Presenting Santa! (A Wholly Owned Subsidiary Of Nordstrom, Inc.)

Downtown at 6th & Pine we spotted Santa's Castle abutting Nordstrom's and an elf standing around with nothing to do, so we thought we'd point you to the web page with the hours of operation and photo costs, but the downtown Nordstrom's store site doesn't believe in Santa. He doesn't show up on their events list, which doesn't seem right. We mean, Santa didn't just build an extremely faux Bavarian castle-hut next to Nordstrom's without anyone noticing -- there had to be some coordination with staff.

The best we can do is tell you to call 206-628-1000 for Santa's hours and photography fees. We warn you that the hours listing (press 1) is hideously complex but 9am to 9pm seems like it's in the ballpark. Various days they're open longer. For photo costs, press 4. For directions, press 2 or 3, we can't remember.

Here's a nice picture of the photo-with-Santa experience, though, so you can see what you're in for. This one is also pretty sharp.