Building Two Worlds for Christmas
This year, families will once again step into two completely different Christmas worlds: Santa’s Magical Workshop and the Cozy Fireside Living Room.
Creating them starts long before Santa arrives.
Backdrops go up. Trees are fluffed and lit. Furniture is moved into place. Toys, tools, treats, and Christmas treasures begin filling the workshop. Every piece is considered not only for how it looks in the room, but for how it will look through the camera—and how it will help a child believe, for just a little while, that this really might be Santa’s workshop.
The Fireside Living Room brings another layer to the story: warm, nostalgic and familiar, with the glow and coziness of Christmas at home.
Together, the two sets give children room to do much more than sit beside Santa and smile.
They can explore.
They can talk.
They can play.
And Emily can photograph the story as it unfolds.
Creating More Than a Pretty Christmas Set
That is what makes building the Magical Santa Experience different from simply decorating a studio for Christmas.
Every detail needs a purpose.
There has to be room for Santa to read a story, hear a wish list and help search the globe for home. There are places for children to find their names on the Nice List, decorate Santa’s tree, enjoy milk and cookies, paint a wooden toy with a little “magic” paint and hear the story behind Santa’s Reindeer Calling Sleigh Bells.
Even the smallest pieces help create opportunities for genuine interaction.
Because the goal isn't to spend an hour repeatedly telling a child to look here and smile.
It's to give them something worth reacting to.
And while they're busy experiencing it, Emily is capturing it.
New Keepsakes for This Year's Story
There are new details joining the Magical Santa Experience this season, too.
Each experience now includes a keepsake ornament, something families can bring back to the Christmas tree year after year as another little marker of this season of childhood.
Families can also add a special teddy bear to their experience—a sweet new piece of the Santa story that can become part of both the photographs and the memories children carry home.
These may seem like small additions, but that's often how family traditions begin.
One ornament becomes part of decorating the tree every December. A teddy becomes the bear that somehow survives childhood. And the portraits preserve the year when both were brand new.
From the Set to the Walls of Home
And this is really where all of that building, arranging and planning is headed.
The Magical Santa Experience isn't designed simply to create a beautiful Christmas set. It's designed to create real moments that become heirloom art.
After the experience, families return to the Pixels studio for a guided ordering appointment to see their images and choose the pieces they want to preserve. Selected portraits are then artistically retouched with that nostalgic, Norman Rockwell-inspired feel that has become such an important part of the Magical Santa Experience.
Some become artwork displayed in the family home every Christmas.
Some become albums and keepsakes that children will someday flip through when they're much older.
Some become gifts for grandparents and family members who would treasure nothing more than another piece of the children they love.
And that's why so much care goes into what happens before the first family ever arrives.
We're not just building Christmas sets.
We're building the setting for a story your family gets to step into—and creating the photographs that allow you to tell it again and again.
The Magic Begins This October
The 2026 Magical Santa Experience is coming, with a limited number of dates throughout the holiday season:
October: 18, 24 & 25
November: 7, 8, 14, 15 & 28
December: 5 & 6
Each family receives private time with Santa inside our fully built Christmas sets, giving your children space to settle in, explore, play, and let the magic unfold while we capture it all.
These sessions are intentionally limited, and once a date is full, it’s full.