Bass Pro Shops Is Now *The* Place For Santa Photos

Bass Pro Shops is like the Cracker Barrel of stores: It feels like a full experience to walk into one. Founded in 1972, what was once a small fishing tackle section inside a liquor store has grown to be a chain with nearly 200 locations — and marine centers — across America. Selling everything from fishing rods and hunting gear to camping supplies and coolers, it’s a must-shop for any outdoorsy person. It’s also an easy way to spend an afternoon with cranky toddlers who could really use some aquarium distraction. (Ask me how I know.)

And, apparently, it’s also the place to get a photo with Santa Claus.

Bass Pro Shops may sound like a surprising place to find holiday magic, but a free 4x6 photo with Santa? It simply doesn’t feel more touched-by-an-elf than that. Even for families who aren’t normally Bass Pro Shops shoppers, the outdoor store has become a holiday tradition. Since 2008, Bass Pro Shops has created a Santa’s Wonderland in their stores — in our location, it takes over the area where the boats are sold — filled with everything from crafts and Santa-letter-writing areas, to carousels and games. It feels like a Saturday Night Live skit (“Come on, kids, we’re off to Bass Pro Shops to see Santa!”), but it’s a tradition that seriously works.

Because visiting Santa is pretty much on everybody’s Christmas bucket list. It’s a tradition dating back to the 1840s, when retailers began bringing in someone to play Santa, and by the 1920s, department-store Santas were pretty mainstream. Up until the 2010s, stopping in to visit a mall Santa or a local festival’s Santa was still the norm — maybe you paid for a package of photos, or maybe you just took one on your own phone — until photoshoot Santa visits became a thing.

From mini sessions hosted by seasoned photographers to local venues offering photoshoot packages with Santa, it’s become super trendy to dress your kids up (Matching buffalo check for the whole family? Smocked rompers with candy canes and monograms? Bamboo pajamas?) and head to a greenhouse filled with paper snowflakes or a big velvet couch in the middle of a farm field or a sparkling green and red kitchen with the Grinch peering out from behind the fridge and have $300 worth of photos taken with Santa. Maybe Santa’s got his finger to his lips, peeking in on your sleeping newborn, or maybe Santa is reading your kids a book or baking cookies with them.

But the Santa photoshoot has become a whole thing. It’s no longer just a Saturday afternoon holiday excursion, something simple to enjoy the magic of the season; it’s a thing that some people have to book as early as September to make sure they have their spot saved. (With a hefty down payment.) They’ve become a status symbol, one of those overwhelming holiday traditions that feels built for social media and the quest for likes and comments.

Visiting Santa at Bass Pro Shops takes it back to the basics.

Nearly everyone I spoke to who has a Bass Pro Shops Santa’s Wonderland tradition ended up there accidentally. “We had a newborn and got her all dressed up to go to our local town’s Santa event,” Heather Bendinelli, a Georgia mom, tells me. The event was one of those fancy Santa ones in a theatre, with a beautiful backdrop, cookies, and the promise of a perfect photo. Bendinelli says they waited for hours before the line was cut off, and she felt devastated as a new mom. “I figured, we’re all dressed up, let’s not waste it. And the first place we could think of to go meet Santa — without a super long wait or an appointment needed — was Bass Pro Shops.”

Now, it’s their family tradition.

Another mom tells me she landed at Bass Pro Shops when she realized there were no appointments left with the local photographer she had always used for photos. “I felt terrible! This was the first year my daughter wanted to actually sit in Santa’s lap, and I was so excited to have a photo of it,” she says. Looking in her area, the only place she could find — in late November — that still had Santa photo appointments was Bass Pro Shops. “I’ve never set foot in Bass Pro Shops. Everyone thought it sounded ridiculous.” But she says the process was simple, the set-up was magical, and at the end of the day, she had a great 4x6 photo of her kid with Santa... for free.

It’s important to know that Bass Pro Shops Santa’s Wonderland isn’t decorated in orange vests and camo garland, with a Santa wearing waders and a gun slung over his shoulder. The Bass Pro Shops Santa’s Wonderland is all about tradition, and feels like the kind of Santa mall visits we all grew up with. A spokesperson for Bass Pro Shops tells me tradition is at the heart of the store’s design decisions for Santa’s Wonderland, and that’s why you can find fake snow, supplies to write letters to Santa, and free crafts.

Nobody has to purchase anything to access Santa’s Wonderland, and your experience with Santa also includes a free video of your visit, along with your free 4x6. (You can email that video to family members, too.) There’s no limit on how many people can squeeze into the photo, and you can even take your own photos without being reprimanded. A bench next to Santa makes it easy for kids who are uneasy about sitting on the big guy’s lap, and, yes, there are still mini candy canes.

My own family has been going to Bass Pro Shops for over a decade for our Christmas photos. It’s a whole outing, one that grandparents can easily join in, and one that our kids look forward to every year. After the photo with Santa, they play games together, join in on the crafts, and write letters to Santa (which can also receive free responses, by the way).

Sometimes we meander through the rest of the store, letting my husband make his Christmas wishlist up and down the aisles and staring at the fish in the aquarium. And because our Bass Pro Shops is connected to a mall, it often feels like the Santa visits of my own youth when we head out for a cookie or dinner or to stop into other stores and do some holiday shopping.

Santa photos are always going to be a Christmas tradition. But maybe this year, you can save your budget — and your sanity (who has time to schedule Santa photos in September) — with a visit to Bass Pro Shops. Don’t forget to get some old-fashioned candy and say hi to the fish.