Let me tell you a story.

Hilary reached out to me. She wanted magical photos of her little boy, Myles, with Santa in the worst way but she wasn’t sure it could happen.  

You see, 3 year old Myles was autistic.

He didn’t really speak. He didn’t look at you if you spoke to him. In fact, he didn’t really interact with people much at all.

And then there were the meltdowns.  If he felt stressed and you tried to push him to do something that he didn’t like, you could end up with screaming and kicking. So you can see that the idea of bringing him into the studio for the Santa Experience would be scary for mom and dad.

The odds of NOTHING turning out were very high but Hilary decided to give it a try in hopes that there would be one good photo of Myles with Santa.

There wasn’t one good photo.

There were NINE! Including a really nice portrait of the family with Santa and Myles was actually smiling and snuggling in Dad’s lap.

How did that happen? We planned for it. We knew that Myles loved to watch videos on the phone so when we wanted Myles looking at Santa, Dad stood just out of the frame holding his phone while Myles watched his favorite video. It looked like he was looking at Santa and that is what counted. It also took patience and flexibility. If Myles wasn’t responding, we would pivot and try something new, all in a calm manner so he wouldn’t get stressed.

The moral of the story

So the moral of the story is, you don’t need to worry if your children will “behave” and do what they are supposed to do when they come to the studio. It’s great if they do, but if they don’t, we always manage to come up with something that you love.

At Santa Experience Oregon, we create magical photos with Santa for families from as far away as Seattle and Florida. We have photographed children from Portland, Lacey, Washington, Bend, Cottage Grove, Vancouver,  Eugene, Lincoln City, Albany, Corvallis and, of course, Salem.

Children with special needs deserve to have this pictures with Santa, too! In addition to children on the autism spectrum, we have photographed children with cerebral palsy, downs syndrome, ADD, and ADHD not to mention very shy children who have difficulty being in the same room with Santa.

All are treated with dignity and patience and Santa loves them all!