I’m convinced Santa Claus has no business mingling with toddlers. Or rather, parents (like me) should know better than to think their toddlers are going to get anything out of a trip to see Santa.
Case in point this weekend. We took the twins to see the big guy on Sunday. We were hoping for a good experience considering their first trip to see Santa ended up not so special. (Last year we took them to an unjovial, cut-rate Santa, who offered our then 9-month-olds candy canes.) Whatever. This was a new year and a new, more festive place.
Still, I started to get a bad feeling when we had to wait in line nearly 45 minutes to get our face-time. The boys hated every second of it. They were rowdy, whiney, and sassy. Like any good parents, we bribed them with fruit snacks. I almost bolted from the line mid-way through – I hate small, hot, crowded spaces – but made it to the end. The boys looked delighted at first to that guy in the red suit who we had been pointing out all week in some Christmas books we have at home. But things went downhill quickly, as the picture shows. Happiness turned to terror in an instant. Tears ensued – them because they were scared out of their minds of Santa; us because we were laughing so hard.
Really you have to have a sense of humor about this sort of thing. Who were we kidding?Our kids are too young for Santa. We made that trip for us, not them. And turns out, it wasn’t that fun for us either. I’m not sure what we’ll do next year, but for now we have this memory. Most of my co-workers and Facebook friends have seen this, but it was just too good not to share with the world.
Merry Christmas!
Get me out of here!