Santa’s North Pole Lodge
Santa’s North Pole Lodge made its debut at The Best Santa Experience in 2023!
(Finished images to come after we get caught up at the North Pole!)
Our beautiful new set, Santa’s North Pole Lodge, evolved from an idea that Elf Michael had while staying at one of our favorite places on Lake Superior, Cove Point Lodge. And in 2023, it became a reality!
Click on this link from our sister website at Michael Anderson Photography to read about how the whole idea came to life.
The final version was absolutely stunning! It featured two beautiful Christmas trees, Santa’s favorite chair by the fireplace, and magic all around, it was fabulous! Elves Michael and Joannie are thrilled with the way it turned out!
Below is the image that the whole theme is based on, the lobby fireplace at Cove Point Lodge. This photo was taken before Michael light painted it and made the modifications in Photoshop that you’ll see later in this article.
Mother Nature at the North Pole
Santa’s North Pole Lodge is set in a beautiful location at the North Pole. This is where Santa and his elves love to go when they want to relax. Here, they can go skiing, sledding, or snowboarding! Or, they can simply sit and relax by the fireplace after making toys and candy all day long.
This is our second set at The Best Santa Experience that will have variations to it as well. Just as we did with Santa’s Enchanted Forest, the sky will change along with the story!
Elf Michael has multiple options in mind for what you’ll see through the windows at Santa’s North Pole Lodge. Right now, the plan is for a pretty starlit sky, moonlit clouds, and the Aurora Borealis! All three versions are shown in this article. There will be other more subtle surprises added in there too.
The Return of Frosty the Snowman?
We had a lot of fun with Frosty the Snowman, (as seen below) in our Santa’s Enchanted Forest experience. And we think that there’s a chance Santa’s snowy friend might make a magical return visit to Santa’s North Pole Lodge! Stay tuned for that.
If he does, we think that it might go something like this: When your family arrives at Santa’s North Pole Lodge, they will meet Mr. Kringle, and then discover that there’s something missing at the lodge! Frosty the Snowman is there, but what is wrong? The kids will help Santa figure it out, and then the real magic begins!
From there, Santa will move on to any of our many other fun activities. We do know for certain that there will be a Magic Snowball Fight against Elves Michael and Joannie (and probably with everyone in your family too)!
“But What Will I Wear?”
Elf Michael loves that famous line from Jim Carrey in “The Grinch”!
Being able to see what Santa’s Christmas location looks like ahead of time will be very helpful to you in selecting what everyone will wear for your Santa Claus Experience.
Clothing ideas for Santa’s North Pole Lodge really can be anything from dressy to casual. Matching Christmas pajamas will look fantastic in Santa’s North Pole Lodge!
We highly recommend dark, solid-colored clothes. This will help everyone stand out better in this pretty scene. (Also, Santa’s Magic shows up better over darker, solid colors as well).
It is very important to note that at some point Santa will be including your entire family in at least one photo, probably more than one! So it’s a good idea for everyone to look great! That photo will probably be the cover of your beautiful Heirloom Santa Storybook and your Christmas Cards!
Elf Michael’s Light Painting Magic
All of our magical Santa Experience Artwork looks the way it does because of a unique photographic process called light painting.
“Elf” Michael is one of a very small number of photographers in the world that knows how to do this. We’re also pretty certain that The Best Santa Experience is the one-and-only Santa Experience that creates light painted Santa Art.
It is not an easy process to master, and it’s pretty time-consuming to produce as well. But your finished Santa Art will look like nothing you’ve ever seen before.
We want your entire Santa Experience to be unlike anywhere else in the world! And, since we’re professional photographers (when we’re not Santa’s elves), we want your photography to be just as unique as your visit with Santa Claus! And we’re pretty confident that we accomplish just that every single time, for every single family!
Below, is a link to a short YouTube video that shows how Santa’s North Pole Lodge was created using Elf Michael’s light painting and Photoshop skills:
How Does Elf Michael Do That?
This is how we bring the entire set together for Santa’s arrival in November. Our main camera will be placed on a heavy-duty camera stand with the wheels locked into position. That main camera will not move for several weeks.
Then Elf Michael photographs the whole scene using his light painting techniques. Dozens of photographs are taken, all lit from crazy angles. Then, in post-production, the best parts of each image are combined into one ultra-high-definition image.
This process adds incredible detail to the set (after a ton of post-production work)! Then, Elf Michael adds the actual location photograph that you see above (which was also light painted), back into the scene to replace the background that you see when you visit.
Once the two light paintings are combined, the resulting highly detailed “Master File” will be the basis of each whole-scene photograph of every child, family, and activity that happens at Santa’s North Pole Lodge.
On the day of your visit to Santa’s North Pole Lodge, Elf Michael will be capturing images with that stationary main camera. At the same time, he’s also grabbing some cute video highlights from a second camera.
Elf Joannie will be using a third camera to get close-ups of the action too! There will be no shortage of Santa photos for you to select from to create your beautiful custom-written Heirloom Santa Storybook and Santa Wall Art afterward with “Santa Magic” added where appropriate.
As we mentioned, it’s a lot of work, but we love it! It’s all part of what makes The Best Santa Experience totally unique! It also turns our images into the amazing Santa Artwork that your family will treasure for generations to come!
Santa Claus and Cystic Fibrosis
The best part of all is that, will your help, we will continue to raise thousands of dollars every year for Cystic Fibrosis. We do all of this in memory of our Goddaughter, Lindsey, who lost her battle with CF in June of 2022.
Thank you for considering joining us for The Best Santa Experience at Santa’s North Pole Lodge in 2023!
“Santa’s North Pole Lodge” © 2024 The Best Santa Experience
