Even though my daughter is young, she’s already got way more questions about Santa than I thought she would at this point. From asking how it’s possible that Santa travels all over the world delivering presents in one night to questioning why all the mall Santa’s look different, she’s already got the seed of doubt planted and I’m trying my hardest to not let it sprout.
By adding a little magic to our holidays with the addition of our nightly Elfcapades and reading stories about elves in Santa’s workshop, I’m hoping that the excitement of Christmas outweighs any doubts she could be harboring. So far it’s been working, but I still have one more trick up my sleeve – Santa himself.
Earlier this year I was introduced to the wonderful folks behind Your Santa Story and knew it would be perfect for my little skeptic. Your Santa Story is a customized video message from Santa delivered on DVD to be enjoyed on the big day after the last present is unwrapped that is sure to make a believer out of any child.
Since the word “customized” these days could mean anything from your choice of color or initial all the way to created especially for you, it’s important to start off by noting Your Santa Story is almost entirely customized by you. While that may intimidate some, it is surprisingly simple to do with their easy fill-in-the-blank type survey that can include just about anything you can imagine so it’s personalized just for your family – you can even choose whether you would like English-speaking, Spanish-speaking, or even ASL {Sign Language} as well as an option for Expats and military families!
You choose every last detail down to whether Santa calls your children by their given names or nicknames {you even help Santa pronounce unique names} and you can choose what Santa’s message to each child is. Since my kids are young and they don’t have real school work or big achievements that I could speak of, I simply talked about how helpful my daughter is around the house and how she helps take care of brother. For my son, I talked about how good he was at taking care of his toys and how good he’s getting at bouncing {on the trampoline}.
Once I was done and re-read everything and then submitted my order, I just sat back and waited for our DVD to arrive. Once it got here, I was incredibly excited to watch the DVD and couldn’t wait to pop it in to watch it once the kiddos went to bed. So, once we were sure the kiddos were out and couldn’t hear a thing, hubby and I huddled around the laptop to watch it together.
We specifically played it on the laptop because we knew we would be playing it that way for Christmas morning and we just wanted to make sure everything was simply click and play so it would be easy to pop it in even during the morning chaos. I was thrilled when it was mere moments and our video started to play.
The video starts out panning through Santa’s workshop and stopping on items for the reindeer and in the stable and then the big man himself comes on screen. He’s just as I always pictured him – a real beard, small glasses, rosy cheeks, a nice red costume, and a belly that shakes like a bowl full of jelly. Okay, maybe not that last part, but everything else was spot-on.
I must admit that even though I basically knew the script Santa would be sticking to, I couldn’t help but get a little sentimental as soon as our Your Santa Story started to play. There’s something truly magical about watching Santa speak to your children, praising them for meeting the goals they have worked so hard for and encouraging them with their good behavior, and I sat riveted hearing Santa speak.
Then, as soon as the video ended, hubby looked at me and the first words out of his mouth were, “Okay, that was so cool.” Then, we both started talking about how blown away we were by the video and how incredibly fun it’s going to be to watch it with the kids. Hubby specifically loved the sound quality and how well done the video was as a whole, which coming from a former film student is really high praise.
Even though we’ve both wanted to watch the short video again and again, we only watched it the one night we previewed it. Now, with only a few weeks to go until Christmas morning, I’m so incredibly excited to play it for the kiddos and watch it together as a family. I know it’s going to absolutely make our daughter’s Christmas and I can’t wait for her to get her last clue {from Santa himself!} on where her present from him is!
A Your Santa Story DVD retails for $29.95 plus $5.99 flat rate shipping to addresses in the continental US. Be sure to connect with Your Santa Story on Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, and YouTube.
A big thank you to Santa for sending a special message to the kiddos this Christmas. As always, all opinions are 100% ours and no form of monetary compensation was received in exchange for this very Rave Review.