Video Call from Santa: How to Get a Live Call in 2026

A letter to the North Pole takes weeks. A video from Santa is lovely, but it can’t answer back. What most kids actually want is to talk to Santa — to say their wish out loud and hear him say their name. This year you can do exactly that: a live video call from Santa, on your phone, that listens and replies in real time. Here is how it works, what it costs, and how to make it land.

What a live Santa video call is (and isn’t)

There are three kinds of “call from Santa” out there, and they’re easy to confuse:

• Pre-recorded calls — a personalized video or voice message that plays like a call. Your child can watch, but Santa can’t hear them.
• Live calls with a human Santa — a booked time slot with a performer over video chat. Wonderful, but usually the priciest option and limited to the times on the calendar.
• Live AI Santa calls — Santa appears on screen, listens to what your child says and answers in his own voice, right then. No booking, no script to read.

Call Santa in Sleighed is the third kind. Santa picks up, greets your child by name, asks about their wish, and follows wherever the conversation goes — reindeer, elves, whether the dog is on the nice list.

How to set up the call

1. Open Sleighed and tap Call Santa. Do this part away from little ears.
2. Fill in Santa’s notes. Your child’s name (with a pronunciation spelling if it’s an unusual one), their age, the gift they’re hoping for, and one thing they did this year that you’re proud of. Santa works all four into the call.
3. Hand over the phone and tap call. It rings like a real video call. When Santa answers, he already knows who he’s talking to.
4. Let them talk. Each call runs up to two minutes, and Santa wraps up warmly on his own — no awkward cut-off.

The part you’ll keep: the reaction

While they talk, the iPhone app records the call with your child’s face in a small window in the corner — the same way a real video call looks. Afterwards it’s saved in My Presents, so the moment your five-year-old tells Santa about the dinosaur with laser eyes is yours to rewatch every December.

When the North Pole line is open

• December 1 – 24, while Santa is at his busiest.
• 7am – 9pm in your local time zone. Santa keeps sensible hours (bedtime calls before 9 work well).
• English only for this first season.

What it costs

Calls are paid by the minute, so there’s no subscription to forget about:

• 2 minutes with Santa — $3.99
• 5 minutes with Santa — $7.99

You’re billed by the second for the time you actually talk, and if a call drops on our side, it isn’t charged. On iPhone, each device also gets a free 20-second hello from Santa, so you can see it before you buy. You can call from the app or from sleighed.me/call in your browser.

Tips for a call they’ll never forget

• Make the notes specific. “Learned to ride without training wheels” lands far better than “was good.”
• Use a quiet room. Santa listens for your child’s voice; a loud TV makes him work harder.
• Set the scene. “Someone from the North Pole is trying to reach us…” is all the setup it needs.
• Stay close for younger kids. Santa follows their lead and gently steers away from anything that isn’t for little ears, but a parent nearby is still the best co-host.

Pair it with proof he came

The call builds the anticipation; Christmas morning needs the evidence. Sleighed can also catch Santa on camera in your own living room — snap your tree and get a video of him (or the elves, or a red-nosed reindeer) dropping off presents. Call in December, proof on the 25th.