{"id":69,"date":"2009-01-13T12:32:21","date_gmt":"2009-01-13T16:32:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.dcooksonphotoblog.com\/?p=69"},"modified":"2009-01-14T08:57:15","modified_gmt":"2009-01-14T12:57:15","slug":"one-mans-journey-into-christmas-land-a-survival-tale","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.dcooksonphotoblog.com\/?p=69","title":{"rendered":"One Man’s Journey into Christmas Land: A Survival Tale"},"content":{"rendered":"

Oh Christmas time. The bells will be ringing, the snow will be falling, and there’s a palpable excitement you could feel-nay-TASTE in the air! Twas the month before Christmas, and all through the house, everyone was shopping, even the mouse.\u00c2\u00a0 It seems that there’s something about the hustle and bustle of Christmas that makes everyone go a little crazy, and get a whole lot more jolly. And at the center of it all, there’s one time-honored tradition that stands above all…sitting on Santa’s lap and getting your picture taken!<\/p>\n

As many of you who know me personally might have realized, from Thanksgiving until Christmas, there was one place, and one place only to find me, and that was at the Somerset Collection Mall. You see, early in the fall, this photographer got a call to duty, a request from the Big Man In Red himself, Santa, asking me to be a part of his holly-jolly entourage at his Troy, Michigan headquarters, his castle at the Somerset Mall!<\/p>\n

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I jumped at the chance to be a part of something I’d only dreamt of when I was a kid! Not only was I going to get to meet Santa, but I was going to work alongside him!\u00c2\u00a0 Of course I agreed! I being a portrait and wedding photographer would jump at the chance to work with children more, and learn how to work with them better! I figured if I could learn from the master at how to get a child to smile, then it would only help my photography in the long run!<\/p>\n

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I wish I could honestly show you the pictures here of all the kids (the legalities of showing other peoples children without permission is just not something I want to tangle with). There is something magical about all the hopes and dreams that are scrawled on a tiny list that they clutch as they run up to meet Santa, DETERMINED to make sure their wishes get heard by the most important man to tell them to!\u00c2\u00a0 (The hottest ones this year seemed to be Nintendo Wii’s, Nintendo DS’s, Puppies, and American Girl Dolls, just in case you were wondering.)<\/p>\n

Of course, being children, rarely do things go as perfect as the parents want it to go, but isn’t that part of the fun? Of course, for every one child that sits wonderfully, smiles, and tells Santa what he hopes will be under the tree, there’s 5 or 6 others who are TERRIFIED by the “giant red monster with a white beard” whose lap Mom and Dad are forcing them to sit on! And ohhh the screaming did happen, the hyperventilating, the running away, the tears – And that’s just the parents waiting in line!\u00c2\u00a0 but for every 5 kids who come up with the terror in their heart towards Santa, making it near impossible to take 6 beautiful pictures of (which we ALWAYS managed to do, with our magical ways), was I ever feeling down about it? Was I ever feeling like “what’s the point?” or down about the whole ritual? No way! This is Christmas and the show must go on…for the children!<\/p>\n

Things that brighten your day: for some pictures, we found it cute to capture the moment we ask the young one to “whisper a secret” to Santa, sometimes joking that it should be about Mom or Dad. Did you know that a majority of them whispered “I love you Santa” into his ear? Yeah, I bet you were looking for some dirt, but all you’re getting today is a bucket-full of warmth!!
\nDid you know that some kids, when asked what they wanted for Christmas actually wished “the economy would get better soon” or “I don’t really want anything more, I’ve got enough, but please give another present to a family that doesn’t have much money.” Of course, there were the ones that were put on the spot and would just start naming things they saw around them, “I want..umm…a rocking horse…a Christmas Tree….a nutcracker”. And lest we forget the straight-from-the-mouth-of-babes answers like “I want a ham sandwich.” or “I want a hot dog.” Sigh, how could you NOT love these kids???<\/p>\n

Anyways, I’m sure I could sit here all day and recount stories of what the kids asked for, or sweet things they’d do for each other, but I urge you, next year, when your little kid wants to meet Santa, remember, it’s not so much about the shopping, it’s not so much about the lines, or the photos of the family, it’s about the EXPERIENCE of meeting Santa! That’s what we’re there to capture, a wonderful moment in time, when your child meets Santa and it’s magical.\u00c2\u00a0 Because, the visit doesn’t last forever, Christmas is only for a limited time each year, and the moment, like the click of a shutter in a camera, is gone before you know it.\u00c2\u00a0 Enjoy it while it lasts!<\/p>\n

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As for me, like always, I’ll be looking forward to seeing the big guy next year. I hope he remembers me!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Oh Christmas time. The bells will be ringing, the snow will be falling, and there’s a palpable excitement you could feel-nay-TASTE in the air! Twas the month before Christmas, and all through the house, everyone was shopping, even the mouse.\u00c2\u00a0 It seems that there’s something about the hustle and bustle of Christmas that makes everyone […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,6,10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-69","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-discussions","category-lilkids","category-smiles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.dcooksonphotoblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.dcooksonphotoblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.dcooksonphotoblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.dcooksonphotoblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.dcooksonphotoblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=69"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"http:\/\/www.dcooksonphotoblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":78,"href":"http:\/\/www.dcooksonphotoblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69\/revisions\/78"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.dcooksonphotoblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=69"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.dcooksonphotoblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=69"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.dcooksonphotoblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=69"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}