Up until Saturday, I thought we might escape the big Santa fear this year. Autumn happily waved at a Santa outside the Chautauqua Mall after Thanksgiving. She seemed enthralled with Santa decorations at our house and in stores. And all morning on Saturday, before we came down to the kids' Christmas party at work, she seemed excited to meet the big guy.
But when it was actually time to go meet him, she stood 10 feet away and just stared. It took a lot of coaxing for her to sit on my lap on the floor next to Santa.
I recall my nephew -- at perhaps 2 years old and just learning his pronouns -- telling my sister, "No see Santa. She's too big."
And I can understand their trepidation. As a child, I never wanted to sit on Santa's lap. Santa at the mall looked intimidating because, even if he is Santa, he's still a strange man. I much preferred just to mail him a letter than to sit on his lap and tell him what I wanted. Especially if he was a substitute Santa with an obviously fake beard. So I'll never be forcing Autumn to sit on his lap if she's a little wary.
Even on Saturday night while we shopped at the Millcreek Mall, we looked at the Santa there. Well, Keith and I looked and asked Autumn if she wanted to wave, but she said "No Santa." And that Santa was fabulous -- he could have been the real deal, straight down from the North Pole.
So this year, Santa is good in concept, but bad in real life. We'll just have to wait to see what next year brings.