The Santa who knows their names
Most Santa photos are a stranger and a lap. This is not that.
The Wonder of Christmas is our fine art Santa experience, and it is built around a simple idea. A child should be recognized, not processed. Everything about the afternoon is arranged so that when your children meet Santa, the moment is real, and we are there to keep it.
He knows their names
Before your session, we ask a few quiet questions. What each child is hoping for. What they call the dog. Who the family lost this year. Santa reads all of it before you arrive. So when your daughter sits down and he already knows her rabbit by name, the look on her face is not performance. That is the difference between a picture of a child on a lap and a picture of a child who has just been recognized.
The set is built by hand
None of it is a backdrop, and none of it is generated. The window frame, the tree, the old trunk, the rocking horse, the rug. It goes up in pieces every year, by hand, in our Bellaire studio. Your children can touch all of it. That is why the room feels like somewhere, instead of like a screen behind a chair.
A real set, a real Santa, and an afternoon no one is rushing.
One family at a time
There is no line. No shared time slot. No one waiting behind you. For your session, the studio is yours. Your children set the pace and we follow it, which is the only way a shy child ever warms up to Santa on their own terms. It is also why we photograph only ten families across the two days.
What you take home
Not a folder of files. Finished, gallery grade wall art, designed for a wall in your home and made to outlast every phone you will ever own. The magic of this Christmas, kept where the family will walk past it every day, for the next forty years.
Made to hang where the family walks past it every day.
Photographed in October, on your wall by Christmas
Real artwork takes time to design, finish, and frame. Photographing in late October means your portraits are ready and hanging well before the holidays, instead of arriving in the last week of December. That is the whole reason Santa comes in the fall.
The details
The Wonder of Christmas is Saturday, October 24 and Sunday, October 25, at our Bellaire studio. Ten families across the two days. A $299 retainer reserves your time and is credited in full toward your artwork, so it is never an added fee. The first five families to reserve receive a $250 Heirloom Credit. You can reserve on the Wonder of Christmas page, text SANTA to (740) 391-4921, or message us on Facebook or Instagram.
Questions, answered
Is this a group session or a mini session?
Neither. Each family has the studio to themselves. There is no line, no shared time slot, and no one waiting behind you. That is why we only photograph ten families across the two days.
Why are the Santa sessions in October?
Because finished artwork takes time to design, finish, and frame. Photographing in October means your portraits are ready and hanging well before Christmas, instead of arriving in the last week of December.
Do you photograph families from outside Bellaire?
Yes. We create for families across the Ohio Valley, Belmont County, St. Clairsville, Wheeling, Northern West Virginia, and Washington and Canonsburg, Pennsylvania.
Reserve your family's time
Ten families. Two days. October 24 and 25 at our Bellaire studio, and the calendar fills once it fills.