THE EXPERIENCE!!! The children get an interactive, immersive experience with Santa! Because we want to create fine art portraits from the photos we capture during your visit, the photo session isn’t one like you’d normally have visiting a mall Santa or even getting “Santa Mini’s.” Our studio setting is cozy and inviting, and best of all, your visit & session are private – no public audience watching while they wait their turn in line.

The visit with Santa is more than just being posed with him, looking at the camera, and having two or ten pictures taken. From start to finish, when the children visit with Santa, it’s AN EXPERIENCE like no other! It’s a real visit! They are greeted by name, Santa asks them about school, life at home, behaving and listening to mom and dad, being nice to siblings and friends, helping out at home, eating their veggies — all the things moms and dads tell their kids they are going to tell Santa they are (or aren’t) doing! Kids get to have milk and cookies with Santa, sing songs, paint toys, and do all sorts of other fun things that will make their visit with Santa something they will remember for years to come!

Your visit and session includes the use of our specially selected wardrobe for each child, which consists of vintage-inspired pajamas: white nightgowns for girls and green two-piece fleece pajama suits for boys. We even have green cotton onesies and little white linen gowns for tiny tots younger than 18 months!

Our goal for each session is to minimize the chaos and distractions found in other settings by inviting you to our studio for your family’s private, 60-minute visit. So sit back and watch the wonder unfold as you observe your children experience the magic of believing in Santa! Kindly leave your cellphones in your pockets and leave the capturing of each precious moment to our experienced photographer. No photos or videos are allowed to be personally taken on our set without the express consent and direction of the photographer.

While any other photo session with Santa might yield some nice pictures, the fine art portraits we create from your visit are designed to be enjoyed and displayed year-round, as fine art hanging on the walls sure to delight every visitor to your home. The nostalgic feel of our studio set carries through to each image we edit, to offer you custom personalized storybooks and wall art destined to become family heirlooms you will cherish for years to come. We draw inspiration from Norman Rockwell paintings for our nostalgic editing style.

For the 2025 Season, we are offering two Packages for Santa’s Magical Storybook Visit and the cost is all-inclusive: the session fee and all listed products are included in one exclusive package price!

Select either the Christmas Wish or Christmas DREAM Package and make an initial payment of $250, which reserves your selected date & time for your 60-minute visit to our studio that includes a 30-minute photo session with Santa Claus. Payments on the remaining balance can be paid all at once or split into four equal payments, so long as your package is paid in full by the date of your studio visit and session.

Choose between the Christmas WISH Package for $995 or the Christmas DREAM Package for $1,495. See additional questions below to see what is included with each package.

Yes! We are offering TWO exclusive packages! Read the descriptions below of those all-inclusive packages to see everything that is included in each package. The Christmas Wish Package is $995 and the Christmas DREAM Package is $1,495.

The Christmas Wish Package includes: your Session Fee (for up to 4 children) and use of our specially selected wardrobe for each child; Hand-editing of your Fine Art Portraits; a 6×6 Personalized Storybook Mini Album; a 16×24 Lustre Photo Print, ready for framing; Three Digital Images of your top favorites from your Storybook (high-resolution images with print release); your CHOICE of ONE: Accordion Mini-Book OR 32 Double-sided 5×7 Holiday Cards OR 12-Month Calendar; plus 20% off our NEW Custom Read-Along Video to go along with your Storybook (Video is a $250 Add-On). Priced at $995, the Christmas Wish Package saves you 25% over the same products purchased individually!

The Christmas DREAM Package includes: your Session Fee (for up to 4 children) and use of our specially selected wardrobe for each child; Hand-editing of your Fine Art Portraits; an 8×8 Personalized Storybook Large Album; a 24×36 Lustre Photo Print, ready for framing; Five Digital Images of your top favorites from your Storybook (high-resolution images with print release); your CHOICE of TWO: Accordion Mini-Book OR 32 Double-sided 5×7 Holiday Cards OR 12-Month Calendar; plus 40% savings off our NEW Custom Read-Along Video to go along with your Storybook (Video is a $250 Add-On, purchased separately). Priced at $1,495, the Christmas DREAM Package saves you over 30% over the same products purchased individually!

If you prefer to wait until after you see your session images before deciding to buy any print products or digital image files, we do have an option for you.

If you only want to book and pay for the Visit & Portrait Session Fee, you can complete the booking process from our Booking Page by choosing the third option when asked which Package you are selecting. When you choose this option, you will be required to pay the $500 Visit & Portrait Session Fee – $250 is due upon choosing your Session Time and completing the booking process. And the remaninder of your Invoice will be due 3 days prior to your Session Date (due by November 5th).

The Visit & Portrait Session Fee covers the day of your session. It does NOT include ANY print products or digital image files. After you view your session image proofs, you can choose whether you want to purchase any items on our A La Carte Menu, or you can choose one of our three Holiday Collections.

What’s the difference between a Package and a Collection? A Package is an all-inclusive price which includes the session, the specified print products, and a designated number digital image files. A Collection, on the other hand, is simply a collection of our more popular available selections, grouped together to save you money (when compared to purchasing those same items individually).

Our customers’ favorite product is our custom personalized Storybook Album, complete with portrait images from your session along with a story personalized with your children’s names throughout, that will remind them of their experience with Santa for years to come. Our Storybook Album is available in four square sizes, from the 6×6 & 8×8 sizes which are offered in our Christmas Wish and Dream Packages, to 10×10 and 12×12 sizes available for upgrades.

Our A La Carte Menu includes additional products you can purchase individually or you can add-on to your purchased Package or Collection. The selections include standard Photo Albums, Canvas Wall Art in various sizes, Metal or Acrylic Wall Art also in various sizes, Christmas Greeting Cards, a 12-month Wall Calendar, a 3″ Mini Accordion Book, Photo Prints (enlargements), ornaments, acrylic blocks, and Digital Image Files, as well as a custom read-along Video to go along with your storybook, which is our new exclusive item! If you’d like more information about the products we offer, please call us. A La Carte Menu selection and Add-On item pricing starts at $75 and goes up to $1,650.

Custom framed art work is also available, though it carries a longer production time and pricing is quoted per customer request.

Santa’s Magical Storybook Visits in 2025 will take place on Saturday, November 8th!

The location for the 2025 sessions will be Courtyard Banquets, 3S200 Illinois Route 59, Warrenville IL 60555

Bookings are available on a first-come, first-served basis. Click any of the “Book Now!” buttons on our site to visit our Scheduling Calendar to select the session time that works best for your family’s schedule. 

Your initial payment of $250 is required to secure your selected date and time for your Visit. Your selected package must be paid in full before your session & visit, as some families have been ready to approve their edited images and place their order for their products within a week of their session. Per studio policy, we cannot place orders for products when there is an outstanding balance due on the invoice, so we encourage all to pay their balance in full by the session date.

While most folks are thinking of school starting, football, or fall festivals, at Wedow Productions Inc, we’ve already got our eye on Christmas! We are offering these sessions in late fall so that your family can have your purchased products ready before the holiday season begins! We know many families appreciate having their personalized Christmas cards ready to send out before December 15th.

We lovingly hand-edit each portrait for each of our clients, so the editing process takes two to three weeks. After your images are all edited and ready for viewing, selection, and ordering, the professional lab we send our client orders to can take another two to three weeks for production (depending on the products), plus approximately three to ten days for shipping back to our studio, where we inspect each product for accuracy before your finished products are picked up or delivered.

YES! Wedow Productions Inc has booked this Santa for all our sessions! Chicagoland’s Best Santa Claus has worked in the Chicagoland area for nearly four decades, providing entertainment for families, companies, and even large venues. His look and style emulate the traditional “Coca-Cola Santa,” whether in his long, red, woolen coat and hat, or in his vintage–styled work shirt and cap, along with his woolen vest and trousers. The Santa you see on our website is the only Santa we work with for Santa’s Magical Storybook Visit!

While children of any age are welcome, the experience lends itself best to children aged 18 (eighteen) months to 12 (twelve) years who believe in Santa (or will go along with the magic of Santa for the sake of younger siblings). While we are equipped with highchair seating for infants who can sit up on their own, the experience does not play out as well for an only child who is younger than 18 months of age, but if an older sibling is present, younger infants can sit in the highchair and play with a toy while Santa interacts with their older sibling. Just know that if the youngest child is not cooperative and does not want to sit in the highchair for the full session, all the session images may not include that young child.

If you have any questions about whether this experience would be appropriate for your child or children, please contact us and we can further discuss options.

From start to finish, each photo session is choreographed to capture specific vignettes, each of which has a place in our custom-written story. While the photographer will also capture candid moments during the session, the photos for each vignette will be directed, posed, or staged, with the photographer choreographing each vignette and giving the children instructions on what to do, where to look, and how to pose. We would like to remind clients that this is not a typical “family holiday portrait” where the children & Santa all smile and look at the camera. The purpose of our photo session is to capture images that belong in a storybook – YOUR storybook!

Without giving away all our secrets, the vignettes we stage and photograph include such activities as looking at Santa’s List of Good Girls & Boys, finding the route Santa flies on Christmas Eve, reading Santa’s favorite book, eating milk & cookies with Santa, and getting a special gift from Santa.

Our set can snugly accommodate up to six children. The Visit & Session Fee covers the cost of the visit for children from one nuclear family, up to four children. If there are additional siblings to be included in the visit, there is an additional $50/child fee.

However, if you want to bring up to 6 (six) children where there would be cousins or grandchildren to be photographed together, that is a special circumstance. We are happy to accommodate up to 6 (six) children of mixed nuclear families, such as cousins or grandchildren, but we require that you book two back-to-back visits, for a total of two paid Visit & Session Fees. The reason for this is that it takes more time to coordinate groupings for the photos with children from more than one nuclear family. Additionally, we have found that mixed groups will always request to have “their own photos” as well as the large group photos, so we factor that request in to our extended timeline, which would run longer than what time we have in just one session. In the event of a mixed visit, individual products could be purchased by each family, but any collections would have either images of one family’s children, or the group images, but not both sets of images mixed together.

Please note, while we are happy to offer to combine nuclear families for an extended Visit & Portrait Session, the limited number of sessions available may not allow this option every year.

You know your child best! If your child is terrified of strangers, this is likely not going to be the best experience for them. If your child was scared of Santa last year, only you will know if they will react similarly this year.

If you are unsure how your youngest child will react to Santa but have older children to set the example, we encourage letting the youngest “warm up” to being on the set with Santa. Understand that in such cases, the child who takes a while to warm up to Santa may not be photographed in every vignette.

If you are uncertain of how your child will react to Santa, we suggest showing them videos or reading them stories featuring Santa. “Stranger Danger” is a real thing and we do not encourage traumatizing any child with a 30-minute visit with a bearded stranger, even if you approve of the “crying photos because they will be memorable.” One or two crying photos will be about all we’ll be able to capture before your child hides in your arms and wants nothing more to do with Santa or sitting for photos.

We allow thirty (30) minutes for the photo session, with a little leeway to allow for a “warm up” period, or if necessary, time to wipe away tears and allow a few minutes for all to recompose themselves. Unfortunately, since these are timed photo sessions, we are not able to extend the length of anyone’s visit for any reason, such as a child who was unsure of Santa or crying for over half the photo session time. The photographer will have to conclude the photo session in time to allow your visit to end at the designated end time.

While the entire visit is just one short hour, we understand that schedules may change unexpectedly. If it cannot be avoided that a child either arrives after the photo session has started or has to leave before the session ends, please understand that any photos taken in that child’s absence will not include that child in the final edit. We will not digitally edit to add any children into images they were not present for during the session. If a child joins in late or leaves early, any images taken before they arrive or after they leave will not include them. For this reason, we strongly encourage you to ensure that all children remain for the full visit and session.

If you are running late, as may happen, please text the studio to let us know your expected time of arrival. We can accommodate late arrivals up to 15 (fifteen) minutes past the scheduled start time of your visit. Please understand that your visit will still end when it is originally scheduled to end. We cannot extend your session end time so that you get a full hour-long visit. We will do our best to hurry through our greeting with the children and we expect that you would hurry to dress the littles in our pajamas. We will go through our entire portrait set list to take all the images needed to create your storybook during our portrait session, but Santa will have to cut out the extra chit-chat and questions he has for the children due to lack of time.

If you are more than 15 minutes late for your visit, or do not show up at all, you will forfeit your visit & photo session, without refund or rescheduling option. We have reserved the specific date & time of your visit for your family. In the event that you do not show up, we are unable to fill that time with another family’s visit, nor are we able to “move up” any visits scheduled after yours, as those guests are traveling and arriving at their designated arrival time.

We understand that schedules may change so we are happy to offer a complimentary one-time schedule change free of charge, provided that the schedule request is made more than 1 week prior to your originally scheduled date & time, and that there are available time slots for you to change your reservation to, wherein we will apply your paid Visit & Session Fee to another booking of your choice. The paid fee remains non-refundable.

If your schedule request comes in less than 7 days before your scheduled visit, unless we are able to book another client for your selected time, unfortunately we will be unable to apply your Visit & Session Fee to another booking. We have reserved the time & date for you and in reserving it, have restricted it from being available for booking by others. Less than 7 days is usually not enough time to fill the hole in the schedule your vacancy creates. 

If no available times are available when you want to submit your schedule change request, we will be unable to offer the complimentary schedule change, as there are no other times available. Your options are to either keep your originally scheduled booking as is, or you can find a family or friend to transfer your booking to; please contact our studio office to make transfer arrangements. As we’ve said before, this is like buying tickets to a live theater performance or a professional sports game — tickets are non-refundable and just because you can no longer go does not mean you get your money back; just like you’d try to re-sell your tickets to a game, same concept applies here.

Please be sure to verify that all parties are willing to participate before booking your session. When you book your date & time and pay for your Visit & Session Fee, it is like purchasing tickets for a live theater experience or sporting event. Those seats are reserved for you, just like we are reserving your selected date & time for your family. Whether you attend the event or skip out on it, the experience has been paid for and is non-refundable. If you would like to transfer your reservation booking to another family, where they pay you directly for your incurred out-of-pocket costs, if you make the schedule change in writing via email, our studio staff will work to coordinate with the new family to gather details to make the visit unique and personalized to them, and you will no longer be identified in our system as the client for that purchased visit & photo session at that date & time. However, the paid Visit & Session Fee remains non-refundable. The only way we could refund your Visit & Session Fee if you back out of your visit is if it is able to be rebooked with another family.

Yes! We have pajamas that have been specially selected to complement the vintage look and feel of our studio set and the final look of our edited images. Your Visit & Session Fee includes the use of our wardrobe. We have white nightgowns for our girl visitors, in sizes from 1T to 12-14 (youth). The green flannel two-piece pajama suits for our boy visitors also range in sizes from 1T to 12-14 (youth). Additionally, we have green infant one-piece jammies in sizes 0-3 mos through 12-18 mos for our littlest visitors.

While we are excited for you that your family has matching pajamas, we kindly ask that you save those for Christmas Eve or Christmas Morning, or perhaps a family mini photo session scheduled at another time. The overall styling of our visit has been coordinated to evoke a feeling of nostalgia, and we have come to know through experience that modern pajamas detract from the overall look of our vintage feel. We thank you for respecting the design of our visit by wearing the wardrobe we provide. We are happy to schedule a family mini session for you if you really want to wear those matching jammies!

Yes, we enjoy real milk & cookies during each photo session! After all, it’s Santa’s favorite snack! We are aware that some folks may have allergies or sensitivities to certain ingredients, such as dairy/lactose, wheat/gluten, nuts, eggs, or sugar. After you book your session, you will be asked to complete a questionnaire where the question is asked about any allergies. Please complete the questionnaire honestly so that there are no issues during your photo session, such as your child not being able to eat the cookie or drink the milk.

For gluten/wheat and egg allergies, we replace the cookie with rice krispie squares or gluten-free cookies. For dairy/lactose sensitivities, we replace cow milk with vanilla sweet almond milk (or water, upon request). For sugar sensitivities, we can provide sugar-free cookies. We serve unfrosted sugar cookies (no sprinkles, chocolate, or nuts) although the bakery-purchased cookies are baked in a kitchen where nuts may be present. If your child has a severe nut allergy, we are happy to serve cookies you bring for them. In fact, if your child has a food allergy where you would feel more comfortable bringing cookies (or other treats) for them to eat and share with Santa, we fully support that! By the way – unfrosted cookies are best, because then there isn’t any frosting to stain Santa’s beard! Any treats brought in should not have any frosting on them, please and thank you!

We agree it’s getting harder all the time to tell the difference in photos between what’s real and what’s been digitally added or edited. We are proud to say that 99% of what you see in our images is actually there in the scene! The only thing we add digitally is Santa’s Magic, but that’s because you can’t see it in the first place! Our editing style is such that we transform a “regular picture” into a cherished work of art by adding some magic, as well as editing the photo just enough so that it looks less like a “real photo” and more like art work that’s been painted by hand. However, Santa, as well as each child, each chair, each toy, and every emotion is photographed right there in our studio during your visit & photo session.

While we love that moms and dads believe in Santa and want to be in the photos too, children are young for only so long and that’s what we want to capture for you! We want to create precious memories of “when they were little” and when they believe with their whole heart that they spent time visiting with Santa, the same Santa that brings them presents on Christmas Eve, delivered in his sleigh led by flying reindeer. Let this be the experience for your children, as we capture the wonder and awe in their expressions. Kids grow up so quickly these days… we are trying to help you make those moments last just a little bit longer.

If, however, you are looking to have a full family session, please contact our studio staff to discuss the possibilities. Depending on family size and session time availability, we may be able to accommodate larger family sessions at the last session of the day, which could include Mom and Dad in the magical storybook visit and portrait session. Plus, we’d like to make sure we have available jammies in your size, as we currently do not carry and offer adult pajamas in the full range of sizes.

After your visit & photo session have concluded, there’s a little bit of a wait until your Image Reveal & Product Selection Phone Consultation. This phone call (or video call) can be scheduled for any time during our business hours 7 days after your session date. You will be able to review your image proofs online. During your Image Viewing & Product Selection Consultation phone call, we ask that all parties responsible for selecting images as well as selecting & purchasing products should be present.

In your private online gallery, you will view the session image proofs available to you (typically between 15 and 25 images, possibly more especially if you have more than 2 children). We will share one to two of your image proofs as they will look in their final edited version, so you can see how your images would look after being edited in our style and how they fit into your personalized storybook. Each image proof in your online gallery will have an overlaid watermark indicating the image is an unpurchased proof and is not the final edited photo. This watermark will not appear on any purchased images or products; the intent is to discourage people from illegally using our images without purchasing them. The watermark will cover the majority of the image but you should be able to see whether you like the image and want to include it in your storybook. The only way to view your session images without this overlaid watermark is to pay for and schedule an in-person Image Viewing Session where you will review the images together with your photographer, viewed on a 48″ screen.

The images you select for your products (wall art, cards, album or storybook) will then be edited before your order is sent to our print lab for fulfillment. Once you have selected your favorite images, we will prepare and send you a storybook preview to approve. Once approved, your full order goes to our print lab for order fulfillment.

As you are purchasing add-on or custom products, we will place the order once they are paid for in full, as these are not products we can “put back on the shelf and resell to the next customer.” We appreciate your understanding this process. The purchased products are guaranteed to be delivered before the holidays arrive if paid for in full, approved and ordered by November 20th, so it’s best to review and select your images earlier rather than later! We know from experience that all professional print labs are extremely busy after Nov 1st, with a mad rush starting the week before Thanksgiving when folks start to order holiday gifts. The more “last minute” an order is place, the less likely it will be shipped to arrive before the holidays, and they even have cut off dates for shipping priority to arrive by Dec 24th.

We want you to enjoy watching this magical visit with Santa! Our photographer will be capturing the interactions between Santa and your child or children. However, we also understand that young children might not remember their magical visit with Santa! Parents spend so much time taking videos and photos of their children so everyone can remember those most special moments as they are growing up. We get it. We’re parents too. You want to save each precious thing they do so you can relive them later, again & again.

While we ask that you not record the entire photo session (whether that’s photos or videos), we will give time during the session for parents to record special moments so you have something to replay for your children later when they talk or ask about their visit with Santa. You can record that first look of wonder and awe when your children see Santa come into view and greets them by name – let’s face it, there is only one “first look” and you can’t recreate those priceless expressions when kids first see Santa! After the initial greeting, we ask that your phones are put away for the storybook interactions, which our photographer will capture for the art work we create for you. Before the photo session is over, the photographer will let you know when you can bring your phone out again, so you can record your child sitting on Santa’s knee and telling him what to bring for Christmas. You can also record as Santa gives a special gift to your child – because we know it’ll be fun to rewatch at Christmas when you bring out their silver bell from Santa to hang on the tree!