Introduce kids to Santa at breakfast

Young children sometimes have a hard time with Santa.

That’s understandable if they are not prepared. Imagine you are 3 years old, in a crowded department store with strangers all around and suddenly you’re asked to sit on the lap of a huge man wearing an outrageous red suit. He has so much white hair on his face you can’t even see flesh. The man looks like no one you know.

It can be daunting.

Perhaps a good way to start is to take your youngster to a breakfast with Santa, like the one at the Delafield American Legion Post 196, 333 N. Lapham Peak Road, on Saturday.

The pancake breakfast is from 8 a.m. to noon and includes raffles and treats. The cost is $8 for adults and $5 for children 12 and younger.  

Proceeds from the event help provide veterans and their families a happy holiday.

It still would probably be a good idea to prep youngsters about visiting Santa. Even so, you just never know how children will react.

The Chicago Tribune recently asked readers to write about their children’s experiences with Santa. One woman wrote about getting her 3-year-old daughter all dressed up to see Santa at a downtown department store. She explained everything about the visit and that her daughter could ask Santa for what she wanted. Everything went well and the girl happily sat on Santa’s lap and asked for candy. When she was dismissed, she asked “Where’s my candy?” and began crying when she was told it wouldn’t come until Christmas.

Another woman brought her child to see Santa and the girl was terrified at the sight of the man, so they left. When the child was told that Santa would be coming into her house to leave presents, she got very upset and cried on Christmas Eve. She only calmed down when she was told he would leave the gifts on the porch.