Breakfast with Santa

In past years, we did what a million other people do.  We picked what we hoped would be a quiet week night, headed to the mall, and let the kids visit with Santa Claus.  Jeff and I then usually ended up paying an exorbitant amount for one photo of the kids with Santa and left the mall feeling slightly grumpy.

We were able to forego this joyous event last year because we were in France until there was no quiet week night to take the kids to the mall, and Pere Noel doesn't meet with individual children there.  Although it must have been weird, we told the kids that they would just have to trust that Santa would know what they wanted and that he would know to bring it to France by December 13, our chosen date for celebrating our family Christmas!

Anyway, as we are back in the States this year, Jeff and I decided that we needed to figure out a good way to see Santa, hopefully one that would leave us less grumpy.  (How DO you get that information about when Santa will be at the local farm co-op?!)  Luckily for us, our little village has a Junior Women's Association that has hosted "Breakfast with Santa" for the past 37 years.  For a small fee, we could eat breakfast, get a photo with Santa with virtually no wait, and the kids could spend any remaining time making a variety of Christmas crafts and playing several fun Christmas-themed games.

Sold!  We were there! 

I bought an extra ticket for my dad on Friday, and, bright and early, we headed to the Germantown Hills Middle School for a date with Santa Claus.  The doors opened at 8:45, and the kids saw Santa on a first-come, first-served basis, their time denoted by stamps on our tickets.  As Charlotte had her very first basketball game at 11:00, we wanted to get there as early as possible so that we could see Santa before we had to leave.  We ended up being the third family in line, so no worries!

This event turned out to be a lot of fun and a very low-stress way to visit with the big guy.  We entered the gym, hung up our coats, and had a couple of minutes to check out the many raffle prizes (this event is a big fundraiser for this organization) before the music started, and Santa entered the building.  Our kids were standing in his path as he made his way to his chair, and both got to hug him even before they visited with him.

As Santa sat down, we hopped in line and were the third group to see him.  Here are the kids with Santa.

 

After the kids told him what they wanted, Santa apparently informed them that he NEVER promises gifts to kids.  But if they read a lot a books and were good boys and girls and helped a lot around the house, MAYBE he would bring what they wanted.

Pretty darn clever of Santa, huh?!  My type of guy.

After Santa, we got in line to get breakfast, which was a donut or bagel and a beverage. 

Then, we were off to the room where the make-and-take crafts and games were, where the kids each made a dough Christmas ornament and played until it was time to leave.

 

We left about 10:30, in just enough time to run back to the house to get some water for Charlotte's basketball game, which I will tell you about in another post.

And here's one more bittersweet end note to the whole Santa thing.  We were sitting at Sam's Club that evening, eating a rather nasty supper before shopping, and the kids proceeded to inform us that neither one really believed in Santa anymore!  Charlotte, our logical child, had a whole laundry list of reasons why Santa didn't make sense and why she thought it was a better bet to just ask us for things for Christmas.  I didn't say anything but glanced rather anxiously at Elijah to see if this was in any way traumatic for him.

No worries.  Elijah said, with a perfectly straight face, "I haven't believed in Santa since I was five."  (Seven is evidently ancient to believe such things.)  "Plus," he continued, "reindeer can't fly.  And even if they could fly, there's no way they could carry that many toys all over the world."  Later on, he told his dad by way of comfort, I suppose, "I'll probably tell my kids about Santa someday, too."

In a way, this whole conversation was hilarious.  In another way, it was kind of sad.  It just doesn't take long for kids to grow up!  I can vaguely console myself with the fact that we will have one more to tell about Santa for a few years, but I think that the days of Charlotte and Elijah believing have come to an end.

Time marches on...