their tree-fluffing locations to find out what they do to make the holiday so magical for the millions of guests that come to make the holidays so much fun at Mall of America. So if you're ready, come along for the ride because we're going to go and fluff some trees. All right, I am here in the rotunda with John Sowell. John, what's your official title at Mall? Director of Operations.

[00:02:10] Awesome. And what do we got going today? We're tree-flopping today. We're getting ready for Christmas. Everything's out and ready to go. The overnight staff has done a great job getting ready. And today we're going to go make everything look pretty and get ready for Christmas. I love it. You talked about the overnight staff. That's your team, right? Yeah. And I remember back in the day, it would take a month to put all the decorations up here at Mall of America. You told me they broke a record this year. Yep, every year they get it a little bit faster. A couple of years ago, it was down to two weeks.

[00:02:40] And as of right now, they've got one day left, so they're going to have this done in five days. Five days. That is amazing, especially when you see the giant ornaments and everything around the Mall. What are the things that they put out for everyone? It's the street trees that go up that we're all taking care of today. Everybody's gathered here to straighten up the street trees and make them look great. It's the rotunda trees that are 44 feet tall. They're big. The giant ornaments that you mentioned in the courts, those go up.

[00:03:07] Saltwood Park gets a lot of twinkling lights that go above all the seating areas. That'll be the last thing tonight. I love it. And then we're ready for Christmas and bring everybody in. I'm ready for the joy and the caroling and everything, right? Absolutely. What do you think is the most challenging part of decorating with these giant ornaments and trees? Just logistics. Moving them from one end of the building to the other. It all has to be done at night. You can't have people here. Everything's so enormous. Just for safety reasons, honestly. We want to make sure we're always safe about it.

[00:03:37] And we've got to keep things clear. We can't have people walking around and getting in the way. That's it. And it's kind of magical when it's done at night because then people come in the morning and it looks awesome, right? Absolutely. I've had a couple of mall walkers approach me this morning saying the same thing. I'm in every day and it's just so cool to see it every day change. So it's on. Yeah, I just had a conversation a few minutes ago with a mall walker that they're very excited. I love it. And this tree floating is a tradition for us, right? We do it every year. Every year. And what do you hear from the folks? What do they like doing about this?

[00:04:07] I think they like the cookies and coffee afterwards. I do too. The coffee especially, right? I think it's something to get together and everybody a little different than your normal work day. Get to get together afterwards and have some coffee cakes. I love it. It just changes the day. You know, November, December, so busy at Mall of America. What do you and your team do on December 26th? We all take a deep breath and put our feet up and relax a little bit. And on the 27th, I bet you start thinking about next year. Yep. Yep. You do.

[00:04:36] John, thank you so much. You and your team are awesome. Great job again. All right, thank you. Appreciate it. It is the holidays at Mall of America. We are here in the Rotunda. Our team is out there fluffing trees. I'm here with Rich Hokey. He is the Chief Operating Officer here at Mall of America. Isn't this such a fun tradition that we have? I love it. The team is super excited about it this morning. Yesterday, there was a buzz in the office. And we're going to be here today as well. Love it.

[00:05:03] So tell us a little bit about where we're standing and these magical trees that we have as a tradition here at the Mall. I'd say we're standing in the epicenter of the holidays at Mall of America. This has always been the place where it happens. And these trees, we've been putting them up every year for, I don't know how many years it is, but I've been around this place for 34 years. And they're all we've been in. They're 44-foot trees with over 600 branches on each of them. Which we love our fun facts here at the Mall. We were just testing some of our internal team about this.

[00:05:29] And so when you talk about the magnitude of the decor here at the Mall, your team is responsible for literally transforming this property. How many days does it take and how many people actually transformed the Mall? Yeah, I think for people like us, it does feel like it's over then. But the reality is, Jill, it takes 12 people five days to decorate this property. That's incredible. And then you get this team of people come in today to come in and help fluff it, make it, just put the final touch on it. It is all about traditions here at Mall.

[00:05:59] What's your favorite tradition? You've been here for decades. There's a lot of fun things that happen, but things that we keep consistent because we know a few others come back and enjoy. What's your favorite? Yeah, I mean, I personally, and I said it earlier, I love this Rotund area. I think it's always been the epicenter. We do some music stuff over here. Yeah, I just love the people coming to watch that. I love when the families are out here enjoying it. Personally, my biggest thing during the holiday season, I love walking around and just seeing the smiles on people's faces, seeing the smiles on the tradition that's happening.

[00:06:27] And then there's the people that always come to these key moments in the property when we've got these big elements and they want to get the photos to them. And I just love honestly walking up to them and taking the photo for them, letting them all get the picture, letting them enjoy it and having that fun time with their family and with friends. In love with people who can capture their memories, their emotions here and be able to look back at that. When you bring your family here, what's the one thing that you guys do? Yeah, I mean, you know, each year it's probably something different. We have so many different unique experiences and you guys, you know, our team is always offering up something different for our guests.

[00:06:57] And for the families out here. So we want to try to take on some of those different experiences. But you're always going to find us kind of gravitating back to the original areas that we used to. I think that's tradition. That's what, honestly, what holiday is all about, about family. It's about the history. And lastly, when we have millions of people walk through our doors, it's a magical place this season. We want people to be enjoyed. What type of feeling, what type of memory, what's that heart moment that Lovol would do and talk about? Yeah. You know, for me personally, it's about that.

[00:07:26] You know, being with family, connecting, being with friends and connecting. You know, when you're in the mall, you have that opportunity to do that. There's so many unique settings to do that in. But you also have that opportunity to go out and, you know, buy those gifts. And what honestly feels special to be doing stuff for other folks, right? And to find unique things that maybe you can't find everywhere else. But we can count on Mall of America and have everything. So I think it's important to continue that. I think that's who we are. We continue those traditions and we're super proud of it. Great. Thank you so much.

[00:07:56] Happy holidays, everybody. Thank you. It is still tree fluffing day. We are wandering this mega mall. And I know we're not supposed to use that term. But 5.6 million square feet. And I just found one of my favorite team members of the world, Natasha Betts. Natasha, how are you? I'm doing well. How are you? What are you doing today? We're fluffing trees. We are fluffing trees. We're fluffing trees. Tell us what your title is here at the mall.

[00:08:25] Director of Attractions Operations. Thank you. That is so much good. And what teams do you manage here at Mall of America? I oversee the rides team in Nickelodeon Universe. Yeah. Yeah. Services for Mall of America and specialty attractions, which is the smaller ancillary attractions that we offer. Such as? What are those attractions? Crayola Experience. Yeah. Moose Mountain. Yeah. Bages. I love it. Our mini golf courses and Crayola. It's so much fun. It's so much fun, right? And the Human Crane.

[00:08:52] If you want to give a gift of experience this year, do the Human Crane. It is so much fun. Or if you have little ones, go to Crayola. What are your teams doing to prepare for the holiday season? They have already started decorating the spaces, getting things festive, putting out some at Crayola. We have some really fun holiday crafts. Yes. Okay. That are specific to Crayola and some really fun things you can do there. We have a lot of internal parties. The team is getting really festive. They come in decorated with their own flair.

[00:09:22] They get to wear their hats or whatever they want, right? Yep. Whatever they want. They have a really good time on that. You know, these teams are underrated in this sense. The holidays are so busy for our team members. And it takes so much energy and they're exhausted. But their holiday spirit never wears out, does it? Never wears out. They love it. It's awesome. Start to finish. Moose Mountain. I love it. By the way, I think I hold the course record. But are we going to see your big Santa hat on top of the Moose Mountain again this year? Me too. I know it's been a tradition in the past. It's so much fun.

[00:09:50] What is your favorite thing about doing tree fluffing? The treats. Oh, afterwards. Cookies and hot cocoa and coffee. It's so good. You got a couple of elfish helpers back here. Who is this behind us? Brian Spielman, vice president of attraction. Brian, the big guy. And Myra Picharro, the senior manager for attractions operations. And Myra's been trying to hide behind, but we ain't going to let him hide today, are we? Not today.

[00:10:20] If a guest is coming to Mall of America during the holiday season, what tips do you have for them? What should they do when they come out here? Come early. Yes. Plan your parking. Yes, that's a good one. Plan your route. Yep. Get your meals in. Hydrate. Eat. And wear comfortable shoes. And wear comfortable shoes. Yep. Food, hydration, really important. Comfortable shoes, really important. And they can actually plan their route on the web, on our website, or our app. We have a really cool app, too, right? Yes. Yep. Yep.

[00:10:49] Everything's on the app that you need. And if you're looking for a great holiday present, I just want to say, do we have gift certificates for like Crayola or Nickelodeon, or can people buy passes ahead of time? You can buy passes ahead of time. You can also buy gift cards that are good at Mall of America, Crayola Experience, and Nickelodeon Universe. And this year, we're actually going to be launching a Nickelodeon Universe gift card. Awesome. I did not even know that. That's amazing. Super excited. So if you're looking for amazing gifts for the holidays, or great stocking stuffers, I'm

[00:11:16] just saying a gift of Crayola, or Blacklight Mini Golf, or Moose Mountain, right? Those would be amazing gifts, wouldn't they? What's one of the craziest, funniest things that's ever happened here at the holidays that you remember? Oh, boy. That's a hard question. Wow. Well, my favorite day is actually the day after Thanksgiving. Okay. We all work. Yes. Yes, we do. What time do you usually come in that day? 6 a.m. 6 a.m. Like all of us. Yep. And what is the energy like on the day after Thanksgiving?

[00:11:47] It feels like a Saturday at 1 o'clock all day long. It does. Right from the very beginning, right? 6 a.m. 7 a.m.

[00:11:57] 7 a.m.

[00:12:25] I'm Tasha, and I know that you and your teams are so busy all holiday season up through Christmas day. What do you do on the day after Christmas? Work. I know! I'm here. We can't take the time off. We can't take the time off. Do you ever, does your team and you, do you get a rest at some point? We do. We do. And that comes usually around January 2nd, 3rd, 4th. Yep. Exactly. We can take the free there. And then I have to ask, when do you start planning for holiday 2027? Um, usually in June or July. Yep.

[00:12:54] That's when it really kicks into gear. But I know even in January, we all meet together and kind of go like, what went well? What can we do better? Right? Yep. So we're constantly thinking about this experience. Yes. And if you could give one tip beyond the tips you already given or a holiday greeting from your team, what would you tell all our viewers? From all of our team, what do you want to wish them? Happy holidays. Happy holidays, everyone. Natasha, thank you so much. You're welcome. Awesome interview. Appreciate it. Thank you.

[00:13:28] We are on the north side where a lot of the magic happens during the holidays. The atrium's right behind us and it is transforming into a winter wonderland. I'm here with Laura Utech. She is our Senior Director of Communications. And your team has been very busy getting ready for this festive season. Tell us all about it. Well, the team has been working hard. We've been reaching out to the media. This is our biggest time of year. It is our Super Bowl. Everybody shows up. The excitement, the colors, the decorations.

[00:13:54] And what's best of all is that this is a holiday tradition for so many families. People come here year after year. They want to celebrate with us here at Mall of America. You have been here now. This will be year five for you. Yep. What is your favorite moment in the holiday season? You know, I take my son here every year for the holiday season. And we love visiting Santa. Now, new this year is going to be a whole new experience. So, I can't wait to take him to that. Check out Santa experience here at Golden America. Literally, rainbow behind us.

[00:14:23] Rainbow behind us. What is your advice for families coming this season? You have a lot of traditions that you bring back year after year. But you also like to change it up and add a little, you know, fresh layer. It's been exciting. You know, what is your advice? You know, plan before you come because there are so many different things to do. When you come here to the mall, check out our website first. Plan ahead. See what you want to do.

[00:14:52] Check out Santa experience. Sea Life. They always have fun different activities. They have, I think, scuba diving, Santa Claus. We've gone and done that before. That's super fun. I'm getting pictures in the decor. All of the music and holiday entertainment and the rotunda. There's truly something for everybody. And the deals. The shopping. You gotta go. So, I love this. I got my work gloves on. We're here early. But you know what? This is what's so fun because our team really comes together and we support every different

[00:15:20] department and making sure we transform this building. And it's fine because we've got the mall-womers walking around. It's fine because they critique us a little bit, making sure the trees are clear away. They always have little comments. They stop by and say, hi, you missed a spot. I love that. We heard that can help us. But what would you say something like behind the scenes, or something that secret sauce that your team brings to life or any of our friends that our guests would find fun and exciting and learn about? You know, the VIP tours are actually a fun little secret sauce. A lot of people don't know about that.

[00:15:50] But it's fun getting a behind-the-scenes look by booking one of our tours and learning how the mall comes to life. You get a little bit of a peek behind the curtain and see what our incredible teams do. We have small but mighty teams that do a lot here. And it's truly incredible. They work so hard and create a lot of fun for people. What is your hope that families walk away with this year as they enter the mall and have a great experience, but when they leave the mall, what do you want to go?

[00:16:15] I think just that piece of holiday magic. I mean, this time of year is really magical. It's so much fun. People come here, and I think us that work here, it's so enjoyable to walk the mall and see the smiles, hear the laughs. It makes me feel so grateful to work here, to be able to see that. And when I come and bring my family experience with my family as well, it's something really special. Okay, so last question for you. You talked to Nidia.

[00:16:45] What is the fun fact that they all loved and grasped and to share with the world? Can you talk about the holidays at Mall of America? You know, one fun thing, especially now that we're heading into holiday season, that we were one of the first shopping centers to close on Thanksgiving Day, to give that day back to all of our team members and really put the Friday back at Black Friday. I think that's something that's really fun. Ten years. Ten years this year. That mission. Yeah. So a lot of people don't know that.

[00:17:13] I mean, the mall is so industry-leading, doing these different things, trying something new. And it's fun for people to get involved. Well, very interesting. Laura, thank you for all your help. Of course, on to the next guest. You can see the decor is starting to come to life. I'm here with Jacob Wall, and he is our entertainment manager. Usually you see him in an elf costume, but today he is helping us fluff trees and get them all ready for all the festivities.

[00:17:42] So, Jacob, what is your favorite part of the holiday season here at Mall of America? I love to see all the prep that goes into all these wonderful trees, especially the big ones in the rotunda. We have our staff today decorating the log chutes and noose mountains. So I love the community that comes together to make this place magical and special. I love that. The thing is, there's part of the element is decorating the mall. But you guys, your team, really brings the magic to life because you have the connections with the guests.

[00:18:12] You're providing the entertainment, magical memories. Talk a little bit about that and what your favorite part is about bringing that magic to life. Yeah, my favorite part, I guess, would be to see all the families together, having a grand old time and being able to smile and make memories and just be together for the holidays. So the week leading up to the big reveal, as we have Santa arrive, as we have Black Friday for our guests, what is your team focused on right now? Everything. There's so much to do.

[00:18:42] You know, prepping the log chute, prepping our fun little elves that join us for the holiday season and, of course, some rock and rock dancing and many different things happening inside the park. So for our guests that don't really know the behind the scenes, what's kind of a secret to the sauce that they might think was pretty interesting that might not be visible to them? Ooh, that's a really great question.

[00:19:09] Maybe switching up our holiday activation that's happening in the Northern Trium. I don't know how much I can talk about it, but it's changing and I'm excited for it. I think that's the key is we're always looking for something new. We want to hold on to traditions that families love to enjoy, but we always want to mix in a little something special so that they could be a surprise and delight. So when the guests come to the mall this season, what are the three must-have things they need to check out?

[00:19:35] Ooh, definitely all the activations happening in the Rotunda. It could be different music groups. It could be just sitting on a bench looking at the beautiful Christmas trees, riding rides, and then definitely meeting the big guy in red too. Yes, you got to share your wishes with the big guy, right? So what's the one takeaway? We talked about our love moments at the mall. We want to make sure people have those magical moments, the traditions.

[00:20:04] How do you want people to feel when they leave Mall America this year from holiday experiences? Probably a sigh of relief, a sigh of goodness in being able to leave this place feeling calm and ready for a little nap because the world is a little bit crazy and I want this place to feel like I'm okay. Love that. Sense of peace. Enjoy. Love that. Thank you, Jacob.

[00:20:29] And you will be able to see Jacob at the Santa Experience on the North Side, level one, all season long. Thanks, guys. Tree Fluffing Tour around Mall of America. I have to tell you that I'm actually getting a little tired. This building is massive, but it is so much fun. I am here with Mary Ryan. Hi, Mary. Hi. Happy Holidays. Happy Holidays. What is your title and who's working behind us?

[00:20:58] So I'm the Senior Manager of Experiential here. And behind us, we have a variety of people from our team here at Mall of America. Right. So we have Project Management. We have Danielle and Lauren. Yeah. We have Hannah, which I'm not fully sure of her title. Which is awesome. So we can come back in later. Oh, we'll call her. We'll get out to it. Yeah, that's fun. And then we also have our events team here. So we have Maddie and Sierra and Brendan. Awesome. It's so good to have everyone here. It is so much fun.

[00:21:25] And that's the cool thing about our tree fluffing at Mall of America and the entire holiday season is all the team members come together to make things special, don't they? Correct. Correct. And it's truly one of the best things to see you do. You know, a lot of our teams do stuff behind the scenes, and as does your teams. But I also know that you guys help produce some of the many, many events during the holiday season. How many events do we host? And name a company or favorites. Yeah. So during the holiday season, we really focus in on our music. Yeah.

[00:21:52] So with that, we have a variety of performance. We typically have at least 30 community groups talking about it, and perform at the mall, as well as we have an array of events to their team. So whether it's Eugene Gospel Mission, Radio 1, Case 95, their annual, where they've raised over a million dollars, which is so cool to see. And then we also have those moments, too, with Santa. So Santa Arrival is one of my favorite ones as well.

[00:22:21] Because it truly brings you into the holiday spirit, seeing Santa. It really does. And by the way, the real Santa is right here at Mall of America. Are you right? It's true. You heard it here first. It is so much fun. It's true. I love it. And that's what's being the holiday spirit as well. If you had a tip for a guest coming out to Mall of America for the holiday season, what tip would you give them? Absolutely. So one of my favorite things is, I would say, arrive before mall hours. Yeah. That way, you can hear the holiday music. It starts probably about 930, I think.

[00:22:50] You can get a coffee, whether it's your peppermint mocha, my favorite for the holiday, or whatever. You can just come in, take a lap around the mall, hear the holiday music, see the holiday decorations. It truly just has a very magical time. Our teams are so busy. And what was really cool is, we were talking before we started taping, and Mary said, this is her holiday moment. It's every morning grabbing your, what do you drink again? Peppermint mocha. A peppermint mocha.

[00:23:17] You walk around the mall, you listen to the amazing music, and you get in the spirits, right? It's true. There's nothing better. It just feels good. It really does feel good. And I'm wondering, does your team have anything they would like to say to all of our viewers and listeners? We absolutely do. Ready to use. From our team team members, happy holidays!

[00:23:37] That concludes our tour around Mall of America on this, our favorite tradition, tree-flopping day. You've heard from some of our team members, seen some of our teams. The truth is that you've only heard from a few. We have hundreds of team members that work year-round to make the holidays special for you and your family.

[00:24:07] So we invite you to come to Mall of America this holiday season. And take your family photo, whether it's in front of our 44-foot trees in the rotunda or these beautiful sparkling lights on our west side of Mall of America. The truth is we have all the shops, all the dining, all of the fun and attractions that you would ever hope for here at Mall of America. So from our team to yours, thank you so much for joining us on this edition of So Much More.

[00:24:35] And we wish you the happiest of holidays. Ha ha ho! Thanks for listening to So Much More, a Mall of America podcast. Subscribe wherever you find your favorite podcasts. This show is presented by Bloomington, Minnesota Travel and Tourism.