--- title: Skydiving Santa Claus Crashed With Elf on the Shelf description: The accident happened on his way to a Florida beach to deliver presents, including an Elf on a Shelf. canonical: https://time.com/5049743/skydiving-santa/ author: Raisa Bruner article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-12-05T17:01:11.000Z article:modified_time: 2023-12-12T23:50:04.000Z og:title: An Ambitious Skydiving Santa Claus Had a Crash Landing og:description: Where's Rudolph when you need him? og:url: https://time.com/5049743/skydiving-santa/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte0a8456b4a175e02/6988f3c7bc6cfcb1543e4326/skydiving-santa.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3000 og:image:height: 1688 og:image:alt: Skydiving Santas Launch New Experiences Website og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: An Ambitious Skydiving Santa Claus Had a Crash Landing twitter:description: Where's Rudolph when you need him? twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte0a8456b4a175e02/6988f3c7bc6cfcb1543e4326/skydiving-santa.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # An Ambitious Skydiving Santa Had an Unfortunate Crash Landing > Sponsored content. 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Named editors include Richard Hall (The Brief), Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs (Inside TIME), Eliza Berman (Worth Your Time), Philip Elliott (D.C. Brief), Justin Worland (Future Proof) and Harry Booth (In the Loop). Health Matters is written by TIME's health desk. #### How do I sign up for a TIME newsletter? Go to time.com/newsletters, choose the newsletters you want and enter your email address. There is no cost and no subscription requirement.  by [Raisa Bruner](https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/)  ## Raisa Bruner Updated: Dec 12, 2023 11:50 PM UTCPublished: Dec 5, 2017 5:01 PM UTC  Skydivers in Santa Claus costumes dive in formation over Sydney to launch the new festive experiences range by an Australian online experience company, at Picton on December 17, 2008 in Sydney, Australia. Skydivers in Santa Claus costumes dive in formation over Sydney to launch the new festive experiences range by an Australian online experience company, at Picton on December 17, 2008 in Sydney, Australia. Brendon Thorne—Getty Images  by [Raisa Bruner](https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/)  ## Raisa Bruner Updated: Dec 12, 2023 11:50 PM UTCPublished: Dec 5, 2017 5:01 PM UTC Not even the magic of Santa Claus could save one holiday [Santa impersonator](http://time.com/4739069/santa-claus-impersonators-real-beard-community/) from an unfortunate crash landing during a skydiving experience this weekend in Florida, [the AP reports](https://www.usnews.com/news/offbeat/articles/2017-12-05/skydiving-santa-crashes-on-florida-beach-with-elf-on-a-shelf). (While the Santa did break his leg, everyone else is otherwise unharmed — except for the [Elf on a Shelf doll](http://time.com/4946736/rhyming-elf-on-the-shelf-memes/) he was attempting to deliver as a present, which also suffered a leg injury.) George Krokus was planning on making a festive surprise entrance to a charity volleyball tournament in Tampa Bay by skydiving down to spectators, where he planned to drop off the the elf toy to a 9-year-old girl. But without the direction of Rudolph and a seasoned team of reindeer, Krokus, suited up as Santa, instead found himself crashing into a tree and light pole before finally landing on the beach. The Elf on a Shelf in question, named Kristoff, is an old friend of local resident Madison Spiers, who’s also the daughter of the event organizer. She told local news that Kristoff regularly “visits her house” around holiday time, leaving notes and engaging in pranks. Now, unfortunately, Kristoff has a bandaged leg — just like Krokus. There’s even a [GoFundMe page](https://www.gofundme.com/skydivingsanta) for the medical costs. The elf did manage to get a note through to Spiers, explaining the situation. “Don’t worry though…now G and I are resting in this hotel that they keep calling a ‘hospital’! G has reservations for a few more days, going to hang out with him so he doesn’t feel lonely!!” [the note read.](http://www.baynews9.com/content/news/baynews9/news/article.html/content/news/articles/bn9/2017/12/4/skydiving%5Fsanta%5Freco.html) (Krokus is expected to make a full recovery, [Bay News 9 reports](http://www.baynews9.com/content/news/baynews9/news/article.html/content/news/articles/bn9/2017/12/4/skydiving%5Fsanta%5Freco.html).) Next time, however, we’d recommend a sleigh. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5049743/skydiving-santa/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5049743/skydiving-santa/"},"headline":"An Ambitious Skydiving Santa Had an Unfortunate Crash Landing","datePublished":"2017-12-05T17:01:11.000Z","dateModified":"2023-12-12T23:50:04.000Z","description":"Not Santa's best delivery experience","url":"https://time.com/5049743/skydiving-santa/","keywords":["Newsfeed","santa claus","Holidays","Holiday 2017"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte0a8456b4a175e02/6988f3c7bc6cfcb1543e4326/skydiving-santa.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Raisa Bruner","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte0a8456b4a175e02/6988f3c7bc6cfcb1543e4326/skydiving-santa.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Skydiving Santas Launch New Experiences Website","caption":"Skydiving Santas Launch New Experiences Website","creditText":"Brendon Thorne—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5049743/skydiving-santa/","name":"An Ambitious Skydiving Santa Had an Unfortunate Crash Landing"}}]}] ```