On Sunday December 17th, the Brooklyn Cyclones are hosting a Breakfast With Santa at MCU Park.  For $10 per person or just $30 for a family of four, this is an absolute steal.

If you are not sold, consider your typical Christmas picture with Santa.  You park only God knows where in a crowded mall parking lot.  After that, you have to wait in a long line with your children.  As we know the mall is hot, and your children are going to be cranky.  That crankiness goes up a level if you have them in a nice Christmas outfit.

This leaves you collecting winter jackets or imploring them to leave them on.  It’s a nightmare.  You then have to rally them when they get to the front of the line to stop being cranky, smile, and take a nice picture.  Depending on the age of your child, that may be a Herculean task because your child may be scared or intimidated.

For all that effort?  Well you get to take one picture which may or may not be good.  Even better, using the Short Hills Mall as an example, the whole exasperating experience will cost you $26 and up.

Instead of doing that, you could go to MCU Park and have an IHOP pancake breakfast.  You then get to do picture with Santa and the mascots.  Instead of standing in an interminable line, you child gets to do arts and crafts, have a story time, sing-a-longs, and have giveaways.

With this being 2017, the camera on your phone is more than good enough to take the picture yourself.  You can then order that picture through Walgreens, Snapfish, or Shutterfly for less than a buck.  Better yet, you can make that your Christmas card for the year.

Really, the question is why you would consider braving the malls this time of year instead of having Santa be a fun experience for your children.  It makes no sense whatsoever, and that is why you should elect to do Breakfast with Santa instead of the staged photo.

Even if you can’t make it to MCU Park, you should still seek out Breakfast with Santa options.  I did it once again this year, and I was thrilled with the result.

Even though the one I went to was more money than the one at MCU Park, it was still cheaper than a digital photo package from the mall.  On top of that, I had breakfast with the family and an overall fun day.

EDITOR’S NOTE: this was not a paid advertisement.  Rather, this is just strong advice based upon my experiences.