WestJet guests have their holiday wishes granted

Passengers landed in Calgary to find gifts they asked Santa for at baggage carousel

More than 250 passengers on Calgary-bound flights were part of a “Christmas miracle” put on by WestJet.

The Calgary-based airline had a virtual Santa ask passengers what they wanted for Christmas as they scanned their boarding passes at a kiosk in Toronto and Hamilton.

While the flights were en route, 175 WestJet volunteers gathered gifts from Best Buy and CrossIron Mills.

Once at the Calgary International Airport, passengers’ asked-for items started filling up the baggage carousel.

In a blog post explaining the video, WestJet’s sponsorship lead Greg Plata wrote they would give away holiday flights to a family in need if the company cracked its goal of 200,000 views — which the video met Monday evening around 7:30 p.m.

“In early August, we sat down with our friends at Studio M and started brainstorming what ‘giving’ looked like at its best. We wanted to do something big, exciting and fresh,” wrote Plata.

Studio M is a digital production company based out of Toronto.

The airline tried a similar stunt last year, when passengers going from Calgary to Toronto were surprised by a flash mob of singing and dancing elves.

The 2013 video, which was posted Sunday, made quite a splash online Monday afternoon.