William’s First Visit with Santa

With two parents who love to take photos, William’s first visit to see Santa was an occasion to be dreamed of and planned well in advance. I learned the local Santa was part of a system where an appointment could be booked in advance, so we booked him an afternoon time for yesterday. I love this grumpy little expression on his face when Candy, Matt and I first set out.

As usual the car ride tired him out. He didn’t even notice when his hat was put on him.

I’m a huge fan of real white beard Santa’s. Candy had assured me this one would have his own natural beard and she was right. I cannot believe all the wonderful photos we have with him one on one with Santa and our family portrait as well.

Of course we needed one traditional photo of just William and Santa Claus. I love Santa’s kindly expression as well as William’s animated one. I’m not sure what he’s thinking yet his feet and hand positions are adorable, it almost looks like he’s waving at the photographer.

I’m so happy we chose the Santa outfit for him to wear, especially as Santa wore a less traditional top so William’s outfit really pops. Candy and I had discussed an elf outfit and a reindeer one, and in the end we made the right choice.

William was so tired out from his session that he fell asleep promptly on the car ride home. So we had some fun putting his hat on a diffenet way.

I am still so amazed by the experience a day later. While I’m sure William’s age and the fact that there was no one in line after us came into play, Santa went above and beyond to spend time with us and William, to act as if William could really speak a Christmas request, and to encourage us saying what great parents he saw we were and how he saw saw much love between us and in our whole little family for each other.

In hindsight, while I wondered if we’d end up with a sleeping or hysterically crying William for the shoot, we had an amazing session with him calm and happy. Santa said that is typical at this age and that the fear and crying was more typical of a one year old. Still who knows, perhaps next year we will get another set of calm photos with Santa.

~ Danielle