We have all been there: You leave a half-eaten cookie and an empty glass of milk on the coffee table to convince others that Santa made a late-night visit to your home. But that trick works, uh, about once. We all need to up our Santa game!
We’ve put together a few clever ideas that don’t just prove that Santa stopped by on Christmas Eve – it proves he moved in, and he’s going to stay as long as we want! (Don’t worry – he won’t eat much.) Whether you want to showcase ol’ St. Nick inside your home or out, we’ll show you how to get him to stick around with these Santa-centric AtmosFX Decorations.
AtmosFX has many unique decoration collections that feature Santa Claus as the featured character, sometimes as a supporting role. Sometimes the Santa is live action, and sometimes he’s an animated character.
Santa as a featured character
- Santa’s Visit (Animated Santa)
- Night Before Christmas (Live-Action Santa)
- Santa’s Workshop (Live-Action Santa)
- Santa’s Sleigh Ride (Animated Santa)
- Santa and his Elves (Animated Santa)
Santa as a supporting character
- Santa’s Bakery (Animated Santa)
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Santa’s Mailroom (Animated Santa)
- Santa & Company (Animated Santa)
All of these AtmosFX Decorations can be used in a multitude of ways – in windows, on walls and on TVs, computer monitors and tablets. Some also work extremely well on AtmosFX’s Hollusion Projection Material or 3DFX Forms.
And for those of you who like to create a snow globe prop, many are rendered in circular format, which it makes it perfect for projecting on the AtmosFX 3DF Form, or on any spherical object. There’s even “moon mode,” where you can see Santa silhouetted against a glowing full moon.
In the end, it really depends on how you want you want to showcase your Santa – there’s always a spectacular option for you.
Santa’s Vist
This was the first of AtmosFX’s Santa-themed decorations. The premise of the decoration is simple – looking into your house from the outside, it appears that an animated Santa Claus is inside, delivering gifts under the Christmas tree. For this reason, Santa’s Visit is spectacular in windows.
Many people also like to display Santa’s Visit on a TV or tablet, selecting the option that makes it appear that the same scene is seen through a window frame. Some people even frame it so it really looks like a window! The decoration collection also has an additional scene called “Festive Fireplace,” which clever decorators will display on a TV or tablet. They’ll even build a fake fireplace to house the tablet, TV or monitor, making it look like there’s a cozy fire burning.
Night Before Christmas
Similar to Santa’s Visit, Night Before Christmas features Santa, except that the main character is live action. That means when you display this decoration in your window, the Santa Claus who delivers gifts and nibbles on a cookie looks even more realistic. In this decoration, Santa also sings three joyful Christmas carols.
There are additional features in Night Before Christmas that are particularly stunning. Also like Santa’s Visit, there is a fireplace scene of a roaring fire that people like to display on their TVs or tablets. But in this case, we see a couple of Santa’s assistants – elves! – lowering themselves down the chimney, attempting to extinguish the fire before Santa descends.
Night Before Christmas also was the first holiday-themed decoration to be optimized for display on AtmosFX’s 3DFX Form. These are the inflatable mannequin-like props that, when you project on them, it appears like they have come alive. In this case that is St. Nick himself – singing carols and telling stories. Imagine what the kids might think if a three-dimensional singing Santa is the first thing they see on Christmas morning!
Santa’s Workshop
One of AtmosFX’s most popular holiday-themed decorations is Santa’s Workshop, and it is easy to see why. A live-action Santa is overseeing a frenetic toy workshop where his elves are sometimes helpful, sometimes not. The ambitious animation and the unbridled energy makes this decoration so fun, and that’s why it also looks great in windows. But we’ve noticed that many decorators like to display it BIG – often outside on their garage doors. The effect is that it appears as though Santa’s whole operation is housed right inside your garage
For those who have smaller displays, for example, miniature Christmas village setups, we’ve seen Santa’s Workshop copied onto a tablet or an old smartphone. That small screen can be placed in a window in the Christmas village or in a dollhouse, to really dramatic effect. (We should note that ALL the decorations listed here can work in a similar way.)
There is something different about Santa’s Sleigh Ride, in that it features ol’ St. Nick on his sleigh with his reindeer. We’ve seen it capably displayed on windows, walls and TVs. But it is really striking when used in conjunction with AtmosFX’s Hollusion Projection Material, or displayed on the AtmosFX Decorating Disc XL, which is sometimes called “moon mode.”
When you string Hollusion Projection Material at the roofline of your house and project onto it from below, the material becomes almost invisible and it appears that Santa and his reindeer are aloft, high above your house – even delivering packages via parachute. Similarly, use an AtmosFX Decorating Disc XL (think hula hoop with material stretched across it) and place it on the roof, it will look as though a full moon has risen above your house, with Santa silhouetted by its light!
Santa and his Elves
This joyful decoration is the final one on our list of AtmosFX Decorations that prominently feature Santa Claus. Santa and his Elves is a single long-running scene that shows an animated ol’ St. Nick sitting in his chair, preparing for The Big Night. Elves enter and depart, helping him with his lists, bringing him toys to be repaired ... or maybe a cup of warm cocoa.
This decoration works well in all the locations that you have read about above – windows, walls and even TVs. But, because it is a long-running decoration, it is especially effective when you can set it up in a snow globe, like in the image above, and just let it run! People who encounter your creative display will certainly be captured by the action in the decoration, and while they will likely linger for a few minutes, they aren’t likely to see repeat action.
Three decorations where Santa is a supporting character
Even though this article focused on AtmosFX Decorations in which Santa is the featured character, we’d be remiss if we didn’t mention three related decorations: Santa’s Bakery, Santa’s Mailroom and Santa & Company.
All three decorations feature the same animated Santa and elves that you see in Santa and his Elves. But in the case of these three decorations, most of the action focuses on the elves in different departments of Santa’s North Pole headquarters. Santa drops by in every decoration to check the work of his elves and offer a little friendly support.
That said, In the “Santa’s Study” individual decoration contained in Santa & Company, ol’ St. Nick is in frame in the entire decoration as he works at his desk. (Trust us, it is not as boring as when the rest of us work at our desks!) So, perhaps you might think of that individual decoration as the sixth decoration to prominently feature Santa!
In the end, there is no shortage of ways to make sure Santa visits your home this winter with AtmosFX Decorations. Heck! You might even keep him until summer!
How do you like to display Santa Claus at your home? Send us your photos and videos using this easy submission form!
