The Evolution of Christmas

The Williams Family - Perpetuating the myth magic since 2005


Since we have been prepping the kids for a visit to the guy in red, I am feeling a little nostalgic over past years' Santa pics, so I thought I would share them with you here.

Christmas 2005 - This was Dylan's first Christmas. We had previously ridden the Polar Express all the way to the North Pole and met Santa in person, so he was all geared up to sit on his lap when we went to get pictures with him. All the parents with crying children who had refused to sit on his lap were jealous when Dylan reached for him and smiled, while willingly posing for a picture. Alas, this ease in visiting with Santa only lasted one year.


Christmas 2006 - Any pleasant memory or amount of enthusiasm previously shown towards the idea of visiting Santa and being left ALONE ON HIS LAP vanished the second it was time to do so. Although it appears as though Dylan was reaching up to sweetly stroke Santa's beard, he was actually pushing against his chest to get away from him. Even though the photographer had yet to get a picture that we liked, Santa just couldn't take it any more. So we were left to chose between shots of our child screaming in apparent agony, or of Santa with his eyes closed. Not crying child won, since it's really all just about him anyway.

Christmas 2007 - Sadie's first Santa experience. As pleasantly surprised as we were at how easy Dylan's first pictures had been, we had no such delusions that Sadie would be in any way, shape, or form willing to be anywhere near Santa, even with her big brother right there. Our plan was to get Dylan settled and happy, then swoop in with Sadie and snap a photo before she knew what had hit her. Obviously, no such luck since we naively assumed that since Dylan was the big kid now, he would have been completely over any previous Santa trepidation. So we settled for least amount of crying from Sadie. And Dylan just looking like he's trying really hard to smile instead of cry.

So we'll see what this year's Santa visit/photo session brings. So far the kids both seem very excited and are discussing daily what they will ask him for for Christmas when they get the chance to see him. A mom can at least HOPE that her children appear overjoyed, and not tortured, to see Santa!