Why Do We Bother Trying To Visit Santa? [Pics]
Much has been written this year about how our generation of parents is taking too many pictures of our kids. We’re oversharing, overdocumenting, and overexposing our kids.
While we take pictures every day of the year on our phones and cameras, there are few days on the calendar where we step it up and do professional photos. There’s the school pic, the family pic for the Christmas card, and the visit with Santa. Despite having reams of photos of our kids, these benchmarks are seemingly still important and we buck up.
I don’t know why I do it, I really don’t.
I take pictures of my sons on the front doorstep that first day of school, and often that iPhone pic is better than the cheesy posed photo coming out of school a month later. I do appreciate the family photos with a pro photographer each year as that’s finally a chance for my wife and I to both be in the frame. The Santa photos, however, are perhaps the silliest ones we line up for.
The boys don’t ‘really’ care. They’re not super excited to see him, they think of the mall guys as “helpers” and not the real deal. We get the very expensive picture every year, and yes it is cute, but I still don’t know why we do it.
Zacharie is good with the old elf. He plays the game, sits and says what he wants and then smiles nicely. Charlie? Well, that’s a different story.
Last weekend’s visit to Santa was ridiculous. Charlie will be 3 in January, and while he thinks Santa is a groovy dude, he wanted nothing to do with sitting on the red velveted knee and saying cheese. He squirmed, he screamed, he fidgeted, he asked for mama.
We ended up with just our oldest posing for the $20 portrait.
Click below for a rundown of our Santa pics through the years.
I don’t know why we do it. I really don’t.
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2007
Zacharie was 7 months old and showed no fear.
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2008
Probably our favorite Santa photo ever. 19 month old Zacharie beamed.
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2009
Zacharie is 31 months old now, and a little shy.
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2010
Here comes trouble. Big brother Zacharie is happy, 11 month old Charlie enters the photo.
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2011
You see where this is going. Charlie is now 23 months old and wants no part of it, while Zacharie loves the big guy.
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2012 part 1
"Hi Santa, this is my brother Charlie..."
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2012 part 2
"Zacharie!! Run!!! Seriously! RUUUUUNNN!!!"
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2012 part 3
"Momma! Save Me"
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2012 part 4
And so in comes Momma, to rescue said terrified toddler.
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2012 part 5
Zacharie is back to being a solo artist.
Images property of Buzz Bishop. No use without permission.
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My daughter is almost a year old and suffering from stranger anxiety yet I still took her for her 1st visit with Santa, completely expecting her to spaz out in sheer terror. Funny thing though, she didn’t. She sat down, looked up at him and smiled and looked towards the lady with the cool toy who was taking the picture. Ten photos later and we got about 5 really cute pictures, all smiles, and no tears. Lets see how it goes next year….