Tuesday, December 18, 2012

Bad Santa

I was on Facebook the other day and a girl I went to high school with was complaining about the Santa at our local bookstore. She was asking where to find a GOOD Santa, and I was shocked. SHOCKED! How could she not be happy with that Santa? He is the BEST Santa EVER! I mean, LOOK at the pictures they took there form last year.

Really.

Go look. I will wait.

I am going to admit it.  I judged the girl.  What more could you WANT?? I thought.

We went to see our beloved bookstore Santa last night.  And turns out, it's a new Santa.  And a new photographer.  And you guys, I am still angry about the entire experience.  STILL.  CAP LOCK, TALK ABOUT IT ON MY BLOG, ANNOYED.

We had been hyping up this Santa visit.  Henry was ready.  He was going to tell Santa he wanted a batman toy, he was going to say he was a good boy, he practiced his reindeer antlers for a picture, he wanted to ask Santa if he knew Aech the Elf. HE WAS EXCITED.

I should have known it wasn't going to go well as soon as we got there.  Santa had two kids on his lap (not really his lap, the arm of the chair. He didn't allow kids on his lap) and was chatting with the parents about dog breeds.   As we waited Henry started to go from excited to nervous. When it was our turn I put Henry up on the arm of the chair and I said "Hi Santa!  Henry is so excited to talk with you!  Do you know his Elf Aech?"  thinking that as a Santa, he is in the loop with this elf on the shelf deal.

So Santa says "Oh an elf like the elf on the shelf?" (looking only at me, not at Henry)  "Have you ever noticed how much those elves look like "Snap, Crackle and Pop from Rice Crispy cereal??  I bet they are made by the same people. It makes since, really!  Like getting your brand image out there.  It's good marketing"

Um, excuse me Santa.  But are you talking to me about brand image and cereal marketing while my son is waiting to tell you what he wants for Christmas??  GET INTO CHARACTER.

Right after that this picture was taken:
Santa 2012
Henry is not impressed. (heh)

Then we worked on getting a good smile out of Henry, which we GOT! It was perfect! Amazing!  IDEAL!!  Except the photographer was chatting with the a friend at the check out counter and didn't capture it.  Well done, photographer.  Way to pay attention. We got this one a minute later. It's okay I guess.
Santa 2012
Kind of.  But I like the 'not impressed' one better.  It captures the day.

Next we added in Cici.  Don't they look excited:
Santa 2012
Nothing but holiday cheer up in here.

Seriously, this is the best one of them looking at the camera.  Others are like this:
Santa 2012
Henry actually blowing spit bubbles because he is bored. 

Santa NEVER asked what they wanted (I finally told Henry to tell Santa what he wanted, to which Santa said "Batman?").  He NEVER asked if they were good boys and girls.  HE NEVER SAID MERRY CHRISTMAS!  But we can pretend:
Santa 2012
I tried to get the antler picture, but nobody (including Santa) was into it at that point.  So it was Cici's turn next.  They tried and tried to get her to smile, then Boo looked over and realized the photographer was texting.  Yes she was.  Boo had to say 'Um, Can you PLEASE take her picture???"
Santa 2012
But if you crop out the spit bubble blowing Henry, I think this one is better.
Santa 2012
Give me a photo editing tool and I can make these pictures passable.  Kind of.  But I am so annoyed that the trip that was so exciting to Henry before hand turned into something so unfortunate.  And cost us $38.

  High school friend on Facebook, I owe you an apology.  Let me know if  you find a better Santa for next year!
 Photobucket

8 comments:

  1. What a terrible Santa! He should be fired! And the photographer! Santa is suppose to make the kids happy, not make them feel/look bored out of their minds!

    If you have the digital pictures, you can edit them in Picasa and make them a little brighter. Good luck!

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  2. Oh no! That's always where we go, too. What the heck are we supposed to do now???!!!! But thank you sooo much for the warning! (Side note: I loved the old Santa picture-wise, but I kinda think he was high with the munchies the last few years - all he talked about was what we'd had/were going to have for dinner and then repeatedly asked the kid what kind of cookies he was going to leave out.)

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  3. Sad! What a disgraceful Santa!

    If you look at the pictures just right, it kind of looks like Santa is balancing one kid on each hand. Ha ha!

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  4. They are still adorable, but argh what a crappy Santa! Not sitting on his lap?! It looks like Cici is levitating in the first pic of her. ;)

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  5. Yep went to the same Santa. Not happy. It's the same Santa we took my son to 2 years ago and we didn't get a decent picture because Santa wouldn't look at the camera. Last year we got the better Santa. It just depends on the day you go. And it's still the same photographer company, he just has other people taking the pictures now. He goes to the church we use to go to. And I know he would NOT be happy if he knew that was happening.

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  6. And the reason this Santa does t smile.... Not sure if you checked out his teeth. You wouldn't have wanted him to smile. That was really mean, but they were bad. He also carried on random conversations with us and made weird comments as well.

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  7. We took the girls there two years ago and had a terrible experience with that same Santa. Also, he closed his eyes during every single picture, so the photographer actually photoshopped different eyes onto his face. Talk about creepy Santa pictures!

    The Barkery has the best Santa in town...we take our dogs, but they do pictures of just the girls, too. I put the video of this year's pictures on my blog. Plus, it's only $50 and you get the CD and all 118 images professionally edited and retouched. Score!

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  8. Wow that is so sad. We have a great Santa down here. Maybe visit Orlando next year during the holidays to see the good Santa? :)

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