Ladies and gentlemen, Baking with Santa Chattanooga 2021!!

Signups for 2022 are LIVE – join me this November!!!

Oh my goodness. If this was not the greatest combination of Christmas memories and adorable mini session photos EVER… I can’t think what would possibly beat it! It was like an actual Hallmark movie set, with Santa and cookies.

What a beautiful, made-for-this kitchen we had! Huge thanks to our hosts this year, the kitchen was amazing! Besides the kitchen itself we also had an outdoor Christmas fun stop featuring crafts, puzzles, games, and an actual wood burning fireplace. Incredible!

Santa, of course, was also amazing. What a guy he is. As always I thoroughly enjoyed my day with Santa and SO appreciate his time and attention to all these little bakers we had! Santa has lots and lots of experience with kids, obviously, and bonus – also has photography experience! Were he not incredibly busy this time of year I would totally try and hire him as an assistant, he was a great one for this session for sure!!

All Santa photos are super special, but this event offered a whole new level of experience with the big guy! Each little baker or set of bakers got real time in the kitchen, baking classic chocolate chip cookies and hanging out with St. Nick himself! Each spent time stirring up the batter, which was a hilariously huge hit with all – but most especially our younger bakers who seemed to all think “my word, who has accidentally left me here with this bowl.”

Speaking of the younger crowd, we did work up a little “hidden Santa” setup and I know it sounds like it might actually be even scarier BUT it worked great!!! On almost everyone 😉 The littler littles also got really into the access to chocolate chips. Another unexpected but very helpful distraction!

After getting the batter mixed, our little bakers helped arrange cookies on a tray and put them in the oven! Don’t worry… we had a system, it was very safe! This was another big hit with the toddlers, I had not considered that many of them have been given strict instructions to NEVER do this!! I anticipated this being an unforgettable Christmas experience, I did not realize it would also be rife with totally allowed (and utterly enjoyed) toddler rebellion.

Santa worked some Christmas magic for this session and lots of our helpers were also able to take cookies out of the oven! He’s magical, that guy.

And of course, all bakers got to enjoy a fresh chocolate chip cookie with Santa. Does it get better than that?? Maybe… if you add some cold milk!! In a pretty glass with a gold straw, of course.

The baby trick worked incredibly well, but we did have just a couple of bakers get a little on edge… almost all recovered very quickly! The kitchen seemed to be a much less intimidating setup than “Santa on his throne” (but we are doing that too! It’s a crying-friendly space). Yet another welcome surprise! Less intimidating is always better with this guy.

He’s still a little scary though. We get it.

Of course Santa swapped lots of hugs too! Can’t leave Santa’s kitchen without a big ol’ hug. And maybe, even a kiss!

Oh my goodness. This was Christmas magic. It really was!! Thank you to ALL of our little bakers for making this such an incredible experience!! I am so hoping to make this an annual event, but my biggest hope is that each of Santa’s little helpers had at least as much fun as I did during these sessions!

To all Santa’s little friends who shared this day with me – thank you for the memories! Let’s do it again next year!

Just for fun, here’s a video slideshow of the highlights! Feel free to share, tell your friends, and if you are a friend finding this and thinking OMG I wanna do that!! Please come bake with us in 2022!

We will have lots of fun mini sessions in 2022, including Baking with Santa Chattanooga!

BUT WAIT – you’re not too late for Santa pictures THIS year!!! Spots are still available for Santa Minis at Red Barn Designs in Chickamauga on November 27!! Come join us!! Last year’s event was a hoot, check out the roundup post here! Full details for this year’s event found in this post! Links here are to the old EBP website – links to be updated soon!

***Looking for Traditional Santa 2022?? It’s here!!!

Once again, thank you, thank you, thank you to everyone who participated in this wonderful, magical, Santa-ful day! It was such a blast, truly amazing, a magical time. I’m so glad you all joined me!!

Before you go: ready to bring the whole family into some Christmas fun? Join me for Christmas Tree Farm Minis!! If you enjoyed these photos and want some awesome portraits of your family before the end of the year, sign up to come join me at this super fun event! Signups are live!

Would love to have your family in a few weeks at Christmas Carroll Tree Farm. Details are on the signup page and the blog post, along with lots of sample photos! Grab a spot before they fill up! Perfect timing to add some photo gifts under the tree.

Thank you, once again, for your support of Elle Bea Photography, and for checking out Baking with Santa Chattanooga! Merry Christmas!