You wouldn’t know it from this picture – but Ruby is looking at Santa. Picture a large room full of swooning grandparents, kids already firing on all cylinders from indulging themselves at the decorate your own cookie table, and parents who are trying to capture just that right moment on camera. That was us today. It was the family Christmas at the golf club. A privileged place to go – for sure – and a nice one at that. They do it up – especially the Santa. He was the real deal. The kind of guy who, if you passed him on the street and looked him up and down you would think to yourself: that guy would make a good Santa.
Ruby is 2yrs, 5months and her brain is in full working order. It is one of the best and worst things about being on leave – her brain. She scrutinizes everything (learned that trick from her sister) and notices the most subtle details. She is super perceptive and acutely aware of so much of what is going on around her. And when you put her in a new situation, she wants information. So this is her, today, at the golf club sizing up the big guy:
From my perspecitve, it was pretty awesome to watch. She refused to sit on his lap. The most he could get out of her was a high 5. And I don’t blame her. Santa is a nice idea, and yet he is kind of in the same ballpark as clowns for me. They are a spectrum experience. Potentially delightfully warm emboding the joy and wonder of childhood, or not. Some Santas just were never meant to be in a Santa suit. Take, for example, the Santa I met with the kids on St. Clair Ave. this weekend. He was doing his best, him and his 2 elves handing out candy canes, drumming up a little Christmas spirit for the local business owners. Fair enough. But his dark bushy eyebrows were in sharp contrast to the big fake silver beard he had on that completely covered his mouth. A beard isn’t supposed to cover a mouth. Beards are supposed to stop where mouths begin. And if you are going to be Santa, at least get yourself some shiny boots. Your winter boots won’t cut it. And neither will some lame held on by elastics shiny boot overlay over your shoes.
Now – Ruby, being Ruby, she was happy to meet St. Clair Santa – because he had a candy cane to give her. That being said, I’m pretty sure she also knew he wasn’t the real deal. We all know a fake when we see one.
3 Ginger Snaps 