Last week I was in the mall and I was shocked to find Santa all dressed up and sitting in his chair! It was before Thanksgiving and he was already there waiting to see little children and take pictures. There was no line, so I decided to take advantage of this to see my 22 month old little girls reaction to the big guy. She was, as expected, very shy and nervous. I held her in my arms and walked over to Santa while my husband stayed with our 3 month old and the stroller. As we were visiting with Santa he gave me a few tips on how to make your little ones feel more comfortable with visiting Santa at the mall. He told me to come and visit him as much as we could, especially when the line was short. He said first we will work on getting her to walk up to Santa’s rug, the next step would be having her sit on my lap in the chair next to him, and then eventually she may actually sit on his lap and I can get my first pictue of her with Santa! He then told me that he was there every day until nine, so we had lot’s of time to come and visit him. We our lucky because the mall we go to just has one Santa, so it is the exact same guy every time. Santa gave Lexi a coloring book and she was thrilled! He also told me to get movies that have Santa in them and remind Lexi that we saw Santa at the mall.

We went to the mall again a few days ago and made a stop by Santa’s chair. Lexi did much better this time and even gave Santa a high five. I think with a couple more visits we will get our picture. Thanks for the tips Santa and Merry Christmas!