It’s September and believe it or not, I’ve been thinking about Christmas for months. After June, Christmas comes to the forefront of my mind and I begin my planning, contemplating, set designing and idea gathering. Every year, I try to make my Christmas sets better than the previous year. This year is no exception. 

Things I plan on covering in this post: 

-SANTA!!!!! Indoor and outdoor. Types of sessions available, costs, procedures, booking and day of stuff and changes from last year! 

-Studio mini sessions: options and cost, dates and procedures. 

-Christmas Tree Farm! Yay!!! Dates and price and such. 

-Ways we’ll be paying it forward! 

So let’s cover some bases to get everyone on the same page, new clients and long-time alike. Everyone could use a refresher. 

What is “Awesome Santa”? We used to have a session called “Workshop Santa” and then we had “Regular Santa”. While trying to compare the two, I was tired of saying “regular” when our Santa is nothing but the real deal. So somewhere along the line the word “Awesome” started getting thrown around and I officially changed the name to Awesome Santa sessions and it stuck. If you’ve had the pleasure to meet the big guy, you’ll agree that name is appropriate. All Awesome Santa sessions are held in my studio in Coplay, PA. 

What is Outdoor Santa? Outdoor Santa is just as it sounds. Awesome Santa out in the elements. This session is a trial run to see if it works out this year. If it’s a hit or dud, that will be what determines if it’s something we do again next year. Outdoor Santa will be held one day only December 16th, snow or shine, in the back yard at my studio. If it were to rain, the sessions would be moved inside to my Awesome Santa backdrop. For this session, you MUST BE ok with weather, no matter what that means! If it’s a blizzard (I’m knocking on every wooden surface there is around me including my head right now) then we will discuss that as the day gets closer. I can tell you the set will be my dream come true and neutral enough that all clothing will match. 

More on Santa in a bit. 

What does a Tree Farm session entail? Tree farm holds a special place in my heart. It’s a huge part of the success of my business and I treat it just as that. Kemmerer’s Christmas Tree Farm on Valley View Drive in Bath, PA allows me to come there as I please and grants me exclusivity as the only photographer that they will allow to shoot on the farm. They are super supportive of my business and I return that sentiment. I have gotten my tree there every year for the last 6 years now and I love it every time. They just built their new building last year and this year’s sessions will be held at the newer field. There’s a red barn there so we may be able to incorporate that as well, no promises but again, my wheels have been spinning for months so I’m going to try! Every session at the farm gets you a $10 off your fresh cut Christmas tree at Kemmerer’s for this season. It’s a win win! 

What are Studio Christmas sessions? Studio Christmas is just that. Christmas and winter themes at the studio. No Awesome Santa in attendance but there’s a decently awesome LG manning the camera… not quite the same thing but I don’t make as many kids cry as the man in red! I typically offer 4 backdrops. One is usually somewhat colorful, one is more rustic, one is wintery and one is my Awesome Santa backdrop. The biggest one is the set I use for Santa so if you’re doing family photos, that backdrop is definitely one you’ll want to use. All of my backdrops can fit children comfortably and sometimes families can squeeze in on the other ones but there would be no standing and a lot of me saying “squeeze in there tighter” or “group hug!” You will be able to choose from 1, 2 or 3 backdrops upon booking and you can upgrade or downgrade at anytime, even during the session if your child is behaving better (or worse) than expected. 

Prices for all of these sessions are discussed later in this blog. Please note: ALL HOLIDAY THEMED SESSIONS ARE PRICED PER FAMILY/HOUSEHOLD! No exceptions to this rule. 

So now that you know what I mean when I talk about each session, you’ll be ready to soak in the info! 

I mentioned changes above… this is the part that makes my belly hurt. Change is a good thing but change is a very hard thing, as well. In general, everyday life stuff… change is my jam. I’m all about that change (bout that change, no trouble ;)… but when you add clients into the mix, self doubt and worry take a front seat in my mind. They set up camp with some snow caps, a “big gulp” of soda and an extra large popcorn waiting to see the fireworks. My mind plays games on me and makes me want to keep everything the same even though I know it’s not what’s best for my family, my team, my business and myself. So what changes can you expect? I’ll start with the easiest one. 

1. Retainers/Deposits will be collected upon booking for all sessions including Santa. $25 minimum will have to be collected in order to book. So please budget accordingly if you’re planning on booking any of the aforementioned sessions. 

2. Flash drives will no longer be needed for Santa Sessions. Yes. You heard that right. We’ve drilled into your heads over the last five years, “Bring a flash drive, make sure it has space, make sure it’s mac compatible, please do not bring external hard drives, make sure it’s not too old or corrupt!” but we’ve always had trouble. Always. Even though our process is streamlined and we usually have you in and out in 10 minutes or less, it still gets hectic when even one or two per day don’t work. When we are working with very little time for error and the “ding” with an error message pops on the screen “unsupported format on this flash drive” or “not enough free space to copy images” it throws EVERYTHING AND EVERYONE into a tizzy. It literally stops the production completely. So I’ll say it again, we are no longer doing flash drives. We are doing galleries. If you’ve had a session with me in the last 3 years, you’ve had your session delivered to you in a gallery link where you can log on and download the images. You will still have the images the same day as the shoot (this is for Awesome Santa only, outdoor Santa, the images will be enhanced in post production so the gallery will be ready to view in a day or two) but they will be sent to your email with a link to your gallery! Each gallery is private and only viewable if you have the link to do so. 

Perhaps the hardest changes are the next two and the ones that have caused me the most strife. {Deep breath Lori} Before I get into the actual change, let me explain a little more. 

If you’ve read my previous Santa blog I wrote at the end of August, you would have seen that Santa’s wellbeing is my NUMBER ONE concern this year! (It always is but especially this year!) Santa is special to everyone because, duh, he’s Santa Claus but he’s EXTRA special to me because he is my amazing, loving, kind, caring, brilliant UNCLE Paul! He’s a husband, a father, a son, a pastor, an uncle, a brother and a friend to so many. He experienced an episode earlier this year that gave us all a scare and truly, I wasn’t sure if there was even going to be Santa sessions this year because I wasn’t sure if he’d be up for it. And let me add, I would have been one million percent okay with that as long as I knew he was okay. I will only do these sessions as long as he’s my partner. It wouldn’t be the same without him. I’m grateful for the many lives we’ve been able to touch over the years and he’s put up with the crazy schedule I put him through and he NEVER EVER complained! Not once! This year, we’re cutting back. Santa will have breaks throughout the day and shorter days which means less sessions to go around… so instead of raising my price a CRAZY amount to still make it worth all of our time, the procedure is going to change. 

3. You will no longer receive all of the digital images from your session. I know this is a big change that is going to make some people stop reading right now. And I have to be ok with that. With each Santa session, I’m going to include a select number of images/digital files with your session fee and the rest of the images will be able to be purchased for an additional fee. This is no different from how I run my sessions right now. So if you’ve had a session with me, you know what I mean. I will also be running a promotion that will allow you to make prints and canvases and have them delivered to your door and with a certain amount of dollars spent on products, the digital gallery of all the images will be included with that. Digital, Print and Canvas prices will be reduced to encourage easy gift giving ideas and to get everyone to PRINT THEIR PHOTOS! 

4. And finally, the change of all changes…. our new procedure for Awesome Santa Booking. I have been back and forth so many times about this for the last 9 months. After the craziness that ensued after last year’s booking, I was adamant about this change. Funny enough, here we are in crunch time and I feel like I’m still not sure that what I’m about to announce is the right decision but certainty is a luxury that I can’t afford right now so I’m doing what I feel in my heart to be best for everyone. In previous years, you needed to get your name on the list by filling out a google form and each name was given a number and the first x amount of names that coincided with the amount of sessions we had to offer, got a spot. The problems we ran into last year were that the sheer volume of people submitting their name, email and phone number at 8pm on the dot meant that (literally) hundreds of names were being submitted at the exact second or within milliseconds of each other and google has to assign a number to each submission. So people who submitted seconds after 8pm couldn’t fathom how their name didn’t make the cut. We sold 270 appointments in 35 seconds flat. It came down to your internet speed whether you got a spot or not. So this year we are doing things a little differently. You still have a chance to win a spot by having the fastest fingers but this new way will allow everyone who really wants a spot, everyone who’s on the second they can start typing, to have a CHANCE to get one. The first 75 names on the list (the ones with the fastest fingers), you are guaranteed a spot (pending your availability)!!!! After 75, we will have X amount of sessions up for grabs. This is where we introduce the lottery. We will leave the submission form open for 2 minutes OR until we get 450 names on the list, whichever comes first. We will then use the random number selector to choose the number for the lottery names. So like I mentioned before, each name as it comes on the google form, is assigned a number… if we chose your number randomly, you’re in! We are asking that, because of this new system, you ONLY SUBMIT ONE NAME PER HOUSEHOLD. Because if you and your spouse are both attempting at a spot and you both make it into the lottery and you both win, you will mess up our number system and make a crap ton more work for myself and my girl Tanya. I’m being playful about this but I’m begging you to please choose the one person in your family with the fastest fingers to attempt to get a spot. The same goes with submitting your own name more than once. You will automatically be crossed out on each attempt we see your name and skipped if your number is chosen during the random number selections. You do not want this to happen to you!!! After we fill our initial spots, will begin our waiting list. We will continue our random number selector to choose the next 20 names of people in order who will be placed on the waiting list. We will notify the people on this list to be on deck and that they’re next up should a session open up for them! 

5. Every year during the holidays, I like to help people pay it forward and give back to the community. This year we’ve chosen to work with The Volunteer Center of the Lehigh Valley to make #HolidayHopeChests. They’re wrapped shoe boxes filled with goodies and necessities for boys and girls ages 2-14. We have pledged to donate 500 Holiday Hope Chest boxes during our Christmas 2017 season. Each one you make, you have the chance at a $500 LG GIFT CERTIFICATE! We will be collecting these boxes until November 30th at several drop off spots in the Lehigh Valley to make it more convenient for you. To make sure we have them split them evenly for the children receiving them, we have created a sign up for you to pledge how many boxes and the age group/gender you will be making them for. You may sign up for multiple boxes!!!! We know that with all of us coming together, we can reach or even exceed our goal of 500 boxes!

Follow this link to sign up on our list for the boxes you are pledging to donate: 

Bit.ly/LGHolidayHopeChest2017

For more info on what the Holiday Hope Chest and these boxes are all about, you can watch this video here:

https://vimeo.com/189364159

Here is a link to a gift suggestion by age group list for the Holiday Hope Chest shoeboxes:

https://lorigenerose.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/img_2994.jpg

And now, here are the official details of each session. Price, dates and booking times and dates. 

A: OUTDOOR SANTA

Address: 2354 Old Post Rd, Coplay, PA 18037

Session Date: Saturday, December 16th

Booking: Friday, September 22nd, 8pm

Price: $100 includes tax. $50 retainer due at booking/ $50 cash due the day of the session. 

Includes your choice of 5 digital images with print release and the option to buy additional digital images and products. 

B: AWESOME SANTA

Address: 2354 Old Post Rd, Coplay, PA 18037

Session Dates: Thursday, November 16th, Friday, November 17th, Saturday, November 18th, Thursday, November 30th, Friday, December 1st, Saturday, December 2nd, & Friday, December 15th

Booking: Tuesday, September 26th, 8pm

Price: $75 includes tax. $25 retainer due at booking/ $50 cash due the day of the session. 

Includes your choice of 5 digital images from your gallery of all of the “keeper” images from your session with print release and the option to buy additional digital images and products

C: KEMMERER’S CHRISTMAS TREE FARM

Address: 3266 Valley View Dr, Bath, PA 18014

Session Dates: Saturday, November 4th & Sunday, November 5th 

Booking:  Monday, October 2nd, 8pm

Price: $250 plus tax. $50 retainer due at booking/ $200 plus tax the day of the session. 

Includes your choice of 8 digital images from your gallery of all of the “keeper” images from your session with print release, the option to buy additional digital images and products, and a $10 off a fresh cut Christmas tree at Kemmerer’s.

D: STUDIO MINI SESSIONS

Address: 2354 Old Post Rd, Coplay, PA 18037

Session Dates: Monday, November 20th, Tuesday, November 21st, Saturday, November 25th, Monday, November 27th, Tuesday, November 28th, & Wednesday, November 29th

Booking:  Thursday, October 5th, 8pm

Price: $100 (1 backdrop)/$125 (2 backdrops)/$150 (3 backdrops) plus tax. 

$25 retainer due at booking- $75/$100/$125 plus tax the day of the session. 

Includes your choice of 5/7/10 digital images from your gallery of all of the “keeper” images from your session with print release and the option to buy additional digital images and products.

Now about booking. There are two ways in which we do our booking process- a Google form and our online scheduler. To give you all an understanding of how this works and why we choose what we do, here is the quick rundown. For the Google form we have you put in your name, email, and phone number to give you a chance at the fastest fingers. Those submissions come in time stamped down to the mili-second and are numbered in a list. We can then go down exactly in order of submissions to count who gets the spots based on how many we have to give. This is how we will be booking Awesome Santa and Outdoor Santa.  

The other option we use is our online scheduler, which has the dates & appointment times all right there to choose from. Sending mass amounts of people there at once can sometimes cause minor glitches and just can’t handle the sheer volume of traffic that Santa draws. Say Tanya & I are booking a session and we click on the same date/time at the exact same mili-second. This happens rarely, but it actually could let us both in to start filling out our name & info like we got the spot. You’re given 10 minutes to complete the info and click submit, and whoever submits their info first actually gets the spot and it will tell the other person that spot is then taken. You’re session is NOT CONFIRMED until it’s submitted and says you’ve got the spot and you’ve received a confirmation email. If someone clicks on a time but changes their mind and exits out, that time is held for 10 minutes and the scheduler will remove it as an option for others trying to book. This is why it’s VERY IMPORTANT when booking with our online scheduler to commit to a date/time and follow through with your booking. If you got a spot but realized after you’re in it doesn’t work for you, continue your booking anyway and we can *try* to see if there’s someone to switch spots with you (no promises). The spots that become held by mis-bookings will then become available again after the 10 minutes, so if you’ve tried for a spot and don’t see one, continue to refresh, as one might become available again that you can grab.  This is why we’ve chosen to do the initial submission as a google form for Santa, because we don’t want to take the chance of these glitches with sending so many people to this system at once. However, this is still the only system that we can find that works as best as it possibly can, considering the traffic we send to it and creating the least extra scheduling work for Tanya and I. This will be the way that we book Christmas Tree Farm and Christmas Studio Mini Sessions this year. 

Now to answer a few questions you might have:

6. Question- Can I still book a cousins back to back Awesome Santa session if we all get on the list in time or get chosen in the lottery? 

Answer- No, I’m sorry. We can no longer promise this, it becomes too hard to work around with the amount of sessions being scheduled. 

7. Question- Can I book both an Outdoor Santa session and an Awesome Santa session? 

Answer- No, we want to allow as many families to be able to come as possible. Please try for the one you want the most. 

8. Question- If I try for an Outdoor Santa session and get it and then try for an Awesome Santa session because that’s really what I’d prefer, can I cancel the outdoor one? 

Answer- No. Absolutely not. If we see a name of anyone who already got a session with Outdoor Santa, their name will be removed from Awesome Santa list. (Don’t worry, we will cross reference with email and phone number before removing anyone from any lists!)

9. Question- Can we bring our pet dog, cat, fish, hamster, rat, snake, etc. to our Santa session? 

Answer- Umm, no. We’d love to be able to allow you to bring your dogs but with allergies and the safety of so many kiddos being around I must say, sorry, but no. 

10. Question- How soon will we know if we got a Santa Spot? 

Answer- No more than 24 hours after booking opens up. Maybe sooner. 

11. Question- Is my retainer refundable or transferable to another session? 

Answer- Unfortunately, no. Unless I can find someone to fill your spot, I can not give it back. For Santa, we will most definitely be able to fill your spot if you give us as much time as possible. 

12. Question- What if my child wakes up sick on a Santa day? 

Answer- Please cancel. We don’t want anyone getting sick. We will try our best to get you in another day.

13. Question- What if I have very limited availability? 

Answer- If you are trying for a Santa spot this year, please try to be extremely flexible with your availability. If you are trying for Outdoor Santa on December 16th, you must be available ANY time that day. If trying for Awesome Santa, please try to accommodate any date/time that you can. After Santa is booked, we will post a thread for anyone who got a spot that is 100% flexible to any date/time who would be able to switch should someone need to, but there will be no promises we can make switches or rescheduling work.

14. Question- What if my child is afraid of Santa? 

Answer- If you’re child is afraid of Santa, choose one of the later date sessions for your best chance at them not being afraid to sit with Santa. We tend to have the most success with non-screamers the last weekend because the children have been surrounded by Santa Claus for a longer amount of time versus beginning of November when he’s not really everywhere. It’s just a theory but I think it is a legitimate thought.

15. Question- Is Outdoor Santa longer? Can we have outfit changes?

Answer- Outdoor Santa is the same as indoor Awesome Santa. No outfit changes. We want to get as many kids in as possible to see Santa so we’re keeping the times the same across the board this year. Especially with cutting back on the amount of sessions. The extra costs are associated with editing outdoor light versus consistent studio light and to help cover the amazing props I intend on pulling together! 

16. Question- Can we use gift certificates on Santa or holiday minis? 

Answer- Gift certificates can NOT be used on Santa sessions. They can be used on tree farm and Christmas Studio minis.

I think that covers it. Is that enough info for you? Haha. That took me so long to write! I want this year to be the best ever! I know once all the hubbub of booking finishes, I’ll be able to breathe easy again. I know this is a lot to take in and I appreciate you taking the time to read it. Thank you to those who’ve already pledged to help with the holiday hope chests. I know we will get to 500 boxes in no time! Please let us know if you have any questions but also please make sure you read this carefully! 

I’m so excited for the 2017 holiday season and to be able to see you and all of your children! 

Blessings. 

Lori