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Alison Konrad

New to the Atlanta Hipster Mom scene as of June 2006, Alison Konrad is a Mom's Mom, Mom-About-Town kind of gal with an arsenal of diving-in-head-first experience in navigating the sometimes complicated World of Motherhood, and the trials and tribulations of juggling the identities of being a working...

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A Visit with Santa

Ho! Ho! Ho? vs. No! No! Nooooo!

Not to be a total Grinch, but if your child’s visit with Santa this year produced a holiday card photo of Christmas delight, then I am green with envy.

Picture our Santa photo, if you will—a bonafide bearded Santa, whose suit is so gorgeous that it looks like it came straight out of Bergdorf’s, patiently smiling in an antique sleigh that is neatly placed among a backdrop of three gigantic Frasier fur Christmas trees.I am seated with a grin to the left of jolly old Saint Nick.My husband is standing next to me, just outside of the sleigh, looking handsome as always.And, our beautiful, sweet, always perfectly well-behaved son (donned in France’s finest children’s wear—the cost of which would cause Clark Howard to hurl) is yelping like a wet cat while attempting to claw his way over my husband’s shoulder and into the trees.That was shot number one.

In shot number two, my husband is trying to hand the hysterical boy over to me while dodging his flailing limbs.Shot number three was similar to shot number two, but this time my husband has reclaimed our red faced son.At this point, his teary eyes are glaring straight into the photographer’s lens as if they could set the camera aflame.In shot number four, the husband and my mouths are opened wide with laughter—our way of coping with the twenty-odd witnesses of our parental panic.I should also note that throughout this nightmare, not once did Santa break his eyes or his adorable smile from the camera.Santa is the consummate professional!

I know that perhaps next year, or the year after that my son will be excited to see Santa.I also realized how fleeting the years that he will believe in Santa will be.

My mother is still trying to convince me to use one of the pictures in our Christmas card this year.But I just can’t bring myself to do it.Not so much because of our toddler’s photo documented run-in with stranger anxiety, as much as the fact that my husband and I look like goofballs in every shot—grins too big, grins too small, wincing eyes and dastardly double chins.I think next year we will just hand the flailing boy over to Santa and let them hash it out themselves.I will try to pick one of the photos to frame and set out during the holidays hereafter for posterity’s sake.But, I would so much rather send out a holiday card with a photo of our son attached that represents him as he really is—absolutely precious.

Happy Holidays!