Can you believe Christmas is next week already?!?!?!?
This whole Christmas season has been flying by so fast that I suddenly realized this week that our kids haven’t even seen Santa yet!!!
This is why I was so excited when Southdale Center in Edina invited our family to visit Santa and write about our experience. So this week we took advantage of a rare unscheduled December evening and headed to Southdale!
The mall was beautifully decorated for Christmas, and right away we figured out where Santa was – on the second level near Herberger’s where the big Christmas tree was.
Fortunately, there was hardly a line when we arrived. We got in line and one of Santa’s helpers asked us what photo package we wanted. There were several options from $19.99 (for two 5 x 7’s) to $34.99 (a photo CD with several poses and a 5 x 7).
I chose a photo CD for $29.99 so I could do whatever I wanted with all the pictures they took (including sharing them here)! As I decided this, our kids showed me how excited they were to finally see Santa.
It was soon our turn. Though shy at first, our kids became comfortable with Santa quick (it’s been a year after all!). He talked to them and they sat on his lap for some SUPER cute poses. After a few nice poses, a few funny poses were taken with our son.
Our daughter was too anxious to pick out her candy cane to stay for the pictures so Santa and our son exchanged some secrets…
More secrets…(if only Santa knew I was writing about him here…)
I bought my photo CD which was quickly ready in about a minute.
Afterward, our kids skipped happily around the mall in the reindeer hats they got from Santa as we went to eat at the food court.
We had Subway and Panda Express for dinner at the food court and then let the kids play in the free kids play area, directly below the food court on level one.
We’ve been to the play area a couple times before as our kids love it and never get tired of it. There are lots of structures to play on, a big keyboard that kids can play (by pushing on each key), and a couple of little rides like a carousel that costs $1.00.
There were lots of other families enjoying the play area, and our kids played with some of the other kids for a while.
However, eventually I had to chase our 4-year-old around the play area to drag him away! (I felt better though when I saw other parents having a difficult time of their own getting their kids to leave!)
The play area is definitely a nice place for parents to get a break while their kids burn some energy (at least until it’s time to go).
Overall we all really enjoyed our evening out at Southdale for photos with Santa, dinner and playtime! We didn’t get to do much shopping since it was getting late, but if we did, here are some stores (and sales!) I wanted to take check out:
Eddie Bauer – Holiday Sale 25 – 60% off of everything
Godiva Chocolatier – Buy One Get One 50% off select gifts
Victoria’s Secret – $20 gifts for a limited time
Southdale has a list of all the current deals on their website here. Plus, follow them on their Facebook page for more deals plus news and events!
And you can visit Santa every day through December 24th. TIP – Go on a weekday if you can (though they do their best to keep the line moving).
Here are Santa’s hours for the next week:
Dec 18 – 20: 10AM – 8PM
Dec 21: 10AM – 7PM
Dec 22 – 23: 10AM – 8PM
Dec 24: 8AM – 5PM
Southdale is located at 10 Southdale Center in Edina.
(Disclosure: This is a sponsored post for Southdale Center and I received compensation and free photos with Santa. However, all opinions are 100% mine.)
