For the first time in our daughter’s six years of life, we finally decided to do a photo shoot with Santa this season. Though this may seem a little uncharacteristic for us, considering I love all things holidays and photo shoots are the norm for our family, I just never noticed Everleigh taking a serious interest in Santa until last season.
When the Magical Santa Experience opportunity was presented to us this year, we couldn’t refuse this unique one-on-one experience that Pixels by Emily offered. As soon as I met with Emily and saw what the shoot entailed, it was an absolute easy yes. I knew that Everleigh was going to be completely over the moon about this!
A week before the session, a beautiful golden ticket invitation to the North Pole addressed to Everleigh arrived in the mail. She squealed with excitement as soon as she learned that she would have her very own special visit with Santa. She eagerly counted down the days that week until it was time for her visit.
The day of the experience was unlike anything we could’ve imagined. Everleigh’s eyes completely lit up with amazement from the moment we stepped into the studio which was beautifully adorned with so much attention to detail. The scents of the holidays and the sound of Santa’s bells as he was arriving truly set the scene for the entire session.
In the first set, Everleigh and Santa got to know each other and Everleigh was impressed that Santa knew so many personal details about her, including her teacher and pets’ names! Together they called Santa’s head elf on a nostalgic rotary style phone and Everleigh was able to make a gift request for Christmas. We all agreed that our favorite moment from the first set was watching Everleigh and Santa’s cookie eating race. The genuine interactions, giggles, and pure joy led us all to completely forget that we were on the set of a photo shoot.
In the second part of the session, we moved on to the next set which was Santa’s workshop. It was an equally breath taking aesthetic, and by this point Everleigh and Santa had become like old pals. They used tools and magic paint to fix and create toys together, and they even got a little silly and painted each others’ noses! They also viewed Santa’s nice list through a magic looking glass and located Everleigh's name.
When we reached the end of the session, Santa gave Everleigh a magic wish box, a bell from his sleigh, and some delicious cookies to take home. After we left, Everleigh enthusiastically announced, “This is the BEST DAY EVER!” I said, “Wait, better than Disney?!” And she paused and eventually replied, “It was EQUAL to Disney!”
About a week after our session, we visited Emily’s studio for a viewing appointment. The images she captured were beyond any of our expectations, even prior to editing. We narrowed down our favorite images on an oversized screen and were able to see examples of all the different types of orders she was capable of creating.
We were extremely impressed with the personalized story books and ultimately decided that this was the best way to capture and continually relive the memories from that special day. We also ordered the most darling small accordion style albums for Everleigh’s grandparents. When the order came in prior to Christmas, the final edited images were absolutely stunning. The Norman Rockwell style of artistry that Emily creates within her work is unlike anything else I’ve seen and truly brings the images to life in the most unique way.
I know that Everleigh will cherish the memories from this incredible Santa experience for years to come, as will her father and I. Thank you so much to Emily at Pixels for hosting us and creating such a core memory for our daughter!
If you’re interested in this one-of-a-kind experience for your family, join the 2023 waitlist. Do not hesitate to sign up - there is no cost to join the list and these sessions will book out early and FAST!
Have a magical and merry holiday season, friends!
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