See Santa at Bloomingdales in New York City

More: Where To See Santa in NYC

Bloomingdales flagship store in New York City is a great place to take your kids to see Santa. We found the experience at Bloomingdales to be a stark contrast to the one at Macy's Santaland -- Santa was warm and friendly and (perhaps because we were there mid-week early in December) there wasn't much waiting.

Bloomingdale's Santaland is open from November 23 - December 23, 2012. From 11 a.m. - 6 p.m. on weekdays, and from 10 a.m. - 6 p.m. on Saturdays & Sundays.

Bloomingdale's Santaland is located on the 8th floor in the BKids section of the store. Since there weren't many crowds when we went, we had to look around a bit to find it, but if you ask a cashier, you shouldn't have any trouble finding Santa, and if there are lines, you'll have no trouble at all.

There aren't a lot of "bells & whistles" at Santaland in Bloomingdale's -- Santa is sitting in a big chair ready to ask your little one what they'd like for Christmas and pose for a picture. There were small gifts for the kids (coloring books, etc.) and we found Santa to be very warm and friendly.

We hardly had to wait in line on a weekday at noon in early December. (I think there was one other person visiting Santa with their dog at the time.) Santa was friendly and personal and really stayed in character. He talked to my young son (who was just a few weeks old at the time) and made every effort to get my daughter to sit on his lap, though she resisted. The photographer-elves took many pictures, and we were allowed to choose the one we liked best.

There wasn't any pressure to buy photos (so you could visit Santa without a memento if you wanted) but packages were reasonably priced ranging from $20-45. We chose a $30 package that included 2 5x7s, 2 3x5s, 4 wallet-sized photos, and our photo on a CD. There was also a $10 Shutterfly gift certificate included. The disc included a single image, even thought they shot several as Santa and the elves tried to get my 2-year-old daughter to cooperate. The image on the disc was 2016 x 2822 pixels, making it high-resolution enough to print a good quality 10"x12" photo.

The time it takes to see Santa at Bloomingdale's will vary dramatically, depending on what day of the week you visit and what time of day you arrive. On weekends as Christmas gets closer, you might have to wait 30 minutes to an hour, and you'll probably get less personal attention than we did early in the season on a weekday.

Santaland is located on the 8th floor of Bloomingdale's Flagship Store at Herald Square.

You can enter Bloomingdale's on Lexington or Third Avenues, between 59th and 60th Streets.

Subway service to Bloomingdale's:

• N/R/W or the 4/5/6 to 59th Street/Lexington Avenue stop

Not in New York City? Check out some other Great Places to See Santa.