jc's first santa encounter

as weird as it may seem to many of you, i strongly considered not telling jc about santa claus. i didn't like the idea of lying to him or making him sit on a stranger's lap. eventually he would find out the truth and i worried that he would be angry with me for lying to him. i thought about doing the same with the easter bunny and the tooth fairy.

then i realized that it would be inevitable that he would find out about santa from somewhere else. and i didn't want to be the scrooge that stole his childhood magic away from him. i guess i will just deal with the resentment that will inevitably come my way when some mean kid tells him "SANTA ISN'T REAL!" part of being a kid is believing that magic is real. could he still feel this way without having santa claus in his life? probably. but i do love christmas and santa is a big part of the christmas magic.

that being said, we took jc to visit santa for the first time on wednesday! it was one of those things that i didn't get around to doing last year. he was only six months old last christmas so i didn't really think it was important. looking back, i do wish i had a santa picture for every year. oh well, whatcanyado?

i fully anticipated jc to have a meltdown when he saw santa. he's only eighteen months old and has no idea who santa is. i tried to show him pictures of santa and used his name frequently within the past couple weeks. but, it didn't really help.




i actually think these santa freak out pictures are kinda cute! it's only made all the more glorious by the awesome fancy title that they had to add to the bottom of the picture. the whole idea of making a toddler, well into his separation anxiety phase, sit on strange man's lap with a giant beard and a crazy outfit is just hilarious anyway. the lady who took our money told us that she straight up put a picture of santa up in her house all year round so that her kid wouldn't be scared. i'm not about to do all that but hopefully he'll understand the concept a little better next year? a two and half year old? ehhhh?

i'm happy we did it and i'm excited to take him again as he gets older. as we waited in line, i saw a couple older kids tell santa what they wanted for christmas and that's when i really "got" it. ooooooh that's why people tell their kids about santa. i'll definitely have fun baking cookies and leaving out a glass of milk for santa with jc as he gets older. i'm thinking about starting the "elf on the shelf" tradition with him now. i'm excited to hear him ask all the awesome questions that come along with santa magic. "how does he get to everyone's house in one night?" "how will he fit down our chimney?" "how does he know if i'm naughty or nice?" i don't know how i'll answer these questions yet but i'm looking forward to opportunity to do so.