A snap with Santa comes at a price

Shopping centres are increasingly requiring online bookings to guarantee spots on Santa’s laps, which means the cost of a photo with Christmas’ white-bearded man could cost you anything from zero to $21.

In Christchurch, Westfield Riccarton and Northlands malls are the most expensive. A single 6x8 photo is priced at $18.90, but an online booking at a fee of $2.10 was considered ‘‘essential’’, bringing the total cost to $21.

Included in the cost was a headband at Westfield or a book at Northlands while stocks last.

Both malls said limited walk-ins were available, but not guaranteed.

In second place for pricing was department store Ballantynes, which continued to have a ticketing system for groups of eight to check out the Christmas Grotto and get a single photo for $20.

At The Palms shopping centre, walk-ins can get a photo for $17.90.

However, they also offer online bookings via the Santa Fast Pass system to secure a spot for a fee of $2.10, and paying online increases the single photo cost by $1, bringing the total to $21.

Merivale Mall and The Hub Hornby shared the fourth spot for highest cost per photo, with their costs starting at $17. Like other malls, they had an optional online booking system, but unlike others booking was free.

Eastgate Mall in Linwood didn’t have a booking system and only required walkins to show a receipt of a $10 purchase from somewhere in the shopping centre for a free photo.

The cheapest place for a photo was at South City and Barrington malls, mostly because they didn’t offer to print the photo for you.

Instead, there were Santa’s helpers who would use customers’ own cellphones or cameras to snap a shot, which people could get printed themselves if they wished.

At Barrington, each kid would be given a Christmas hat, activity book and chocolate Santa at no cost.

The downside was that both malls begin Santa photos two weeks later than other locations, Barrington on December 16 and South City on the 17th.

The cost of printing a 6x8 photo – larger than the standard size – could range from $1 at Harvey Norman to $1.30 at Warehouse Stationery.