I work at a non-profit child care centre here in Halifax. I took a group of toddlers to see a mall Santa and was told we must pay to see Santa. We can call and book a Santa party- They do have daycare rates or bring the children back in the afternoon and pay $5. The money is being raised for under privileged children’s winter clothes. Although this is a good cause what they have inadvertently done is made Santa only available to the privileged children. In the end the mall Santa came out of his village and hugged the children and gave them a treat, however they were not permitted to go and sit on his lap and tell him what they wanted for Christmas. So what happened to the Christmas spirit? Is money so important that we will make it at the cost of childhood memories? —The Sad Christmas Teacher
This article appears in Dec 15-21, 2011.
From the sound of this bitch , seems to be so.
But seeing as nothing else is commercialized about the holiday, one little thing isn’t so bad .
Actually OB , that’s pretty damn sad & lame as well !
I guess…but should they just drop everything and cater to you guys? They have a system, and a set price. They are not ‘Big Santa’. Just some people with a job who are doing that job.
Furious styles, I get where your are coming from
BUT
little kid’s believe they are the centre of the Universe (they are too young to have figured out that isn’t the case)
So by having a Santa in a public place, IMO it should be free to go see him. THe Malls are already sucking money out of customers pockets faster by hand than they could with one of those big vacu-suck trucks you see clearing the sewer drains.
So having a free sit with Santa makes sense & IF you want a photo , then you pay. What’s the cost to the mall ?
Minimum wage for a week or 2, leading up to Christmas. Its not like Santa’s there from the morning opening to the end of midnight madness. What’s Santa there for 4 /5 hours a day…I’m pretty sure none of them will go broke over 50 to a hundred bucks !
Little kid’s don’t know any different, & doing something like that is confusing as well as hurtful to their little brains.
I agree in the principle of it being free, no question. I just know for a fact that it isn’t. So does everyone else. And showing up expecting special treatment because you have a gaggle of kids who will be upset if you don’t get it…seems manipulative and weird. I would do it were I them, but I wouldn’t expect someone else to…
we didn’t really talk about santa with the boy. when they’re little they don’t give a hoot about it unless you do. when he grew older he seemed concerned that we didn’t have a chimney but then decided he didn’t want some stranger coming into our house
So, Christmas Teacher, I hope you learned a valuable lesson! You are the cause of messing up this experience for the children, not the mall, and certainly not Santa.
Since they have daycare rates, Santa’s village can accommodate a group, but you need to make a reservation first, not just drop in unannounced at their busiest time! I’m sure there are other rules such as needing another chaperone—you can’t very well be in the village with Santa and Tommy while the rest of the children wait unattended, now can you?
As for your expecting this to be available to you at no cost, the mall is a marketplace. The fact that they have day care rates and that Santa came out of his village and gave each child a candy shows good will on the part of the store. What is unsaid is how you must have shamed them in front of these children that you care so much about to get Santa out. Were you shrill? Did the kids hear you call them poor? What lesson will they take home from YOUR behavior? Childhood memories, Indeed.
Poor planning on your part does not equal exclusion tactics on the store’s part. Take your dominant hand and hold it behind your head. Now give yourself a ‘dope slap’ because I can’t reach you.
talk about wanting to crash your own fund raiser.
Ridiculous. I’m with More on this one … don’t blame the teacher. I’ve been around the mall Santa thing for a long time and haven’t yet heard of one where you had to pay for the child to talk to Santa … yes you pay if you want the picture, but not for the child to talk to Santa. So FS, apparently not everyone knows that it’s not free.
Get informed. When is anything free? When does a MALL give stuff away? All I am saying is that to be pissed off that it costs money is a waste of good hate. Did you not read Xeno’s post? Planning, planning, planning… Especially with kids, is essential. Yeah it sucks they are running a business based on the hopes and dreams of children no matter their financial situation but hey…that’s Christmas for you.
My understanding is that the price is for a photo. Has this changed? Regardless, a non-profit child care centre typically has under-privileged kids, so it’s pretty ironic that they were raising money FOR under-privileged kids. I truly hope those toddlers get their time with Santa.
ITs hard to plan, when you don’t know when Santa’s going to be in.
He isn’t there all day.
I don’t know about the rest of you…but I go to a mall/store to buy something , I know what I’m looking for & I never go there to wander around looking for something. Knowing when Santa’s going to be there is so far down my list of priorities , you couldn’t find it with a magnifying glass & four days of searching !
But bsaby sitters taking kids for an outting to the mall, gets them to a place that ‘s warm (important for little ones who cool down faster than us big ones)
its shiny, & there lots of ‘stuff’ I can understand why they would head to a mall. A free Santa, is no actual cost to the mall…As someone who owns a corporate company, trust me it is a 100 % WRITE OFF.
& 500% good will from harried parnets who would love the break of having the kid’s talk to Santa for a momement or 2 for free!
But it doesn’t surprise me so many of you are beating up on the OB…after all you are so used to being taken advantage of, the over commercialization of Christmas, having something as easy to do & as cheap as a free Santa, fucks with how well the brain washing has taken…you expect to have to pay !
You are right, I do expect to have to pay. I 100% agree that it should be free, to be clear. I just can’t think of a viable reason that the OP didn’t make damn double sure about details on a road trip with a group of children. I don’t disagree about what SHOULD have happened…I just wouldn’t write a bitch about it because I get where they (the store) is coming from.
I’m generally not one to make assumptions, but I’m going to assume that the daycare knew Santa’s times in advance … which would indicate some level of planning was involved … it would be quite foolish to make a trip with a group of children for the purpose of seeing Santa not knowing if the timing would be right. However, that doesn’t mean that the requirement to pay would be well known or would be something anyone would consider to ask who has done the Santa thing a time or two.
So … I thank OB for taking time to write the bitch expressing his/her disappointment and thus informing me of something I never would have considered.
A shame to have to pay just to give Santa your list, can see it for a photo of the ‘event’. Most kids couldn’t care less about a picture. But getting to the point we should almost be thankful that there are still a few warm malls to be in, as it seems the way of the world is back to the old ‘strip malls’ and the Power Centres of individual big box stores. Shopping places no longer want to house non-shoppers in with the shoppers in a heated, dry space that is also hard to keep secure etc.
Once the malls are completely gone (that may take a while) likely Santa will be a goner too. Seems individual dept. stores do not have a Santa anymore, let alone fancy Christmas window displays etc. Why bother to spend a little $$$ as the suck…. errr… customers will come in and spend anyway.
You have to pay to see Santa? Really?
More sez: “But baby sitters taking kids for an outting to the mall, gets them to a place that ‘s warm, shiny, & there lots of ‘stuff’
Good way to teach them to be perfect little consumers, too, right?
If I paid for day care, I would expect supervised walks to be outdoors, or if indoors, at museums or other educational places.
And here’s me thinking the fat fucker in the red suit is part of the Occupy Mall gang.
Next year, see if you can find a volunteer to dress up as Santa and visit the day care center, it would be a lot easier than bundling a bunch of kids up and trying to keep track of them at a mall. And the kids would get a lot more one-on-one time with Santa.
Firstly, is there really a mall charging to see Santa? Or is this just for organized groups that are expected to pay? Was that 5.00 per child or for your whole group? I don’t know of any mall that charges to see Santa. A picture with Santa yes there is a charge as that is a service above and beyond sitting on Santa’s lap. I think this Bitch is misleading. No one would stop a daycare group from standing in line with everyone else. I could see them only having a problem if you wanted special treatment of your group.
I am doubting that there is a mall that is charging for kids to see Santa.
Correct me if I am wrong as I would boycot the mall if this is the case.
I didn’t know that it costs money to see Santa, there’s something perverse about that. Isn’t he supposed to be an all-giving elf that travels around the world bringing presents to kids?
I agree with More, this seems to be a bad idea. The malls suck enough money out of everybody to pay for St. Nick.
No, sitting on Santa’s lap should be free.
More, planning isn’t all that hard. A call to the mall administration should answer all your questions.
As for paying to sit on Santa’s lap, I haven’t heard about that but I don’t have any young kids. Photos, yes, sitting, no. I have a feeling there is a misunderstanding about that. But if someone can confirm this and what mall, we all would appreciate it.
I wonder if those Santas get health benefits. Imagine all the disease those snot nosed little rats carry onto his lap. And I’m not talking about a priest.
i agree with Xenophilia. If you want a free Santa, find a kindly parent or grandparent that is willing to donate their time to playing santa for a day. God knows with a mother in a local civic seat, i played a volunteer elf enough times over the years.. There are a ton of good people willing to volunteer their time and effort and jolly good will to play santa claus.
Yeah, the way you write it.. it sounds damned lame of the mall. But you’re talking about essentially using a commercial service for free, if you take out all your adjectives. And that’s not really fair either.
The christmas spirit moves in all directions.
normally you don’t have to pay to simply see Santa Claus (i hope!) but let’s take “santa” and “christmas” out of this for one second so i can explain better what happened here as i understand it.
You took, what, 10-20 people (correct me if i’m wrong) to the mall on the spur of the moment hoping to take advantage of a service that is supposed to be free. Any service that is free is not equipped to handle a load like that without some sort of prior notice. Like “hey service that caters to one person at a time and is crammed to capacity all day long here are 10-20 people coming with one to two adult caregivers. We expect to be treated as a group. We expect to be seen when we arrive and we do not expect to have to make any special arrangements for this service”
Really? You can’t possibly think THAT would have gone over well..
A simple phone call to the mall, and a conversation with whomever is in charge prior to showing up may have made the difference between seeing Santa or not. It’s a little presumptuous to think because your children are underprivileged they will automatically be given special treatment. I was at the mall on Saturday morning at 10:00 am and the lineup for Santa was a good 200 feet long, and gaining by the minute. To blaze in there, kids in tow, expecting special treatment is rude, not to mention cruel to the kids thinking they are going to see Santa. Give your head a shake!!!
that is pretty fucking sad o.p., and they won’t even let you take your own pictures now, either. that just pisses me off to no end. next year, fuck christmas, and all the bullshit that goes with it.
and as an afterthought malls, do not, i repeat , do not, hire anyone with the name of john wayne, or gacey.
Fuck Santa.
Poor children do not get what that want as the family is trying to pay the rising cost of everything, so the kids get alienated again, and at the time of year that everyone preaches should be for the kids and magic…
Children in general are encouraged to believe in a fictional character and that if they do good they will get rewarded with things and then find out it is a lie and maybe not everything their parents tell them is true…am I adopted?!?!?!
I realize I am being a little over the top but couldn’t we focus on helping others for the sake of it and family and friends. I do see this happening in more and more homes and am happy about it.
“You have to pay to see Santa? Really? … how else is he going to buy smokes? Yes, you have to pay Santa. We should have a Santa tax … and get a gift from the gov. heh heh
” Imagine all the disease those snot nosed little rats carry onto his lap.”
Ironic. It wasn’t children that introduced the world to AIDS…
could be worse…
http://www.sparkcaster.com/demotivational/…
Welcome to the world. It revolves around the Almighty dollar. Makes real sense to turn away poor kids to raise money for poor kids. Huh? The world sucks sometimes!
“Ironic. It wasn’t children that introduced the world to AIDS…”
– Posted by Donairious BIG on December 20, 2011 at 8:17 PM
Illegal hate speech. Delete the post. Ban the user. If you do not you are as guilty as he.