One of our family Christmas traditions is taking a photo with Santa. Usually it’s at our local shopping centre, waiting in a long queue of cranky kids and anxious parents.

This year, we did it in style. Thanks to QVB in Sydney, we had a lovely time having their photo taken, with a really lovely and jolly, “real bearded” Santa.

It was a delight, visiting Santa on his bejeweled throne within the Swarovski Crystal garden. It replicates the pristine beauty of the North Pole and children are trasported to another world filled with Crystal flowers, butterflies and blossom trees underneath a glittering canopy of suspended Swarovski crystal strands.

But I’ve showed you the end result, let me take you back to the beginning of our day…

We got up early and the kids got themselves dressed in their nice-ish clothes. They grow out of everything so quickly, so keeping them in nice-ish clothes can be tricky! Look at Sam’s foot in that photo. He’s 6 years old, almost 5” tall and wears a size 4 shoe! He’s going to make a great front rower (rugby talk).

We drove to the train station and caught the train up to the city. This in itself was super exciting for the kids as they’ve only been on a train a handful of times.

We had great travel buddies, in Lisa from Life As We Know It and her children, Seth and Eme. The boys played with their Nintendo’s and the girls applied lip gloss and coloured in… oh and danced… gangnam style.

Before long we were there in the hustle and bustle of the QVB.

We made our way up to level 2 and were treated to a lovely morning tea by the QVB Tea Room, while we waiting for our turn with Santa.

The kids had their photo taken and we were then invited to hang around for a little longer because at 12 noon, there would be snow.

Snow!

My children and I have never seen snow, so we were excited.

The clock struck 12, Dean Martin began to sing “Let it Snow” throughout the centre and snow began to slowly drift down from the Dome.

The awe in the faces of both children and adults alike was beautiful to behold.

Now in reality, it wasn’t “real” snow, but the joy it brought to everyone there, was magical.

Snow will cascade beautifully onto the 24 metre tall QVB Swarovski Christmas Tree during select times every Thursday (6pm), Saturday and Sunday (on the hour at 12pm, 1pm and 2pm) from 17 November to 2 December.

Thank you to QVB for a fantastic and memorable day.

For more information about Santa and the Swarovski garden, please visit www.qvb.com.au

Disclaimer: This is not a sponsored post. We were invited to sit with Santa and were gifted a photo package.