No-contact Santa photos available at The Collection in Oxnard

OXNARD, Calif. -- The traditional pictures with Santa Claus will look completely different this year. The Collection at RiverPark just started their ‘no contact’ Santa photos.

As Christmas approaches, many look forward to their annual pictures with Santa Claus, but pictures like previous years will not be an option.

“Unfortunately, it is a no-contact photos with Santa,” said Jill Almonia, who is the marketing manager at The Collection in Oxnard. “We still wanted to make sure Santa comes from the North Pole and so he is available for guests to take pictures and still create memories.”

This year, to help prevent the spread of COVID, Santa photos will be no-contact. Which means children will arrive at Santa’s Workshop. Then children will be able to sit right across from Santa himself and ask him anything that comes to mind. Reservations are required.

“Unfortunately the kids won’t be able to high-five or hug Santa,” said Almonia. “However they can still tell Santa what their holiday wishes are, what they want for Christmas. There is a partition that we keep in between Santa and the children.”

Photos will then be taken with no mask. Then Santa’s helpers get ready for the next visitor by sanitizing the area.

“You know some of the families aren’t able to come out, and we wanted to create that holiday experience for them so we launched what we called a virtual Santa experience, which is Zoom with Santa,” said Almonia.

The Collection is putting on other safe holiday events like ‘Virtual Storytime with Mrs. Claus’ and a holiday scavenger hunt. It’s a fun way to bring some normalcy and cheer back during a very unusual year.

For more information, visit The Collection's website here.