Visiting Santa- It’s Never Too Late for a Great Tradition!
There weren’t many traditions around Christmas time while I was growing up, we had Christmas Eve tamales and woke up on Christmas morning with excitement. I always dreamed of having so many traditions and celebrations once I had children of my own, then reality hit. My Husband was deployed more often than not. If he wasn’t on a deployment far away, he was on a work-up trip preparing for deployments and that meant he was gone for weeks at a time. His Military career never gave us an opportunity to settle down and have some set traditions, so we did things as we could. Having premature babies with heart monitors also made for selective outings around people. These were all reasons why we were never able to see Santa every year. It took many years but we finally have one: Visiting Santa- It’s Never Too Late for a Great Tradition!
As the kids have gotten older and my Husband is home more often, we have made a tradition that we all love. It’s an hour drive for us to our closest HGTV Santa HQ but we look forward to it every year. The drive with 4 teenagers is filled with laughs, arguments and many Christmas sing-a-longs. We have gone for the last few years and it’s what they look forward to as the beginning of the Christmas season. After we have fun in the HGTV Santa HQ, we visit with Santa for a while. One of the things I love the most is that each of our children can enjoy their time with Santa alone and then take our Family photos. No one rushes you through the visit because there are so many different activities to keep everyone entertained. To read about our visit last year by visiting this link.
Visiting Santa- It’s Never Too Late for a Great Tradition!
You can make an appointment online and skip any wait time by clicking here or you can show up and get in line. In the years that we have gone, there has never been a long wait. As you first enter the HGTV Santa HQ you must go through the Nice O-meter…
We all took turns on the Nice O-meter and I believe there was a glitch in there as ALL of the kids made it on the nice list!
There may have been a dance party when a certain adult saw his name on the nice list…
Visiting Santa- It’s Never Too Late for a Great Tradition!
Next is the first picture stop. Here you can do anything from sitting pretty to sitting silly like my Family…
The Elfie-Selfie station is just as fun. You take pictures as Elves and they get sent to your phone and email instantly. These are a few of our Elfie selfies…
This visit is so much fun! Can you imagine which pictures will make it to our first ever Christmas card? After the selfie station you can visit the workshop and see what all of the Elves are working with. You can use the iPads to see through Elf-ray vision!
After all of this fun it’s time to see the main guy! My favorite part of the entire experience. It’s Santa, I know him!!!
Visiting Santa- It’s Never Too Late for a Great Tradition!
I treasure these memories so much. It doesn’t matter how old the kids get, they still want to go visit him. They tell him (loudly) what they would like to get, loud enough for me to hear of course. Maybe they do it for me, maybe they do it because it’s still fun; but they ask to visit him and I will always oblige!
I hope that you will visit the HGTV Santa HQ this year. The memories are priceless and the photographs are always amazing. One of the best parts about the photography packages is that once you purchase your package, you can download all of your digital prints instantly! We ordered our Christmas cards from the site because it’s easy and affordable.
Visiting Santa- It’s Never Too Late for a Great Tradition!
Want a preview of Santa’s HQ? Watch this video…
In the Holiday Spirit of Giving
Visitors to Santa HQ will also be able to enjoy the holiday spirit of giving through HGTV’s Help Through Holiday Giving Drive. The program encourages visitors to donate new, unwrapped toys for local children in need with the goal of collecting over 1,000 toys per center. In 2017, HGTV’s Help Through Holiday Giving program collected over 66,000 toys benefiting local organizations like Forgotten Angel Tree, Salvation Army Angel Tree, Toys for Tots, and Spark of Love Stuff a Bus.
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