SEMO Electric offers first-ever free Christmas photo event to public

Gina Williams/Standard Democrat Beckham Jackson of Sikeston tells Santa Claus and his elf what he wants for Christmas Wednesday, Dec. 13 at the SEMO Electric Office in Sikeston.

SIKESTON — SEMO Electric Cooperative in Sikeston celebrated the holiday season Wednesday, Dec. 13 with its first-ever public Christmas picture event, which included candy canes, cookies, Santa Claus and family photos.

Many families in the community came out to SEMO Electric’s Sikeston office Wednesday evening to allow their children to have a magical encounter with Santa, telling him what they wanted for Christmas and meeting one of Santa’s elves. 

Families could also use the Christmas-themed backdrop for family photos. The new event was offered for free to attendees.

Those who came to the event to have their pictures taken filled out a sign up sheet where they could choose how they wanted their pictures taken. 

SEMO Electric’s Bloomfield office offered on Thursday, Dec. 14 the free Christmas pictures. 

Angie Byford, administrative manager at SEMO Electric Cooperative in Sikeston, said SEMO Electric wanted to give people in the community an opportunity to have Christmas pictures made. 

“We just wanted to do this for people,” Byford said. “I know that for some people, they may not want to pay for pictures or a mini session with Santa so we just wanted to provide somewhere for them to come have their kids take a nice picture with Santa or just to use the back drop to take some family photos.”

According to Byford, the holidays can be a difficult time due to extra expenses like Christmas shopping and year-end taxes, which is another reason why they wanted to offer something free to everyone in the community, not just their members.

The idea, according to Byford, originated when her daughter took her grandchild to have some really nice pictures taken with Santa. She thought it would be a great idea to give the community a free option to bring their kids for Christmas pictures. 

Byford said she had two tapestries with a Christmas theme ordered to use as a backdrop for the event.

“For my grandbabies’ pictures with Santa, the backdrops were two-sided, which is where I got the idea to have our backdrop set up,” Byford said. “With the two-sided backdrops, when you take a picture, it looks way bigger,  like you’re in a huge room, which makes for a great photo opportunity.”