Last year was my son’s first Christmas.  He got to see Santa several times during the Christmas season as part of our holiday traditions.  Santa appeared at my daughter’s school during a special breakfast; and he arrived at our house one night to ask the children what they wanted for the holiday.

When Santa came to our house, our son was just mesmerized! He just sat and stared.  At least he didn’t cry!  When our son saw Santa at the school breakfast, he was curious.  He pulled his beard down and grabbed a handful of whiskers!  Even Santa laughed at that one.

I assumed that this year my son would also enjoy his visit to Santa because he’d done so well last year.  My assumptions were wrong.  We took our son to see Santa and when he sat down on Santa’s lap, I saw his little chin start to quiver.  The ladies in the elf costumes tried to re-direct him and I smiled my best smile.  My son would look at me and smile and then turn to Santa and begin to cry.

The experienced elves were able to take a photo nevertheless and we were done.  I went up on the platform, picked up my son, and told him he did a wonderful job.  My son took one last look at Santa and began to cry.

In talking to other parents, I found out that “Santa phobias” are not that uncommon.  It seems that many children go through a stage where they are frightened by characters in costume.  This includes people in Santa costumes and people dressed up as amusement park characters.  I’ve found that the best way to handle “Santa phobia” is to make the visit short and sweet.  If my children were very scared, I just cut the visit short and left.  I’ve seen parents trying to cajole their child who was screaming in fear to sit for a photo.  In my mind, it’s not worth the emotional trauma to the child–there’s always next year!

Do you take your children to get their picture with Santa?  How do you handle the situation if your child is scared?

Yesterday, my mom and sister put on their ‘Martha Stewart’ hats. They threw a little birthday lunch in honor of my son’s and niece’s birthdays; both turn nine this month.

My mom made homemade chicken noodle soup, which I also enjoy making once the cooler weather sets in. She, however, made the noodles for the soup from scratch! She also baked muffins and cider donuts from scratch. Wow.

My sister came with her 13 month old in tow and a gorgeous chocolate birthday cake she baked, from scratch of course, decorated with mini M&Ms. She used to have her own baking/cake business. At some point during the lunch, she took out the pouch of animal finger puppets she sewed by hand, for her son to play with. She is truly domestically gifted.

Before my sis had a child of her own, she made an unbelievable birthday cake each year for her nieces and nephews (my boys included, of course). I took photos of every single one over the years, as some of them blew me away. One year, she made a three-dimensional train cake for our little train-lover. Photos of our family’s faces were somehow superimposed onto the cake; it looked like the birthday boy was the conductor and his brother, dad and mom (me) were passengers. This is just one of my sister’s many baked creations that have made my jaw drop.

She also sewed each and every Halloween costume for her nieces and nephews over the years. The green dragon costume she created for my middle son was unbelievable, with an extremely long tail spiked with scales. We received compliments each and every year about our boys? hand sewn costumes.

Now, I’m not totally inept; I’m crafty, you could say. I created a Crabby Patty for a Sponge Bob costume one year, made from Styrofoam balls, pieces of felt, an exacto knife and my handy-dandy hot glue gun.

My Crabby Patty, however, pales in comparison to my mom’s and sister’s domestic accomplishments. This Halloween, I will be creative about costume ideas and get out my glue gun if I need to but I won’t be sewing up any award-winning homemade costumes.

I can’t wait to see the costume my sister will make for her son’s first Halloween (last Halloween, he was only one month old, so that didn’t count). His ‘down on the farm’ – themed first birthday cake was unbelievable.

Will your kids be wearing homemade or store-bought costumes this Halloween? Do your homemade cakes look like they came from a bakery, like my sister’s? I hope I’m not the only domestically-challenged mom on the planet!