Like many, Christmas at the mall one of my favorite times of year. I love the Christmas decorations and the displays each store took such time to create. I love the Christmas lights everywhere, as well as the unique Christmas theme each mall takes, especially the red carpet lead-in at Nordstrom's in the Tacoma Mall. I'm sure you can imagine my enthusiasm when I received a call about photographing two events at our local South Hill Mall in Puyallup.
The first event was an evening with the Ice Princess at which kids could play games, eat an ice cream bar, get their faces painted, and have pictures taken with her. This was really fun. The actress who played the Ice Princess was absolutely top-notch. Her ability to interact with the kids while remaining cool at all times was phenomenal. The kids completely adored her!
The next evening was story time with Mrs. Claus. She read "The Night Before Christmas" to the children as they (mostly) quietly listened while munching available Christmas cookies from a nearby table. Chairs were placed so as families came in, they could sit down to comfortably listen to the story, though some enjoyed sitting with their backs to the walls with their younger families. Mrs. Claus excelled at reading to the children. Even though she sat at a simple table, you could easily imagine the events as they unfolded in the book. Later in the evening, Santa Claus (from the photo booth inside the mall hallway) popped in to have his picture taken Mrs. Claus, which created superb photo opportunities with the kids and their parents.
When so many malls are struggling to compete against internet stores, it is encouraging that our local mall is tailoring itself to families and making the mall fun and the "place to be" for teens and young adults. I suspect with the events thus far, people will want to go there for more than just clothes shopping. Check the mall schedule. Hope to see you there!
Note: contractual obligations prevent more photos from the event.
For those interested in the camera details, I used a Nikon D850, Nikkor 70-200 F/2.8 G VRII, and a Tamron 24-70 G2 lens.
