Another Cookies With Santa, that is. Two hours and a little bit more, in The Chair, smiling (not that you could tell through the beard), jokiing, teasing, and listening as hard as I could to soft voices, some of whom seemed to have no idea what they wanted for Christmas, and some that had a very good idea, indeed.
Three noteworthy occurrences in the stream of kids.
One of the kids who had a very good idea of what she wanted had a mother. Said mother took the opportunity of a break in the flow to come over, sit in my lap, and murmur that she'd been very good, and would prefer diamonds, rubies, or a Mercedes. Racy reparte not being in the Santa image, I murmured back " Baseball, Ruby Dee, and Mercedes McCambridge"?
One girl, looked to be about fourteen, who clearly didn't want to be doing this. I gave her the option, as I do with any kid old enough to possibly not want to be doing this, to sit on my lap or stand, and she said Stand, with a great finality in her voice. She stood and even smiled for the photograph, but when we were done, I asked her what she wanted for Christmas, and she just grimaced. "Too old for this?", I asked. "Yes", she replied, striding off, "and so are you."
And one woman, who walked up with a tall adolescent behind her. "This is my son", she said. "He's very big outside, but inside he's very young." He moved awkwardly, did not speak, or even meet my eyes. But when we were done, he looked at me and shook my hand. Made me feel humble.
Some general notes.
When a kid was dressed well -- not squeaky-clean, like for The Formal Portrait, but nice, with complementary colors and the like -- I told them. Sometimes, you get the feeling no one has ever complimented them before on something like that. I don't think its going to change a kids life, to have an unknown adult tell them this, but you never know.
One kid had a really nice smile, and I told her so. She denied it, so I told her again. She shook her head. Finally, I said "Look at me. Look me in the eyes." She did. I leaned really close and I said "This is Santa talking. You have a nice smile." And she smiled.
When I could, I suggested books as gifts. A couple of kids seemed surprised and thoughtful.
Once again, its done. And once again, I'm glad I did it.
.
.
2 comments:
Sounds like a brilliant thing to do. And you are NEVER too old to be Father Christmas!
I like the opportunity to talk to kids. And though most of the time, the child isn't much of a conversationalist, every so often you get one who does like to talk -- and who seems surprised that someone is willing to listen. The first year I did it, I brushed up on the current toys, names of the reindeer, and such, but now I just wing it. Where's Rudolph? In high orbit, with the others, probably doing barrel rolls. Why didn't you land in the parking lot? The loaded sleigh needs a lot of room -- amost as much as a double-wide semi. I didn't want to take up all those parking spaces. What are the reindeer's names? Beats me, I just say Hey, you with the antlers!
Post a Comment