K-Mart Santa

Carla King

One of my first strong memories is of going to see Santa at K-Mart in Greensboro when I was 4? My mom (and my younger sister probably) were walking to see him and the little red ball I was carrying fell out of my hands and rolled under a bench. I crawled under to get it and stood up and whacked my head on a bolt and ended up in the emergency room for 3 stitches in my temple. I still have the scar. I don’t know if that incident had anything to do with it but the idea of sitting in a strange old man’s lap and telling him what I want still creeps me out.

Santa's innermost thoughts can't be repeated out loud

Every year it seems that Santa is appearing earlier to visit with the masses. I had an encounter over Thanksgiving holiday at the world famous Hotel Del Coronado. I had that magic feeling when I spotted him walking down a hall and went over to say hello. For some reason he was being escorted by an ice princess that was taking him to his chair in the courtyard. So we managed to have a brief encounter and the things he said to me quietly in my ear -- oh Santa. I've been holding a wee grudge for many decades because he never delivered a live horse to me back in the day. He did manage to fill up my shelves with those plastic Breyer horses though. Gratitude.

just a feeling ~ he's a man and not a myth

.. and not the magical Santa that we've heard about.

Santa. The idea is too good to be true and at the earliest ages, some children just know. There is a creeper dude wearing red and "stranger danger" just exudes on instinct for some. My sister's children both knew this ~ they couldn't be fooled for an instant. They wanted no part of this charade.

Then some of us (me included) take a lot longer to realize Santa is not the magic man who they say he is. He's just a man.  For me, the wonder really happened with the math in my head to imagine how in the blue blazes that he could cover all of the earth's homes in one night ~ it was like imagining how many stars are in the sky and no adult could look me in the eye with a good rational answer.

Last week I encountered "off duty Santa" at a potluck in Sausalito. This one's name is Rick and his sister is Nicole Jackson who employed him for these photos below. Nicole is a talented newborn photographer based in Sonoma. These pictures are the outtakes undoubtedly not seen on the site. Look closely at the photo with the two girls and the child in white tights is drooling. Bless hearts, the magic is going off the rails. Hearing Rick talk about the photo shoot was special as well complete with the "behind the scenes" dying of his beard and hair for the part.

About six years ago the SF Gate used to publish the "Santa Tantrum Awards" but after googling just now, I see perhaps it's fallen out of fashion perhaps because of the current American political climate.

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Easter Bunny is alive

Kim Scott

There was a point when I was a little kid that my dad was a minister. He and my mom thought it was the right thing to tell us there was no Santa. They felt so guilty that they kept the Easter Bunny alive for EVER. We still hunt eggs and I am 62.

digital santa ~ what next?

The current digital revolution is impacting the North Pole. Some evidence that the elves and the reindeer are breeching North Pole privacy and posting embarassing pictures of Santa. There were even some reindeer selfies discovered on Twitter until Santa's lawyers had them removed.

Progressive Santa ~ keeping up with the times or so it seems

It's unique to be following Santa on his Twitter page but I'm starting to think differently about him. The tone of his posts are not what I expected "bumping fat beats on my sleigh"... I suppose he's changing like the rest of the world. I saw also that someone spotted him eating junk food in the Detroit airport. Santa, what is going on?

No Pants Santa