The Santa Experience 2018

Have you ever heard of the Santa Experience?  One of our local photographers, Jen Bailey at Memories by Jen Bailey offers this experience starting in November going through the first of December, and while i had heard about it and had seen flyers around town, I had never fully checked it out myself till this year.  Jen has a wonderful website here where you can see pictures and videos of previous experiences, but I thought I would write about how our experience went with Andrew.  Disclaimer:  Jen did give me a discount for spreading the word but I think the pictures are well worth the money so would highly recommend her even if she didn't give us a discount!

A little back ground, Andrew is 6 this year and has become a little skeptical of Santa, mainly because now a days you see Santa EVERYWHERE.  We have never done the mall Santa thing because our local union has Santa come to the union hall every year for pictures and gifts.  Also, we shop at Hyvee and Santa makes a few visits to Hyvee in December, usually when we are shopping for groceries.  SO in comes the questions from Andrew.  Why do they all look slightly different, and which is the real Santa, and does Santa really exist?

Enter in the Santa experience!  We were able to pick from a few sessions to figure out what worked best for our schedule.  The studio itself is located right outside Wamego out in Zeandale actually so kind of half way for Wamego and half way for Manhattan on Zeandale road.  Before the session we got very detailed instructions on when to arrive, what to do, and questions that Santa needed to know so he could incorporate those answers while talking to Andrew.

When we got to the studio, Andrew was fitted with a special pair of pajamas that were "made by the elves".  Little boys wear green pjs and little girls wear beautiful little white dresses.  After getting dressed, we were ushered into the studio where Santa and his props were.  We were never rushed, everything is done at the kiddo's pace, and Santa is AMAZING!  This is not a point and shoot session.  Your child interacts with Santa while the photographer moves around in the back ground taking lots and lots of shots.  Here a list of the experiences Andrew and Santa went through as part of the Ultimate Santa Experince: 

Eating cookies and drinking "reindeer milk"- I believe these were sugar cookies that Santa sprinkled magic on. Milk was of course just milk but andrew said reindeer milk is WAY better than regular milk!
Prayers before eating
Bible story-the story of the birth of Jesus
Wish book-a magic book that Andrew can write wishes in and Santa will see them.  The book is signed by Santa.
Compass-actually getting to see the compass that rides on Santa's sleigh
Globe-figuring out where the north pole is and where your child lives in relation (Proves that Santa really knows where you live)
Painting the car-Santa has a magic paint to coat toys that are in his bag.  Santa and Andrew painted the toy car with magic paint to protect the car.
Nice Book-checking to make sure Andrew's name is in the book (and it was :)
Elf list-Reading the list to make sure that what Andrew wanted was on the list
Elf call-calling the head elf Bernard to ensure that Andrew's wishes were being made.  Used an old telephone.
Magic key-Andrew was given a key in a bag that is the key to all of your hopes and dreams.
Magic-several times Santa sprinkled magic dust on things to bring them the magical powers he talks about.  Andrew LOVED this and the magic is made to look super cool in picture.  Santa's thumb also glows when he is dusting things with magic, so this really made Andrew believe it was real.
Santa falling asleep:  Santa needed a break so we walked out and came back in and he was asleep!  Andrew got to wake him up which again made some super cute photos.

We took home the wish book, an audio book about Santa, and the key and bag (which Andrew keeps hidden and in a safe place according to him) which is all part of the Ultimate Santa Experience. 

We did the Ultimate Santa experience which included at least 8 experiences and was a 40 minute session.  We were in the room the whole time with Andrew and Santa, and even got to take pictures with Andrew and Santa in the end.  Next year we will be sure to have our own matching pjs:)  About a week later, we were able to view ALL of our photographs and go through them with Jen in the studio.  She helped us pick out our favorites and then narrow that down to 2 for our Christmas card set that is part of the Ultimate Santa experience.  There are several packages for additional charges that Jen has available to pick from to commemorate your experience.  These packages include metal ornaments, photo books with story, social media images, and metal prints just to name a few.  She had examples of each item so you could see it, hold it, and really understand what each item was. There was also an option for ala cart if you didn't want to purchase a package. 

I asked Andrew what his favorite part was and he said THE MAGIC!  He loved it when Santa sprinkled magic on things, and he even kept some in his wish book box for safe keeping.  As we were leaving, he whispered to us that, "that was the real Santa mommy and daddy".  I will admit there were several times I was in tears watching the magic happen between Santa and Andrew and wanted to stay in that little studio and time of innocence forever because my little boy is growing up so fast.  I hope he still believes next year because I wouldn't hesitate to do this again.  I highly recommend trying this out with your kiddos, you won't be disappointed!!!!  Right now if you use the coupon code coleman80, you get 80 dollars off of your experience!