Christmas Card Photo Rejects
Last year, the Cheli family Christmas card featured Henry screaming on Santa Claus’s lap. Remember this?
This year we were hoping for something a little less teary. We took Henry to see to different Santas and staged photo shoots in places with lots of holiday decorations and came up with nothing suitable for our Christmas card. (Our pockets were also $30 lighter after paying for two crummy Santa photos.)
We saw Santa #1 three weeks ago at the Northbrook mall. Raphe decided he hated this Santa after Santa was a little too quick to tell him where to pay for the photo. In retrospect, I think we should have given Henry a moment or three to just look at Santa and his beard (the beard was a huge part of the problem) before we thrust him onto a stranger’s lap. Ordinarily Henry has no problem being held by folks he doesn’t know, but that’s provided those strangers have big smiles on their faces and look sort of like mom and dad (i.e., without a giant white Brillo pad affixed to the lower half of their face. Henry’s also terrified of our black neighbor, too, which is both understandable – she’s not very friendly – and somewhat mortifying. But that’s another story.) Anyway, the instant Henry’s butt hit this Santa’s lap, he completely lost his shit. Conveniently, that’s when they snapped the photo. Merry Christmas! That’ll be $16.
Santa #2 was at the 900 N. Michigan Ave. mall, where they were kind enough to let parents take all the photos they wanted with their own cameras provided they bought at least one photo from the company taking the “professional” shots. The “professional” shots were so craptacular that I have to put “professional” in quotes. Henry could’ve taken a better photo.
Anyway. Henry had ample time to observe this Santa before it was his turn to have his picture taken, and he was no less unenthusiastic to see this guy than the last one. I asked Santa #2 if I could sit next to him and hold Henry on my lap, but Santa #2 insisted I sit on his knee and then put Henry on my lap. “That way the lil’ guy won’t even see me,” he winked. I couldn’t work out if that was a lascivious wink or not. In any event, the photo here is the best of the several Raphe took with our camera. You’ll note Henry is trying to get away and that Santa’s beard is attractively tobacco stained. Happy Holidays! Fork over $15! At least this Santa gave Henry a teddy bear when it was all over. (Henry kissed the bear several times, loud “mmmmWAH”‘s, which was quite cute. But not worth $15.)
Since the Santa photos were a bust, we thought about using a photo of the three of us taken by a helpful stranger at the Lincoln Square Christkindlmarkt. Unfortunately, the image quality was not very good and Raphe and I look so wan and tired (happy, but wan and tired) that I had to nix it. I’ll be honest: I tried to Photoshop away the wan and the tired, but my skills are just not very good. Moreover, Henry’s not even smiling in this picture. (It was, to be fair, like 6 degrees outside that day. I didn’t really do much smiling myself.) The boy has a beautiful smile! I refuse to send a card with no smile.
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We considered a few other photos taken in holiday surroundings, but then realized that Henry was facing the camera in none of them. So they were out.
We ended up using a really cute photo I took of him playing at the park by the lakefront back in November. It was one of the last days it was warm enough outside to play at that park, which gets ridiculously cold when the wind blows off the water. Henry, Raphe, and I had a lot of fun that afternoon, and the picture is a nice memento. I love the look on Henry’s face. No, it’s not very holiday, but it perfectly captures the sweet little boy who made us a family.
December 22nd, 2009 at 11:50 am
Love this post. Love the card (thank you!). He’s a beautiful boy.