Santa seems pretty scary if you think about it from their perspective. A big fat man in a bright red suit, with a creepy beard, usually surrounded by little green people. Why do we do it? Is it really for the experience of asking the magic man for presents? Of course not, they are too young. It’s for a photo. For US…the parents.  And when it turns out to be a horrible photo depicting the child being traumatized, parents are even more likely to share it with friends. “Check out my poor child! He HATED it! He was screaming! Isn’t it just ADORABLE?”

 Yet, I still decided to attempt a trip with to South Coast Plaza with my 2 year old to meet Santa and introduce him to the wondrous winter wonderland that is Santa’s Village.  What a great idea! Hmmm, notsomuch. He would not go near Santa and when we tried to coax him up the pathway with a candy cane, he looked at me like, “You are out of your (bleeping) mind if you think I am even coming close to that creepy dude in the red suit. So that was a bust. So I plopped the 6-month-old baby on Santa’s lap, she smiled and smiled and I got my $8 photo. Boring, yes, but it is pretty cute.

 My son then watched the carousel for a while, fascinated, so I bought us a ticket. “Oh he will love this!” I thought. “And then he will warm up to the whole idea of this place and he will totally love Christmas and Santa and all of it” As soon as it started, he screamed bloody murder and I had to wrestle him to not jump off the ENTIRE TIME. You can imagine the looks I got from the other parents trying to enjoy their magical Christmas experience. Sorry!  So now carousels AND Santa Claus traumatize him. Great.

 The whole experience was a bad idea in retrospect. I should have known better. I have high hopes for next year, though. He will be three. He will probably love it and be able to ask Santa for all the toys he wants and will then be crushed when he doesn’t get them all. On the bright side, the baby will be 1 1/2, she will be horrified, and I will get my funny photo!