Scared of Santa

For many kids, it’s an annual event. Their parents dress them up and haul them to the mall to get a photo taken with Santa. Many enjoy the experience, but it seems that far more find it to be terrifying.

I can remember being forced to sit on this strange man’s lap while someone snapped a picture. I’m sure my mom still has the photo of me with tears streaming down my face while this huge bearded man in a red suit held me. I never really liked Santa since I was a kid. Some people find clowns creepy; I think Santas are creepy.

Authors Denise Joyce and Nancy Watkins have found at least 250 toddlers who agree with me. The two recently published a book called “Scared of Santa: Scenes of Terror in Toyland” that shows photos of children on St. Nick’s lap — most of whom are desperate to leave. The book contains both current pictures and vintage pictures of frightened children with Santa. They have some from the ’50s and ’60s and even have some that go as far back as the ’20s. According to Nancy Watkins, “It just proves that being scared of Santa goes back many, many decades.”

The project started at the Chicago Tribune, where both Joyce and Watkins work. They asked readers to send in their photos and got an overwhelming response that’s still going strong. Last week, the Tribune’s “Scared of Santa” Web site had 2 million hits, and it contains some hilarious pictures. You can check them out here.