Meeting Santa Claus

Earlier this month, we took our daughter to meet Santa Claus!  Technically, she met him last year, but she was only 10 months old and was pretty chill about just letting us plop her on his lap and snap a few pictures.  This year it was a little more complicated.

The screaming Santa picture seems to be a rite of passage, but it was one I was hoping to avoid.  As our daughter has reached the stage of being a little clingy to us around strangers, I was worried about how a meeting with Santa might go. 

Fortunately, it went pretty well.  I hyped Santa up all week in the lead up to the meeting. We spent the day making Christmas cookies and watching Ms. Rachel’s Christmas sing-a-long video. She’s been requesting this one all month by saying, “Ho Ho Ho”.

When we first saw Santa, she was shy and wouldn’t let go of me, which I expected, but she wasn’t upset and she waved several times to Santa, gave him high fives, and even blew him some kisses.  She clearly liked the old man, just from a distance. 

We got some cute pictures of us together with Santa and of her studying Santa.  I sent them to my parents, and my mom commented that Santa knew just how to act around her to keep her comfortable.  I’d thought the same when we were there.  He told her he was excited to meet her, but never tried to get her to come closer than she wanted.  He offered her a fist bump, which she’s not really picked up on yet, but she loves to give high fives, so I suggested she give Santa a high five and she did it right away and Santa just rolled with it and let her lead. 

It got me thinking of the “Santa Schools” I’ve read about.  Santa has to be ready to handle many different scenarios, and it seems only natural for a good Santa to practice and hone his craft.

This CNN article profiles the Charles W. Howard Santa School in Midland, Michigan, and it’s worth a read.  It’s not the only Santa school out there, but it is the longest continuously running Santa school in the world.  This article, and others that come out this time of year, highlight the work that many Santas put in to create magical moments for the people they meet.  Santas often learn different languages, learn to sign, and visit with the sick and dying to bring comfort to them and their families during difficult times.

Carol Baker and her Santa Claus were working at a care facility one year in Newton Falls, Ohio. As they approached an elderly woman in a reclining wheelchair, she seemed unresponsive.

But when Santa took her hand in his, a slow smile formed on her face.

Baker was startled when the woman’s adult daughters hugged her and began to cry. “Their mother had shown no response to anything in several years,” Baker says.

Hospice Santas see this happen time and again.

“You have to remember Mom may be 91 physically, but she’s 11 (in her mind),” says Santa Tim Verville, who visits Alzheimer’s patients regularly. “You weren’t around when she was 11, but Santa was. That’s why she remembers him.”

Last blogmas, I wrote about how people have very strong opinions about what Santa looks like and how he is represented.  And Santa Schools aren’t free from similar debates as there are strong opinions in the Santa community about for-profit training schools that place Santas in commercial settings versus schools that focus more on the art of being Santa instead of potential profit.

Santa is an integral part of Christmas for many people, and every year, these Santas take on the Herculean task of embodying all the magic, love, and joy associated with wearing the red suit.  Santa is the emblem of Christmas that is most personal.  He’s a living, breathing person you can meet with and no matter who you are, be treated with love and kindness.  People of all ages are drawn to see Santa to experience just a little bit of the magic of the season for themselves.   

As Francis Church famously wrote in The Sun, “Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus.  He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist, and you know that they abound.” It’s sometimes hard to assert that love, generosity, and devotion abound as Francis Church put it.  Abound?  That seems like a bit of an overstatement.  But at those times when faith in humanity wanes, all you have to do is take a look at the Santas and their helpers who year after year get excited to spend long hours talking with children, families, and people who are hurting or grieving because they still believe that love, generosity, and devotion exist and they want to be a small part in making sure it abounds.

Happy Blogmas Day 6!

Also, take a look at this one-minute short film called Santa Claus from 1898 that is credited as the first Christmas movie. It is described as a “film of considerable technical ambition and accomplishment for its period” and used innovative special effects to depict a visit from Santa.