Is it a rite of passage for children or parents? I haven't quite figured it out...

As a child, my mom took my sister and I to the Searstown Mall (later known as the Shore Mall) in Cardiff, NJ just down the road from where we grew up. Every year we got our picture made with Santa, an instant picture that they placed in a card. That card sat on top of our TV until we took the tree down after the holidays. Then the picture took it's rightful place in the family photo album.

As parents, my wife and I always let the kids decide if they wanted a picture with Santa. In most cases, they'd take one look at the line waiting to see Santa and decide they had better things to do. They did meet Santa a couple of times, but not in the typical mall setting.

The picture above is from 1969. My dear sister, only 14 months old, absolutely did not like the idea of sitting in a strange man's lap whose breath smelled like vodka and cranberry. BUT...damned if she's letting go of that free puzzle box!  

The photographers at those old mall Santa set-ups obviously had no idea what they were doing and seemed to care little about getting a good shot. They were always badly composed pictures. It's no surprise since they were only concerned with keeping the line moving. And some of those backgrounds...yuck! The one above is obviously supposed to bring candy canes to mind, but all I see is a barber shop.   

But, as bad as the quality of the photography is, the pic above sure does capture a moment. That's what it's all about anyway, right?