by Charlie Brooks posted in Mom Stories

When you dress up like Santa, you take on a certain level of responsibility. It doesn?t matter if it?s for a family party or a part-time job at the local mall ? when you put on the red suit and say, ?Ho ho ho,? you have the potential to define a kid?s view of the holidays.
With as much effort as parents put into making the holidays a magical time, especially for younger kids, a lazy Santa can make the holiday stress seem ten times worse. A bad visit with Santa means that, on top of everything else, you have to act as a spin doctor for a magical creature.
When it comes to mall Santas, I feel like parents are handicapped by the not-so-subtle hints that the mall would really like you to pay for a photo package. Sorry, but I don?t feel like dropping $25 on a couple glossy prints. At the same time, the kids really want to talk with Santa. My family got lucky this year. We stopped by the mall during a slow period, had no line to meet Santa, and didn?t get any dirty looks when we bailed on buying pictures. The kids didn?t sit on his lap, but they did have an engaging conversation with a guy who really nailed the part.
If this guy wasn?t a pro, he should be. He made eye contact, leaned forward to show he was interested, and picked up on all the right cues. He heard my wife call the kids by their names, and used that information to make it seem like he knew them all along.
He didn?t ask them if they?d been good this year, but instead used the...