Best! Santa! Ever!

Every year, we bring the boys to see Santa at the mall and have their picture taken. We were quite fond of the Santa at the Loblaws in Barrhaven because he was the santa-est looking Santa we’d ever seen. Let’s just say that come New Year’s Day, that Santa would still have his beard! He was sweet to the boys, soft-spoken and kind, and we never had to wait in line. In fact, I was forever charmed when one year we approached to find Santa snoring gently in his chair, waiting for his next visitor.

Sadly, there’s no Santa at the Barrhaven Loblaws this year, and I really did not want to repeat our epic adventure from last year, involving two separate malls and a 95 minute wait in the queue, so we decided to bring the boys out to Hazeldean Mall in Kanata, where we’ve had some previous Santa success.

And you know what? Best. Santa. Ever.

I am so impressed with the whole Santa operation at Hazeldean. First, they asked us to register by writing down the boys’ names. We only had to wait 10 minutes or so, as there were three families in front of us. Ironically, it was Lucas who was most anxious to move on from the queue, tugging at the velvet-lined rope saying, “Open, open, open!” with charming insistence.

I must take a moment to back up a bit and tell you that Lucas is the most shy of all three boys by a long margin. I never would have expected any child of mine, let alone the third one, to be so shy. When strangers talk to him, he invariably turns his head away, or makes what I now recognize as his pained “Somebody help me, there’s a stranger LOOKING at me” face.

Knowing that most kids around the age of two years are not particularly fond of the giant stranger in the bright red suit (understandably so, when you think about it) and knowing that Lucas is already less than fond of meeting new people, I was pretty sure we wouldn’t be able to get him within about five feet of Santa’s lap. Much as I’d've liked a picture of all three on Santa’s knee, I wasn’t willing to stress anybody out over it.

So Tristan and Santa walked right over to Santa, and Santa greeted them by name because his eflin assistant had leaned over and whispered their names in his ear after consulting our registration paper. I’ve never seen that done before, and what a brilliant addition to the Santa experience! I mean, he’s supposed to know everything, right? So why should Santa be asking their names? Nice touch.

They chat for a couple of minutes with Santa, telling him they’ve been good and unloading their dearest desires for Lego (check) and a Nintendo DS (so not going to happen), and the whole time I’ve got Lucas by the hand about six feet away from Santa, trying to cajole him to get within arms reach. And it’s quite obvious that it’s not going to happen. Whenever Lucas gets anywhere close to photographable range, he starts to panic, and I’m not willing to completely freak him out over the issue so I’m about ready to let it go.

What I didn’t realize was that Santa was processing all this, too, and when Tristan and Simon are done he gives them each a candy cane and wishes them a Merry Christmas, and then tells his alarmingly young photographer elf to stand by. (In, I must add, a very stern voice that made me snicker a bit under my breath. Santa does not suffer fools gladly, apparently, and is not shy about giving instructions to his ingenue helper!)

He tells his photographer, in that stern but quiet voice that says he’s used to being obeyed, “Move over here and wait until I tell you.” Then he turns to Lucas with a beaming smile and bends down low to offer him a candy cane. Lucas is obviously tempted by the candy cane, and I can see his little brain trying to figure out how to acquire it without coming within arm’s reach of the dude in the red suit. He inches incrementally closer, and finally clasps his hand around it. The second he’s begun to reach for it, Santa says to his photographer in a soft voice, “Now!”

Isn’t that wonderful? I was so tickled that he made the extra effort to orchestrate a picture for us, and to make the experience so positive for all of us. As the boys bounded away to show their candy canes to Daddy, I leaned over and said a special thank you. “You should give Santa lessons!”

And rather than sending us to the local photo store to pick up our pictures, or charging us $20 for a 5×7, they way they do it at Hazeldean is that you pay $12 and they give you a CD with all the shots they took on it and a coupon for a free 4×6. We ended up with 12 images to choose from, including one where Santa’s eyes were closed and one where Tristan was cross-eyed — but the two images above are worth every penny!

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