BISMARCK, ND (KXNET) Santa’s Workshop is open, and Jolly Ol’ St. Nick is ready to take family photos at the Kirkwood Mall. He arrived at the mall on Tuesday, November 21st at 11:00 a.m. and will be there leading up until Christmas.

“So you can make reservations. That’s probably our preferred way to do it. You can walk right up, especially on a busy Saturday, you have your reservation, super easy, you get to jump the line. Or you can do walk-ups as well. And we do have a couple of promotions going on in November. If you make a reservation for a date in November, you get $5 off of your photo purchase. So definitely get those photos done early, then you don’t have to worry about the rush probably later in December that you’d be seeing. Always a good thing to think about. How do we make those reservations? So you can go to our website, shopkirkwoodmall.com, and all the info will be on there. There’s a big Santa tab. It will give you all the deets. Okay, there we go. Now along with seeing Santa, there are so many gift ideas right now at Kirkwood Mall. It’s just buzzing with excitement.” said Mikaila Auer, Marketing Director with Kirkwood Mall.

Mikaila says there are a lot of different holiday vendors in the mall right now, and there’s a trend of people getting their holiday shopping done early.

You can shop anytime, but Black Friday has special events, sales, and hours.

“So, Kirkwood Mall is open 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. on Black Friday. We have a lot of deals already starting now, but they’re saving the biggest ones for Friday. So definitely check out your favorite stores. And we have our annual Santa parade. I don’t know if you’ve ever been to it, but we have our Santa parade on Black Friday at 10 a.m. And that is like lining the halls. We’ve done it since Kirkwood Mall has opened. So it’s been for over 50 years that we’ve done this parade. So the Bismarck High School Marching Band leads Santa through the mall, and he rides on the back of a Bismarck Motor Company vehicle. It’s like the most magical, probably, time in the world.” said Auer.

Visit Kirkwood Mall online for mall hours, stores, deals, and more. Follow the mall on Facebook and Instagram for updates.