Shoppers crowd around Santa at Aberdeen Mall in Kamloops in this undated photo.

(ASHLEY LEGASSIC / iNFOnews.ca)

Some adults have fond memories of being kids going to local malls at Christmas time among festive lights and decorations, and crowds of shoppers. 

That specific mall smell mingled with the smells of the food court, Purdy’s chocolates and cheap perfume while the garbled sounds of Christmas music played overhead.

You’d follow a parent through swinging arms past glittering shop doors to arrive in a line up to see the big man himself, Santa, and tell him what you want for Christmas, or in many cases cry.

Those were the days. The iconic mall Santa photos of screaming children were captured forever, treasured and giggled about for decades.

Today, however, it appears only some families can dish up the money to pay for them.

“In the 1980s, Santas volunteered and gave out books and candy canes, and the photos were cheap, my grandmother would take us,” said Kamloops native and mother of five, Rachelle Totten.

“I remember when it cost seven dollars for a photo, but the costs have skyrocketed over the years.”

Earlier this month, Totten had photos of a couple of her kids taken with Santa at Aberdeen Mall in Kamloops. She has taken her family to see Santa at the mall for years.

“It’s the memory of it all, that’s why I go up there,” she said.

She left with two 5 x 7 photos that cost $30, which is all she could afford.

“It’s expensive at malls, it’s pathetic,” she said. "We’re paying for a professional camera person, Santa, an elf and the mall. Back in the 1990s you got one 5 x 7 for a few dollars, but everyone kept asking for more printed pictures, I think that’s the time the costs started going up.”

The tradition of stopping by shopping malls to visit Santa Claus started in America in the 1800s after the tradition of Christmas shopping took root, according to History.com.

By the 1840s, retailers were hiring Santas for children to visit, and a couple of decades after department stores opened across the country in the 1860s, department store Santas were an established tradition that eventually moved into the centre of shopping malls.

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Due to the high cost of photography, getting photos taken with a mall Santa wasn’t part of the tradition until the 1940s when it cost $1 for a Santa photo.

While prices around Kamloops and the Okanagan vary, a few sheets of Santa photos taken at local malls can cost between $50 and $60.

For example, at Aberdeen Mall, Kamloops’ biggest mall, for digital images on USB, one image costs $35 while a collection of poses costs $60, according the mall's website.

If you want the images printed it costs more. A single 5 x 7 printed photo costs $25, and printed sheets of photos start at $30 for one sheet and steadily increase to $90 for five sheets.

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At Kelowna’s Orchard Park Mall, the most popular package is $50 where families get eight printed photos and the digital copies.

Six photo prints costs $45, digital only is $40 and one 4 x 6 photo with two wallet sized photos is $30.

“It’s disappointing, the photo sessions should be affordable for all families,” Totten said. “It’s greedy and it’s always going to be greedy going forward. We need to keep the spirit of Christmas and the true meaning of giving.”

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