Santaphobia

One rainy day shortly before Christmas, we went to the holiday event at the Botanic Center. Santa came to talk to the kids, and he set up shop on a bench in the tropical garden (naturally).

Soren was the first to go. He was mainly interested in the candy cane Santa gave him, and sat silently for some time when Santa asked him what he wanted for Christmas. When gently asked again, he replied, "I'm thinking." Eventually, he decided he wanted some new toy cars, to the surprise of all.


Then it was Sigrid's turn. She was feeling pro-Santa when he came through the doors into the greenhouse, but switched to anti-Santa by the time she and Soren got to the front of the line. She refused to sit on the bench with Santa and Soren, and sat stubbornly facing away from the whole scene, so Santa decided to come down to her level and give her a candy cane. Whereas you might expect Santa to merely come hunker down in front of her and hand her a candy cane, he chose instead to lie down on the floor behind her and tap her on the shoulder.

The look of despair on her face suggests she'd been having nightmares about being stalked by Kris Kringle for weeks, and that in her dreams Rudolph was outside chewing on Blankie, which was probably happening right then.

With some support, she did reluctantly stand up and turn around to accept the candy cane, and didn't cry or anything. Which, of course, is an important lesson in the Christmas spirit.