The Portable North Pole is one of our favorite apps to use during the holiday season. It is a great way to keep the spirit of Santa alive and to have a little playful magic around. I have done several posts on the PNP in the past, and you can read those here and here but today I want to focus on some pros and cons of the 2017 release.
Pros #1: Easy Access
When you open the app on your smart device, it opens up easily to the kids corner and from there kids can access their videos from Santa and a couple games. The parents corner is also easy to access with a simple code (set by the parent) and simple methods to set up the videos and phone calls.
Pro #2: Videos are interactive and fun
The videos are easy to create from your phone or computer. I do them from my computer because I prefer to upload photos that way. I am able to personalize them with the exact photos of the items my kids want, their names, our home and any many other things that help excite my kids for the holiday season.
Santa is extremely magical, with a huge beard, booming voice and warm welcoming emotions. He takes each kid through their big book and guides the child through the magic wonderfully.
The elves are always our favorite part of these videos because they are silly, excited and very fun to watch.
Pro #3: Fun Games for Everyone
This season they kept the matching game which my daughter loves and added in an “elfie” camera. The matching game is your typical game, featuring the elves, Santa and some typical holiday decor, but the Elfie camera is a fun “snapchat” like camera where you can add different filters to your face and snap a photo. My daughter and I passed the time during intermission at the ballet playing with the filters.
Cons:
- When I first download the app, there was a 4th activity on the kids corner screen, that never was set up and eventually was removed. That was a bummer.
- The videos also very high quality are nearly the same for every child and when your child has a semi-unique name Santa doesn’t pronounce it correctly and there is no place to write in the correct annunciation.
- The Elfie camera stalled my phone for a while before it let me save the photos. I have the new iPhone so maybe that is the issue, but it was pretty frustrating to wait and wait and wait before we could take another photo with a different filter.
