Frequently Asked Questions
We know there are a lot of questions in regards to what Our real Santa Experience is and how we operate so we thought we would answer our most common questions to help you understand our business
How long until I receive my images?
Your final order will be ready within approximately a week of the session. They will be uploaded to the website into your own gallery for you to select and download or you can choose to upgrade if you haven't done so at the time of booking. Once selection is chosen you can download them immediately upon payment or download as per what you originally paid for.
Can my pet be included?
Unfortunately not sorry. We won't be offering Pet sessions for Our Real Santa Experience
What is included in my session?
Your session includes either 3,10, or all (20) Digital images dependant on the package you purchase.
Additional add on products, and upgrades are also available for purchase
What session should I book?
Unsure which session is right for your family?Being designed to suit age groups is new to many and I created it this way from years of seeing children and wanting to make it the best experience for the age groups.
Here is an easy guide.
The Santa Experience– Suitable for all ages. Activity is recommended for children from 15 months.
The Santa Visit- Suitable for all ages but best for the under 6's mostly
Will Santa spend equal time with each child during the session?
The time spent with each child is dependent on the questions that they ask and the interaction they wish to have with Santa and Mrs Claus.
How long does my session go for?
Ok so this is where it can get a little tricky. Each time slot is established on a very strict run sheet. The time slot available is 10 minutes for a Santa Visit and 20 minutes for a Santa Experience.
This may vary under a few circumstances. If you are late this comes out of your time allotment, by being late to your session throws out the entire days run sheet so your time slot begins from the end of the last client when we call your name, if you are late that time is taken from your session so we encourage you to be on time so you do not forfeit your allotted time.
Another key element in terms of your time slot is that sessions run up to 10 minutes or 20 minutes depending on your session booked, however we will not force your child to endure a session if they are scared of Santa and do not want to interact with Santa and Mrs Claus or are crying and inconsolable, we will do all we can to aid them to calm down and enjoy the experience, but if they are not willing, we do not wish to make them fearful for future experiences. Please be mindful that we can only work with what we have and if your child is distraught and crying throughout their time we will not be able to capture smiles and cannot spend time in warming them up until we receive a smile. It is best you try to ensure your little one is comfortable with Santa in the lead up to the session, or embrace the crying photos and love them like we do!
Do we get a posed photo?
We will attempt to get 1-2 posed images throughout the session. The main focus of all our experiences is to capture the moments between your children, Santa and Mrs Claus.
What does it mean by a candid photo?
As opposed to a smile at the camera and say cheese photo, a candid or natural photo is the expressions, joy, wonderment that is seen on your Child’s face when they interact with Santa and Mrs Claus. These are irreplaceable and unrehearsed moments, that you can’t recreate. They are only there in a moment of time in a magical experience with Santa and Mrs Claus. These are the photos that are most popular that you will treasure forever.
What happens after our session?
We will endeavour to have your proof gallery ready for you as soon as we can, the turnaround time we are advertising is 1 week.
Please understand these sessions receive a lot of bookings and we have a lot of work to do behind the scenes so please don’t message us asking for your images, they will be sent to you as soon as we possibly can.
Once you receive your proof gallery it is then up to you how long you will receive your final images as you will be able to do that yourself via your online gallery.
Can I have my niece and nephew included in my child’s session?
We advise if you wish to capture your children and others in the same session that you book additional sessions so your children receive their images for your family, then the additional members can all be photographed together also, this way no one misses out. The more children in one session the harder it is for Santa to share his time with them all equally so best to book a second session side by side so the cousins can have their own session and join together in between the two sessions.
Why do I need to pay for extra children?
All our sessions include both parents and 2 children. Any additional children are to be paid for, this is the same at most places you go to, and this year most of our sessions include some sort of activity which costs money.
Can we entertain our children to make them smile for the camera?
Our younger children’s sessions are more so designed for those beautiful posed images as your babies are too young to understand the traditions, however for our Santa Experience we ask that you please don’t ask or encourage your children to look and smile at the camera. Santa will engage with your children and at the right time set up to capture one posed image smiling at the camera throughout your session. These sessions are not designed for the perfectly posed smiling at the camera image.
Can we take our own photos through the session?
We love seeing behind the scene images of us taking your child's image, yes. But we ask you not to take a image of your children with santa. You have hired us to do so so please allow us to do our job. When parents have their cameras and phones out the child is distracted as they have grown to know to look at mum and dad when they want a photo, Please let us take control on this to get the gorgeous quality images that you have came to us to achieve. By all means take advantage of our Christmas decor to take images of your child pre-session, Share them with us on Facebook – we love seeing them.
Can I request my images by a set date?
No. Please understand we book out many many days across a few months. This means the sessions on the first days are those which will be completed first. The later your session the later completion will be nearing Christmas. We understand that you may want these images for Christmas gifts and such so please consider this and book accordingly.
We advertise a 1 week turnaround for your images to be ready, harassment, abuse, bargaining, badgering and threatening us to have your images ready will not be tolerated. Not only will your images be prolonged in being finalised, but you will be banned from using our company in the future. This also includes having your friends and family abuse us, leave negative reviews or slandering our business. Your images will be produced as soon as we possibly can, but slandering and harassment will not be tolerated and will be escalated to police authority.
Do you have anything for our children to wear or any advice?
No sorry we no longer have this option available. Please ensure your children are all dressed accordingly ready for their photos. We advise your children come dressed in nice clothing that doesn't clash. We advise no bold colours or prints, no slogans. Dresses and Playsuits are lovely for little girls, and nice khaki shorts and a button up shirt look great on little boys.
What happens if we can't make our session?
If you cannot make your booked session, please ensure you contact us well in advance and we will try our best to reschedule your session. We do not offer refunds so we will try to reschedule your session to our next availability. If you are trying to reschedule late in the season I'm sorry but the will be likely no availability to reschedule you into so please make sure you are available to attend your session as there is no refunds.
"My child is terrified of Santa"
Okay, our advice here really does put it back on your own discretion. If you're child is terrified to the point of flinging themselfves around, hitting, having tantrums, is completely inconsolable, we do advise simply don't book a session unless you are going to be part of the session and you are willing to be between Santa and your child. The absolute last thing we want is to force your child to withhold their session in utter fear and traumatise them further. We WON'T do this. That is simply as no child deserves to be forced to be in fear, and for the safety of Santa, Mrs Claus and our team, we won't put a child who is terrified on or near Santa and Mrs Claus.
IF you are willing to be in the photos we will ask you to sit between Santa and your child to try to ease your child into the interaction. Hopefully this helps them calm down and interact, however under no circumstances, if your child continues to cry and cannot be calmed down we will terminate their session and you're selection of images will be anything we were able to get - crying images ARE included in our session - we under no circumstance guarantee smiling or neutral images, we simply work with what we are presented, so if you know your child is afraid of Santa and will most likely cry, and you are expecting a happy photo we do advise you not to book in as we cannot force smiles in our sessions.
We also wont force a child to be terrified simply for the fact of getting a photo. We know some parent love the screaming photos, but that too is still enforcing trauma on your child and we won't do that. We will not torture your child just for a humorous photo. So please use your own common sense and discretion come securing a spot. We have been abused many times about a child being terrified and crying and the parents being presented with crying photos and them not being happy with this. Please understand we are offering a Photographic experience with Santa, we are not magicians.
"Will my products that I ordered be ready by Christmas?"
Again, this does depend on your booking also. If you book in a last few weeks leading up to Christmas then most likely no. If you book early December and take a week to reply to us with your image selection, most likely you won't receive your products prior to Christmas. Please understand that our Professional Lab is also experiencing their busiest period over Christmas and have many orders to fulfil. We cannot guarantee a completion date for products as it also depends on their workload. If you are looking at Christmas gifts we do advise you book as early in the season as possible. Basically we say that if your session is in December, there is no guarantee of Product delivery.
"I booked in but haven't received any emails?"
This is a common problem we are faced with. Please understand once you book you WILL receive a confirmation email, and this will be followed up with reminders. If you don't receive any emails - and you have checked your junk and spam folders - Please contact us!! We do have system errors with 'hotmail' and ' icloud' email accounts, so please keep an eye on your emails, especially if you have these accounts. This email account you send us WILL be used to receive your galleries so if you haven't received your confirmation email, you will not receive your gallery, so we do need to know if you don't receive anything so we can use an alternative email.
Is Mrs Claus at at every session?
No. If you wish to secure a session including Mrs Claus you must book in for a weekend session. These sessions with Mrs Claus in will specifically say '& Mrs Claus'
Do I receive a magic shot?
No. The magic shots are not automatically included in your sessions. If you wish to have a magic shot included you must request this from us.
Can I request Mrs Claus to step out from my photos?
If you don't wish for Mrs Claus to be in your photos please ensure you select the Santa Visit as each other session does include Mrs Claus.
Can I request set images to be taken?
Short answer is no. Our business model is based around candid, heartfelt, genuine interactions. Taking time to pose and capture set images disrupts the interactions and connections which Santa and Mrs Claus build with your children. We aim to get 1 posed family shot each session, the rest are generally candid images.
