Santa Success

Every year our church hosts a Christmas party for the young children and every year it is a stressful time for Darcy when she finds herself face-to-face with Santa Claus.

It completely caught us off guard the first year. At that time she was a girl who would try just about anything, but as soon as Santa came in the room she freaked out. We've since seen similar reactions to Chuck E. Cheese, Elmer the Safety Elephant and Bonhomme Carnaval.

Last weekend I told her it was nearly time for this year's party and the panicking started immediately. She was nearly ready to stay home from the party but still wanted the gifts Santa handed out. She got to the point where she didn't even want to talk about it anymore.

Yesterday was the day of the big party. It was the first thing she talked about when she got up in the morning and the party wasn't to be until 4:00 in the afternoon! We had a bunch of stuff to do before the party and I needed to get her distracted. She and I went to the mall to do a bit of shopping in the morning and we walked past the Santa display there. She looked from outside the fence, at first cowering behind me but eventually coming out to make eye contact with an elf.

After that mall, we needed to go with Nick to the other mall in town where a band from our church was going to be playing Christmas carols at Sobey's. We went to watch him and they had Santa there too. He asked Darcy if she wanted to get her picture taken with him. She did not. She did, however, take one of his candy canes. After about 20 minutes of listening to the music and watching other kids get their pictures taken with Santa, she asked me if it would be OK if she got her picture taken. I told her it would, if that was what she wanted. She went and got on his lap herself and we got a picture with Santa (it isn't ready to be picked up until Tuesday). We were really proud of her and she was extremely proud of herself.

A few minutes later, Nick asked her to join the band to play some bells during, "Jingle Bells". She did a great job and loved that. Santa was so pleased with her great job that he took his own jingle bells off his wrist and gave them to Darcy to keep. Well, that sealed the deal. She is now officially Santa's biggest fan.

Later in the afternoon when it was time for the party we went without a whimper from Darcy. Santa arrived and there were no tears. Then he started calling them to come up and get their presents. Wouldn't you know it, Darcy got called first. She looked over at us nervously but then got up, went over to him and sat on his lap. She took her present and went back to her seat. No fuss, no tears, just smooth sailing. She didn't give Santa the big hug and kiss that Wesley gave to, "Ho ho" but she got up there and we were pleased with that.