The Alicia’s Photography Santa Photography Experience is like no other! Every year it evolves into something even more magical than the year before. Clients rave about their experience and the detail that the team puts into making the experience one to remember. Alicia’s Photography was established in 1995 but it wasn’t until 2011 that the studio began offering Santa Sessions. We are the original Chicago Santa Experience. Clients drive from all over the Chicagoland area and even from neighboring states just to experience the magic of our set and the “Real” Santa in his traditional old-world suit. From 2011-2018 Alicia’s Photography offered 20 minutes in studio Santa Claus Sessions on beautifully curated holiday sets designed by Little Luxuries of Naperville, Mark Allen Designs with Warehouse 55, and now our own personal design team consisting of Delaney Small and Natasha Sweeney. The children spend their session telling Santa their Christmas list wishes and asked him questions about the elves, North Pole, Mrs. Claus, and the reindeers. Unfortunately, when the pandemic hit, Alicia’s Photography needed to get creative and come up with a way for the children to continue their tradition of seeing the “real” Santa. Luckily Santa reached out from the North Pole to ask if Alicia and her husband Dan could please build him a Chicago Christmas cottage to reduce the amount of travel that he would need to do during the quarantine. Of course, Dan, his sons, and father in-law jumped into action immediately and started building the most magical Christmas cottage ever! This enabled children from all over the Chicagoland area to meet with Santa in a COVID safe way and took the Alicia’s Photography Santa experience to an entirely new level of amazing. Santa’s Christmas cottage has been visited by over 1,000 families in the past five seasons and has been featured on 3 different CBS News shows. Local, National and World News. It truly is a wonderful experience! Not only are there NO WAITING IN LINES which parents love, but the children are immersed in a photography experience with Santa all to themselves. It doesn’t get any better than that!

Upon booking, you will select the time that works best for you. Once you are booked, you will receive a confirmation email and an email with a questionnaire that you will NEED to fill out with our kids names, ages, etc.. Filling this questionnaire out, helps us to personalize your experience and further solidify that this is the “real Santa”. As we get closer to your scheduled date, you will receive an official letter from Santa inviting your children to come visit him at his Chicago area workshop (given that you have signed up with enough time for a letter to be mailed to you). This letter includes an official golden ticket for entry. Santa states that only really good children are invited to come visit withSanta while he is in his workshop/cottage. Some parents have their elf on a shelf bring the letter, but other parents have come up with extremely creative ways to deliver Santa’s letter to their little ones. The sky is the limit when it comes to the creativity of our clients!

On the day of your session, you will wait in the warmth of your car until Santa’s helper comes to get you for your session. When it is your turn, you will walk back to the cottage where Santa will be waiting! Once inside, the children will have the opportunity to mail their letters and wish lists at Santa’s official mailbox and tell him what is on their wish list this year.

Immediately after your session, Santa’s elves get busy working on your Santa session images. Once the images are ready for viewing, you will receive an email with a link to your gallery. You will receive your gallery within 24-48 hours but most likely you will receive the gallery the same day as your session. This gallery will contain up to 15 – 20 of the best images from your session for you to choose from. Your package includes 8 images but if you would like to purchase the entire gallery, you will have that option. These professional images are absolutely beautiful and the perfect keepsake of your children at this fleeting time in their lives. They are perfect for your holiday cards, Grandparent gifts, a custom Christmas book for the kids, and most clients blow the images up and display them every year when they decorate for Christmas. They are a priceless keepsake!

We do offer pre-booking in January. Most of our clients are repeat clients so we do book up quickly. If you are considering scheduling Alicia’s Photography Santa experience, don’t delay because there are only a limited number of sessions available, and you don’t want to miss out.