Construction on the sandcastle began on October 25th and took two weeks to complete with a total of 650 manhours. Five men from diverse parts of the country came from The Sand Sculpture Company of Woodstock, Illinois, to create the fantastical sand structure. The Sand Sculpture Company sculptors have collectively set six separate world records and currently have an entry in the Guinness Book of World Records. Totally cool, huh?

The castle consists of nothing except sand and water, something most people have on hand at home if you want to give this a try yourself. All you need to create your own sand sculpture is a form of some kind into which you can pack the wet sand and something to sculpt with. The Sand Company’s sculptors use margin trowels ranging from one-and-a-half inches to four inches wide. The magical castle is made of a type of sand generally found in river bottoms and bogs. Sea sand tends to fall apart when it dries, but the silty sand used by The Sand Company forms a hard outer crust when the softer particles fuse to the larger sand grains.

Once your sand has dried, you remove the form and sculpt away. Easy, right?

Well, maybe not so easy if you’re not as talented as the gentlemen who created Harrisburg East Mall’s castle. They work completely from their imaginations without any solid visual plan or blueprint. If you’ve ever tried sculpting, you’ll know how hard that can be. And even these wizards can occasionally have minor disasters with something as fragile as a 20’ high structure held together with water and a prayer. It seems that a star on top of the sculpted Christmas tree broke off from the vibrations of the sculpting of the lower sections of the tree. The star tumbled down the tree and knocked off Pooh’s ear. Poor Pooh!

Speaking of fragility, Tina Cuthie, Marketing Manager for the Harrisburg East Mall stated that she had to “call The Sand Castle Company and get a quick lesson on repairing the castle. People are so curious that they’ve been poking holes in the castle to see if it really is sand. Response has been phenomenal!” She lives in fear, however, of someone accidentally knocking down a large part of the structure. Mall security has been stringent in their efforts to keep people away from the structure. Still, damage has occurred, people being what they are. Bad, people! Bad!

Tina states that Santa’s Magical Sandcastle has increased their Santa photo sales by 83% over last year and has raised traffic and sales mall-wide. In fact, mall tenants are already reporting record sales, and traffic volume has been close to what they would traditionally see only on Black Friday or right before Christmas. Tina stated, “We’re definitely making the sand sculpture a holiday tradition. Each year we’ll come up with a different theme. As of yet, next year’s is still a mystery.” Although, considering that it took Tina more than a year of discussions and meetings with The Sand Castle Company to arrange for this year’s castle, she’ll probably be in meetings for next year before this year’s castle is history.

When I asked Tina how much such a structure costs to build, she laughed and said, “lots and lots of cookies for Santa.” She did state, however, that they couldn’t have completed the project without their local sponsors. The Harrisburg Howard Johnson provided the rooms for the five sculptors for the two weeks it took to complete the project. Brent Miles Landscaping donated the dumptrucks and equipment to move the 150 tons of sand provided by Pennsy Supply.

Santa will be in residence through December 24th, and the Magical Castle will stand through mid-January. Santa is available from 10am to 9pm Monday through Saturday and noon to 6pm on Sundays. Those of you who want to share Santa’s magic with your pets can do so on December 7th, 14th, and 21st. You can have your pet’s picture taken with Santa at that time. Domestic animals only, please! Tina related that some people have been calling and asking if they could bring their pet horses into the mall to get their pictures taken with Santa.

I asked Tina what the de-construction of the castle was going to be like. Tina stated that “we’re still discussing what we want to do. We’d like to make it some kind of charity event where maybe we’ll bottle small portions of the Castle and sell them for a few dollars and donate the proceeds to a charity. We haven’t made any firm decisions as of yet, though.” The mechanics of deconstruction are rather simple. Wet down the sand so that it doesn’t become a huge sandstorm throughout the mall then clean up the sodden mess. A rather ignominious end to such a beautiful creation, but perhaps its transience is part of its appeal.

So, come out and see Santa’s Magical Sandcastle while you do your holiday shopping. And don’t forget to check out the two smaller structures in the Food Court and in front of Lord & Taylor on the upper level. I guarantee they’re worth seeing. But, remember, please! Look, but don’t touch, or Santa won’t bring you anything this year!