It is Santa phobia I am referring to that my pint-sized neurotic has. Actually, I don't think that it is that unusual. Answer.com gives a name to Santa phobia. Shockingly they call it ... "Santaphobia". And it seems like I saw a little coffee table book once called "Scared of Santa" filled with countless pictures of kids all bawling and "skwalin'"(as my buddy Shane would say) on Santa's lap.
eHow.com has a mall Santa giving a video tutorial telling would-be Santa's how to deal with frightened kids. His big advice was "Tell them 'See, Mommy likes Santa', and then she will usually touch your hand or something to make the child feel better" Ha. I'm not so sure he if is not just trying to get a cheap thrill from the mommies. ;)
Anyway, anytime we try to go anywhere NEAR the mall Little Man throws a fit! "NO MALL!!! I don't want to see Santa Claus!!!" And keeps it up incessantly until we swear we aren't going anywhere near the platinum bearded, red-velvet clad gift-giving monster.
Today, needing a new bedspread, we managed to drag him into Macy's after we swore it was on the OUTSIDE of the mall and we wouldn't go all of the way in. I can't express how much cajoling this took. He admitted after seeing The Polar Express last night that he does indeed like for Santa to bring him presents. He just doesn't want to lay eyes on the fat bastard! (Just having a little fun, folks--Santa-baby, please don't put me on your naughty list!)
We also managed to get Little Man to participate in writing a letter to Santa at Macy's. For each letter they receive they give a dollar to the Make-A-Wish foundation which is a great thing. Hopefully writing this letter to Santa was a baby step in getting past Santaphobia!
