When your child is 4-years-old, the holidays are truly magical.  Riley believes in Santa Claus wholeheartedly and can't wait for Christmas Day to arrive.  To her, the elves are a wonderful group of friendly folk that help Santa prepare for Christmas Eve all year long.

So when I happened across a company that makes tailor-made holiday videos for children, I had to check it out for myself.  Would a Santa video from the Portable North Pole be all I hoped it would be?  Keep reading to find out!

The Portable North Pole Allows You to Customize a Special Holiday Video for Your Child

Creating a custom Santa video from the Portable North Pole is definitely quick and somewhat easy.  When you choose to get started, you're asked a series of questions about the individual child this is for.  I don't believe at this time that the Portable North Pole videos are designed to address whole families of children, so you'd have to make one for each child you have.  The beginning questions are rather basic, like whether your child is a boy or a girl, whether they've been bad or good, when their birthday is, etc.

After that, you are asked questions containing much more detail as well as a place to upload several photos.  For instance, I chose three special photos and a quick description of what was occurring in each to include in the Portable North Pole video.  (Unfortunately, there was a bug in their program, because only two of these personal moments were allowed to be uploaded into the video.)  I was also able to include a picture of our home and of our dog too.  Soon after compiling this information, our video was ready to go!

I have to admit that the Portable North Pole video is definitely amazing!  Santa has a thick mustache and beard which allows him to mention your child's name and other pertinent information without it looking like his lips are saying something else.  The graphics and overall story are also terrific.  If you are wanting a high-quality, personalized video for young children, then I would definitely recommend the Portable North Pole service.

Unfortunately, there were a few aspects of this video that I didn't quite care for.  First, I don't like how the video you purchase is only able to be viewed on their website, which frankly looks quite commercial and not like I would think Santa's site would really appear.  If Riley were one or two years older, I wouldn't show her this video on their website because of the large banner ad on the top, advertising that you can have Santa call you directly as well as the shopping cart icon directly below the video.  Pretty sure Santa doesn't need you to purchase anything, since he gives to all for free.

Speaking of the shopping cart icon, I also don't like how the Portable North Pole tries to get another $6.99 out of you just so that you can download the video you just purchased.  All of these videos are customized with children's photos, pets and places, so I don't get why you aren't able to embed the video or download it to your hard drive for safe keeping.  If you're wondering why my finished video isn't embedded here, that would be why.

I also don't like the shameless self-promotion at the end of the video, which again makes it appear to be bought and discredits its overall authenticity.  Finally, I don't understand the costume they have Santa wearing either.  Where's the large red coat with fluffy white trim?  No where to be found here.

Basically, I really liked the Portable North Pole Santa video, I just had several problems with how commercial they made several elements of both it and their website.  My recommendation to them is to charge more up front for a downloadable video and then display it on an ad-free site which would actually look like something Santa himself might have.

Disclosure:  I received a Santa video from Portable North Pole in order to facilitate my review. No other compensation was received. This feature is based on my own personal experiences with this item and is completely honest and objective.