To Santa photo, or not to Santa photo?

In the latest instalment of the Joyful Chaos, parenting columnist Kasey Simpson looks at the strange tradition of Santa photos.

It is Santa photo time. Every year we get one. The kids are always so excited to go visit Santa, to tell him what presents they want. We usually make a special day out of it and travel up to Sydney to get the photo with Santa. Our fridge is lined with magnet photos from previous years.

Every year, the kids are beyond excited. Talking about seeing him for months beforehand. Yet every year, when we step inside that tiny room, they go mute. They are scared, terrified of Santa and I think, 'What is the point?'

When we just had one child, we used to make him go solo for the photo. He was just over one and we handed him over to Santa, kicking and screaming.

My partner and I were laughing when the photographer asked if we still wanted her to take a photo. Of course! It was hilarious to see him crying in what was meant to be a nice photo. We shared the picture with everyone. And everyone laughed.

But then I heard the usual trope that starts this time of year on the news – that making kids do Santa photos when they are scared is terrible for their health. It hit differently after becoming a parent. Why do we put our kids into the hands of a stranger, when we spend our days telling them about stranger danger? Why would we purposely make them feel scared, just for a photo?

As the years went on and we had more kids, we'd see the exact same patten. Excitement, then terror. So we started to join the photos and make it a family picture. It eased the kids into the situation, even though we had to strategically place kids away from Santa every now and then.

Then there's 'that' family, the ones wh takes about 30 minutes. They have several families merged together, with the girls all matching and the boys all matching, with one or two screaming kids. They demand to wait for the kid to stop screaming so the photographer can take the perfect shot, they review every photo and either choose a reshoot or a different kid combination for each photo. An obsession with getting the perfect shot.

So why do we do this tradition? To be honest, I'll keep doing it regardless but it seems strange.

What will you do this year? To Santa photo, or not to Santa photo?