Our Favorite Santa

The Santa at Kenwood Mall is our favorite Santa and we made time to go see him while in town. He just has such a realistic looking beard (yeah, that is real) and seems to be such a nice guy. I wish I could post the picture we had taken at the Racine Mall with that Santa, not only was it a terrible picture of both the ours AND the Richter children, but he definitely did not have the "Santa look" - whatever that is.

Doing the Santa tradition is a much bigger deal for us than it is for J or L. Neither seemed phased or excited to be in his presence. After much prodding, we got J to tell him that he wanted Dora's Talking House (which is he getting) and Race Cars (which he is not). I think he just told Santa that so he could get off of his lap and explore the mall. And not even once did he look at the activity book that Santa handed to him - they don't hand out candy canes anymore and as far as J is concerned there is no need to substitute anything else.

But at least they are not scared of him - I would feel much worse forcing Santa pictures every year if it was a traumatic experience. While we definitely focus more on Jesus than Santa this time of year, I do enjoy the mythological tradition of Santa. But J clearly isn't worried about getting coal in HIS stocking - although maybe he should be!