Tis the Season

I love winter. I always have. I grew up in Alberta, as my regular readers will know, so the snow and I are kindred spirits from way back. As you can see from the pic on the left, I was a lonely child, and making men out of snow who appeared to have been in a drive by shooting was my solace. For me, winter brings good times, beautiful snow, and Santa with his boundless and inexplicable generosity.

I come from a Christian background, so for us, Christmas is a biggy. A time of family, friends and love. There are dozens of photos of me in various holiday poses like the one seen here. In them I am a smiling, happy child. Bundled against the cold and with extra padding in case of coyote attack, I appear joyous in several winter wonderland settings. One thing struck me is that through all the holiday snaps there are none of me with Santa. I think it may be because of photos like that of my friend Robbie:
Robbie currently has this as his Facebook photo. I'll admit, I laughed when I first saw this, and it certainly explains his conversion to Judaism (She Joked) but never having seen the fear in Santa I found it wonderful fodder for teasing him.

He has been very adamant that he is not alone in his childhood trauma. As proof, he discovered a photo essay by the good people at the Chicago Tribune called, appropriately, Scared of Santa.


It's a treasure trove of children with priceless expressions caught for posterity and Santa's with unshakable jolliness. Some of the pictures look like they date back to the early 60's. They're well worth you're time if you're up for finding joy in the childhood trauma of others. I know I always am!