Piper’s First Visit to Santa: HGTV Santa’s HQ

This is Piper’s first Christmas! While she is definitely still too young to understand who Santa is, we thought it would be fun for her to meet Old St. Nick. It was also a fun excuse to get out of the house on a snowy day and enjoy some holiday cheer!

HGTV has partnered with several malls across the country to create “Santa’s HQ”. While you wait in line to have your photo with Santa you get to experience all the kid-friendly interactive stations inside Santa’s workshop! We have no holiday decorations up and coming here totally got me in the Christmas spirit.

When you enter this winter wonderland the first stop is a little photoshoot station. They have props like giant candy canes and it’s a great practice run for pics with Santa.

You give the attendant your email address and they save your photos to be compiled in your gallery along with the photos with Santa. I took this one with my iPhone afterward because I realized I didn’t get a photo of just Piper and I, but the ones they took are way better quality and I’m probably going to frame them! 🙂

Next stop is the Naughty-or-Nice ‘O Meter! Type in your name, stand on the mat and after the magic computer scans you, you’ll find out if you were good or bad this year. The kids will love this station! Though I think it MIGHT have been broken today because somehow Piper ended up on the Nice List 😉

Piper loved all the lights and music. It was so cute seeing her face light up at every stop along the way!

Next was inside the workshop where parents can take a load off on the couch and the kids can take an Elfie Selfie!

At Santa’s Studio kiddos can take a selfie using the tablets and be transformed into one of the elves on the screen! You can access these “Elfie Selfies” later and show them to all your family and friends! This day was very quiet but if you were waiting in line for a long time, these interactive stations would make the wait much more fun for the kids.

The final stop before we met Santa was the Control Center. It’s a fun spot where you can push all the buttons and move all the levers which basically makes it heaven for kids 🙂 This is where Santa checks in on the North Pole and makes sure the elves are behaving! The lights flash when you push the buttons and festive music plays too. I’m not gonna lie, I think I enjoyed this way more than she did!

In this area there are tablets that kids can use to try out Elf Ray Vision which is like Pokemon Go, but for elves! There are a ton of spots the elves are hiding all throughout Santa’s Workshop. So cute!

And now, for the big reveal…

Bahahaha, better luck next year Pipey! We were sooo happy with the photos, they turned out so well and Mr. Claus was so sweet with Piper even though she was screaming THE WHOLE TIME. That’s a legit beard people! They were so sweet and let us take a ton of photos – I think there were about 16 in total. We got one printed off and the rest were available to download free from an online gallery. Special thanks to the folks at Washington Square Mall and HGTV for collaborating with me on this post.

Still looking for holiday photos? You can click here to make a reservation and skip the line. Photos are $39.99 which include (2) 5×7, (4) 4×6, (16) wallets and digital download of your photos (no additional cost for the digital downloads!)

You can give back this season by participating in the Help Through Holiday Giving Giving Tree. Help by selecting a heart-shaped ornament from the Sharing Tree and purchasing a gift for someone in need in our community. Each year, Washington Square guests donate more than 4,500 toys and gifts that are distributed by nine charities throughout the Portland metro area. The Sharing Tree is located in the Nordstrom wing, next to Williams-Sonoma. Toys may also be dropped off in the collection bin next to Santa Headquarters