Holiday tears are a rite of passage

I’m pleased to know my daughter is not alone.

Now that I have a child, I want to take all of the seasonal photographs; Halloween, harvest, Christmas, spring, Easter, summer, etc. Part of her newborn photos were her in an Easter basket wearing a knitted bunny costume.

They were, as the kids say, “adorbs.”

Her harvest/Halloween photo session didn’t go so well though. I bought mini bales of straw, mini pumpkins and other seasonal decor for the session. As with having an infant, Chrissy and I got busy and once we got around to making the photos we sort of rushed through it. Baby Schanz was not happy.

For the holiday photos, I wanted to get ahead and bought the props early, including a themed backdrop. I didn’t want to wait until after the holiday again to get the session handled. Plus, we wanted to use the photo(s) for our Christmas cards.

My daughter’s day care caught wind that I was a photographer and asked me if I wanted to set up a session for the families. I jumped at the opportunity, as I’ve wanted to branch out my side gig into doing mini sessions because they’re all the rage these days.

The center’s director, Hailey, helped me set up the whole thing. She reached out to the families to gauge interest, gathered information of those who eventually took me up on the offer and kept the schedule organized.

She was a big help in handling it all.

Hailey knew someone who could portray Santa, and some of the families wanted to include him with their children.

I wasn’t entirely prepared for the outcome of having Saint Nick there.

Most of the children were ecstatic to see Kris Kringle. A handful, my daughter included, were absolutely not pleased.

The first girl, one of my daughter’s classmates, wanted nothing to do with the Big Red Guy. She cried immediately upon seeing him, and did nothing but reach for her mother in hopes of getting as far away from the bearded mas as soon as possible.

And the photos were priceless.

We didn’t have Baby Schanz on the schedule, we were just going to squeeze her in one of the breaks. (Our 6-hour schedule wasn’t fully booked.) 

When it came time for our photos, I took my spot behind my camera, Santa took a seat on the blanket-covered bench and my wife gave him my daughter.

Instant tears.

Donning a white onesie with glitter snowflakes and a red dress with a reindeer on the chest, Baby Schanz was crying so hard her face started to match her dress.

She was not happy.

And like they were with her classmate, the photos were priceless.

Our daughter eventually warmed up to him — she even cracked a smile — and we were able to get some quality images of the two of them for her first Christmas.

But the photos where she’s crying are the absolute best.

It’s almost a rite of passage for a child to cry around Santa when seeing him at a young age.

I’m just glad to know Baby Schanz isn’t alone having cried around Jolly Ol’ Saint Nick.