Do You Take Your Kids to See Santa? - Richmond,VA

We do it.....and we are Jewish.....they tell Santa what they want for Chanukah. :) You dont have to buy the pics. lol its all fun

Don't do the mall for any of that stuff. The area we live in the mall isn't the best. My son has a really hard time hearing with the acustics in the mall so I would have to interpret what Santa says and vise versa.
We LOVE when Santa comes on the firetruck and hands out candy!! This year my son will be going with his classmates to a mall near his school to see Santa and have lunch. It is a more closed in setting so he should be ok to tell Santa what he's itching to get this year.
Do you know if there is a near by county that does the firetruck Santa? You may want to call around it is very up close and personal and exciting because it's at night with all of the lights from the truck flashing. They usually have a fleet of emergency vehicles that ride in before Santa makes his appearance.

Edit: I just went to the link that Riley posted, how awesome! I already set my son up with a video. Thanks so much Riley!

Yep! And love it.

But here's something else we do that might be more up your alley:
http://www.portablenorthpole.tv/home

EACH video is personalized (and quite detailed, and quite well done)

I took my son to see Santa and after he grew up and was on his own, I took my dog to see Santa. Grown son is on his own and doing fine, the 16 year old dog passed away last January 6th. The pictures of both are great and a wonderful memory for ME.

Take the time to stand in line.....you will make some great memories and things to pass on to your children when you are gone.

Blessings.....

If it makes you feel any better, I just took my son for the first time and he is 2. And it really didn't go that well.
His first Christmas, he wasn't even 2 months old, so I thought, why bother.
Last Christmas, he was a little over a year old and I really wanted to take him. But we were very busy and I got super sick the entire week before Christmas, so didn't take him.
So finally this year we did the whole Santa thing. Went to a big chain store. I had called ahead and had been assured that as long as we got there right at 10, there would be "NO wait" and as long as we got there before 11 there would be "hardly any wait".
Yeah right. We got there at seven minutes after 10 and the line was already halfway out the door. Waited a full 20-25 minutes (which is a lot with a 2 year old, as you know!) complete with non-stop shrieking from the kids behind us.
We got up to Santa and my son was terrified....so our Santa pic consists of me holding DS near Santa and DH sort of hanging out on the other side of Santa.

PS One year when I was home from college my mom pulled out all my old Santa pics and I took the time to really look at the Santas themselves. It was hilarious! Half of them looked WAY to young to be Santa, like 35 tops! The others looked drunk!

I've never taken my kids to see Santa and they are 4 & 7. They've never asked and I've never offered.

If you are a terrible mom, I get some sort of crown for being beyond horrible... hee heee...

R., I have NEVER taken my son to see Santa. I have nannied for far too many families who have pics on the wall of a screaming, crying kid sitting on Santa's lap. NOPE! not for us. My son knows that people we see dressed up are 'Santa's Helpers' but that the "real" Santa is hard at work up in the North Pole...He's never asked, either. Because I do not want to stand in that horrid line and after reading David Sedaris's "Santaland Diaries" (total hoot) , I know in my soul that I am okay to avoid that particular aspect of the holidays. Other people might really enjoy this tradition, and good for them, I'm kind of a curmudgeon anyway... probably get a lump of coal in my stocking for a bad attitude if I did take Kiddo. :)

Wal-Mart had a Santa there the first year he was born so I had a picture
taken there.
Missed last year but will try to do this year.
It's free. You just have to go back the next day to p/ the picture.
Just as good.
And I want the pictures to see the changes in him.
It's much easier than the mall mania & it's free
I liked seeing the pictures of us as kids when my mom & dad took us.
Great to look back and see what we looked like, were we scared etc. :)

Bass Pro shop is free. Not sure but Cabela's might be as well. But even if it's the mall, yeah, I take my kids, lol. We always pay for the cheapest option possible, but just want to have the little picture. If you're going somewhere like the mall though, no fear: call and ask what time they open on Saturday or Sunday (since your kids are in school) and just be there at that time. Even earlier, since you have a wee 2 year old that might love to see decorations or ride a carousel or train, whatever your mall has.
This year: Jeremy was kinda sick (just a cold, but you know men)and so we were going "out" to let him sleep late. As we were driving to "wherever" (Chuck E Cheese is what I had in mind) I saw a billboard that said if I went just 2 more exits up, I'd get to Bass Pro for free pics with Santa. I phoned them as I was driving and asked what time Santa came and she said he was already there (like 8 or 8:30am?) so we showed up. Walked around the store, and they had some stuff to play with that the kids loved but they're too young to actually buy (lazer gun arcade thing, electric car tracks, giant train set up, nerf type crossbows, etc). We went to say hi to Santa, got our pictures, they chatted to him a bit because at that time of the morning, there was no other children, lol. Then we went back another day after getting our shopping list together and the boys brought Santa treats they helped me make and chatted to him for a minute before we went to the aquarium area to look at fish, and buy our camping stuff for daddy. I like the Santa pics because it's exactly 1 year from the next, so it's fun to see how much the boys grow and change. Easter Bunny? Well, lol----we don't make a special trip just for him, but in TX our community had Santa (and Mrs Claus too, and she was involved in the cookie exchange program and gave out free cocoa), with REAL reindeer (and I'm sorry to say it, but yeah----a real "elf" too). Easter was an egg hunt and the Bunny would roam around and take pictures with everyone. Or once at a festival, he was there and we stood in line for it, but only 3 out of 5 years for that guy. Not "as" important. :P

Santa comes to visit my daughter at day care, but I still take her to see him as well. If you have a Bass Pro Shop around you, go there. You get a free 5x7 and on busy days they hand out tickets so you don't have to stand in line the whole time. You get your time slot, then wander around the store (and the whole store is decorate up with lots of photo ops all around) until its your turn. Once your group gets in line you are in and out in about 15 minutes.

I have not ever taken her to a mall Santa. Not worth it for the amount of money they want for one or two pictures.

Yes, every year. My boys are 7 and 3. This year we found a really cool place called "santa's den". We were able to make an appointment! No long lines, no mall, no grouchy santa. He was wonderful and spent 20 minutes talking and singing with my boys :)

Well, since Bass Pro started doing their "Thing" we started going there. They have crafts and fun stuff for the kids to run around and do. I stood in a "short" line last year while my mom ran around with the kids. It was kinda fun.
But, if it werent for that, then NOPE. We have only done it two years, and my oldest will be 7. I will not stand in a stupid line at the mall for my kids to freak out at the last minute.

We tried the Easter bunny once. That was all I needeed. :)

We took our daughter to the mall to see Santa for the first time last year when she was 4 years old. We had taken her previous years and she saw Santa but we never stood in the long, long line so she could sit on his lap. She enjoyed it last year and they even allowed us to take our own pictures instead of buying their expensive ones. We offered to take her to see Santa last weekend and she was really excited at first and then changed her mind and said that she didn't want to see him. She hasn't had the best behavior lately so I'm not sure if she was afraid to see him because of that or if she was just afraid in general. We even offered to take her to the mall so she could just stand back and look at Santa also said that she didn't want to do that. Oh well, at least we don't have to stand in line for an hour or more.

If you're a bad mom then so am I! I have never taken my kids to see Santa at the Mall. We walk by and wave. Christmas is not about Santa. I'm no religious fanatic but I don't want my kids assuming they told Santa about a toy and therefore I have to make it happen. My kids believe in Santa but aren't obsessed with him as the center of Christmas. I don't believe my kids have suffered at all. When I put gifts under the tree, I leave the "From" space blank and let my kids think what they want to think. My kids have never asked to talk to Santa and they don't seem upset about it. Give yourself a break.

This is my ODD's 3rd christmas and my YDD 1st christmas and yes we did go see santa (see my profile picture) :)

One of the malls around here has the most wonderful Santa, I'm about 90% sure it's not the real Santa, but that's as far as I'm willing to go.

My oldest isn't a huge fan of it but her first two years she was actually sitting on my lap next to santa and you can't see me in the picture at all. The photographers are so professional and wonderful they played with my daughter and distracted her so she didn't really know, and I have a cute picture. This year we stood and talked to santa for a few mintues and then Santa asked if she wanted to take a picture and she said yes! We have some amazing pictrues from it, even one of her kissing Santa on the cheek! She really really wants roller skates this Christmas haha!

It was expensive $35, but they gave me a CD with 65 pictures of my girls on it, so I think it was alright for a once a year expense. We have also had the exact same santa all three years. :)

Last year we went too close to Christmas and waited about an hour and a half, so this year we went the last day of November and waited less than 15 mintues.

We only do Easter bunny for each child's first Easter so we are done with him. :) EB creeps me out, I don't know why.

No, but mostly because my oldest is so scared and then my youngest gets influenced by her sister and is scared. We tried to go last year and nope, didn't work. We've done the portable santa video in the past, my girls love it. And they do write and send their letters.

yes....i took my 3 year old the other day.....she didnt get on his lap (she told me she didnt want to before we left)she held his hands stared into his face and chatted non-stop for about 2 minutes. He never got a word in edgewise and i have no idea what she said until later when i asked......she told him she wanted dress up clothes, little pet shops and barbie stuff and that her sister wanted a computer.

.........but i know she said much more than that because the girl rattled on forever.lol

It was free here unless you wanted pictures then it was at least 20 dollars.

We don't do the mall thing anymore. There is a Santa at my daughter's Christmas dance production and we get pictures there - it's fun! But I lost my pictures from last week - I'm HOT!! I'm actually taking the kids again this Saturday (when they were going to stay home) because I need Santa pictures again :).

If you want to come see the show you can see Santa! Or you can just hang around ater and meet up with him outside for free- and I won't tell anyone! LOL

I tried once mall setting when he was younger. It was not a long line and when we got up there...he would not and it was okay with me. We saw him once at an event at a railroad museum. And santa sat on one end of a bench and my son was on the other. Our neighborhood hosts a cookies with Santa event and mine has no interest getting anywhere near him and he's almost 7. We do the video link that was mentioned ---northpole. And no Easter Bunny.

We go every year and my daughter loves it! It's an inexpensive way to get a yearly birthday photo for her :) She was born on Christmas. We go to see Santa on a weekday morning and are in and out in under 30 minutes with a great picture (our mall has great people who work hard to get a good pic). We do the same for the Easter Bunny because my daughter loves him :) You shouldn't feel bad for not taking your kids. I'm sure they'll survive just fine as long as you have pictures of their childhood ;) lol

R.:

I'm a bad mom - I do!!! Both - Easter Bunny and Santa!!!

Our Santa in the Dulles Town Center is free - you do NOT have to purchase a picture. YAY!!!

I don't like the lines either. They have done the buzzers like you get in some restaurants in the past...not sure what they are doing this year...I think we'll go this weekend.

My almost 6 and almost 4 year olds have never had pictures taken with Santa. Last Sunday when we went to Walmart, they had free pictures with Santa. I only had the oldest with me or I may have done it. She wanted to, but told her that we are doing Christmas pictures on Saturday with her brother, so we weren't going to do these. Maybe and I mean probably not we might go back to Walmart and have one done with the two of them. (Walmart is doing it every weekend for a couple of hours per day).