Santa Matters • 12.17.08
While shopping tonight at Discover Mills for Christmas gifts we walked past a Santa booth that was empty of patrons. Piper waved at Santa and he smiled and waved back. We asked if she would like to visit him and tell him what she would like for Christmas. Of course the answer was an excited “Yes!!!”. After a bit of shopping we made our way back, stood in a short line and watched the people in front of us as we waited. Soon it was our turn. Having just recently visited a Santa at Lake Lanier Islands and seeing the quick-in quick-out, how many pictures can we take this hour, rush to get kids through, whirlwind that was a “Lake Lanier Santa Visit”, this trip was refreshing. The Santa was a typical greying elderly man with a long white and grey beard and an ample lap for the kids to sit. This Santa took Piper and sat her on his lap and for what seemed an eternity asked her question after question about what she and her sister wanted from Him. Movies and Toys and Princesses. After a few minutes she sat in awe, answering only “Yes” to each of his questions, humbled but not quite sure why. When he was done with the questions he offered her a lolly pop and wished her a very merry Christmas.
As we walked off we couldn’t help but contrast our experience here, similar to what we recalled as kids, and to what the “expected” visit should be to the sub-par experience at Lanier Islands where they were more concerned with queue length and pictures per hour than they seemed to be with the kids coming to see the main christmas man.
