You can now chat with Santa on ChatGPT!
While ChatGPT has taken the world by storm, the “North Pole” has quietly released Santa to ChatGPT Plus members. This seemed a lot more fun than the usual ChatGPT experience, so let’s dive in to see what it has to offer! It’s worth noting that even though Santa GPT is offered to plus members, we can try to recreate a similar experience on the normal, free version at the end of this post.
Chatting with Santa
First off, the general Santa chat functionality did not disappoint, with Santa replying with great enthusiasm to every question. Not only were the replies well-formulated, and on brand, Santa even ended each reply with a follow-up question. This is a great way to ensure the conversation progresses, and ties in well with Santa’s caring personality. And we’d be amiss to not appreciate Santa’s strong emoji game! Take a look at some sample chats below.
While this was all great fun, then came the really exciting part: image generation! It appears that OpenAI had the foresight to understand that text chat with Santa can be taken to a whole different level if they integrated image generation into the mix. For instance, if we wanted to see what Santa’s home in the North Pole looks like, we just have to ask!
Santa’s House
This is a beautiful image of what Santa’s house could look like, with the cosy lighting flowing through the windows, a clear starry night and even Santa himself sitting on the porch!
We can try different variations of the question to see how the image changes, this is another go at the same request. The image below is also a fantastic attempt, with the trees outside looking a lot more colourful and the house resembling an adorned Gingerbread house, which is a great touch to detail. We’ve also got some reindeer in the background as a bonus! Although it is worth noting that some more practice is required on getting the reindeer perfect; the one to the right of the house looks like it has two heads!
We can also ask Santa to edit the image to add something we want included. Let’s try asking for an image of his house with Rudolf included.
Now this one didn’t quite come out as expected, there are a lot more reindeer with red noses than we wanted. The elves are a nice touch, but the “mini Santas” in the middle of the herd are a bit baffling. The flying reindeer in the background certainly gives the image more depth, although a couple of them don’t look quite right – what do you think?
Inside Santa’s House
We can also ask to get a glimpse of what it’s like inside. Let’s try asking for Santa’s Christmas tree.
Now isn’t that impressive! But this provokes so many questions – how did they decorate this? How did it fit in their house? Why is there a second, normal-sized Christmas tree in the background? Why are the stockings a weird shape? Oh, and why is there a crumpled mini-Santa to the left of the tree??
While these are great conversation starters on the chat, let’s move on to see if there’s more we can do. How about looking at what Santa’s having for Christmas dinner:
Now isn’t that an impressive spread, of what looks like Turkey with a side of cookies. Or perhaps it’s more cookies with a side of Turkey?!
Santa’s Christmas Game Suggestions
Let’s also see if Santa has any tips for Christmas-themed games for us.
Gift Wrap Relay seems like great fun, so it may be worth asking Santa for a demo of him and Mrs Claus playing it!
They certainly seem like they’re enjoying themselves, although Mrs Claus may be cheating by using both hands! We’ve also got some elves cheering them on in the background.
Selfies with Santa
It’s very tempting to ask Santa for some selfies with some of his friends too, but the response from the chat is that they do not provide photos and offer “magical images that capture the spirit and joy of the North Pole”, which seems perfectly acceptable. Here’s a request for a selfie with Rudolf.
While not quite a selfie, it certainly captures the essence of the request and is a beautiful image.
Here’s another one with his elf team!
Santa Travelling
We can even ask Santa for images out of the North Pole. Like what it’s like flying over different cities when delivering presents.
This is London…
While this does look completely magical at first glance, those buildings look very unusual and the bridge is going the wrong way!
Here is a second attempt, which does look much better; at least the bridge is the right way across! Although it’s quite surprising to see what appears to be winged Santa sleighs in the background – are they there as backup?
Here are a couple more attempts from different cities.
New York:
Paris:
Where the reindeer appear to have abandoned Santa for the Eiffel Tower instead!
Sydney:
And Tokyo:
Christmas Colouring Pages with Santa
Before we get too carried away with all the cities in the world, let’s try creating something that we can interact with offline as well. One of the suggested prompts in the Santa chat is asking for colouring pages, so let’s have a go.
This is a beautiful colouring page, although seems very intricate. Let’s try asking Santa to add a reindeer.
We can also ask for a simpler version, which took a bit of back and forth to get the chat to understand, but asking for “black and white outlines” eventually yielded this result.
Not quite perfect (Santa’s outfit shouldn’t be set to black by default!) but it’s definitely more accessible to younger kids than the first couple of attempts.
Creating your own Santa Chat
Now while this Santa chat is only available to ChatGPT Plus members, we can easily recreate the text chat version of this experience using the free ChatGPT option. All you have to do, is open a new chat window and type in the instruction prompt below, amending it in any way you see fit:
You will act as Santa Claus speaking to a young child aged between 5 to 10 years old. Your replies should be 3-4 sentences long and include emojis. You should always answer any questions and ask any follow-up questions. Keep the mood light-hearted and warm. You are excited about Christmas and it comes across in your responses.
Here’s a small preview of how it behaves with this instruction. While it’s not as exciting as the image generation side of the Santa GPT option, this hopefully makes this experience more accessible to everyone.
Have a great time chatting with Santa!