Lyn Ching-Pascual: Santa Claus made my son cry

Or to be specific, I MADE Santa Make my boy cry.  You see I discovered that I could make personalized video messages from Santa Claus for my kids via two websites:  www.portablenorthpole.tv and www.magicsanta.ca.   They are essentially the same in that you provide simple information about your child: name, age, achievement the past year, goal for the next year etc. And then there’s The Question:  Was your child naughty or nice this year.  I thought it would be funny if my two kids received two different messages from Santa.  My daughter Gaby got the “you have been Nice” message while my son got the “Naughty” one.   I observed Gaby watch Santa as he told her she had been nice this whole year.  Her face lit up, her smile got so wide as she proclaimed with joy that Santa thought she was special.  Indeed Santa, a.k.a. mommy, did.  My son Matty was another story.  I held him as he excitedly watched the video.  As soon as Santa said he had been naughty though, Matty buried his face on my shoulder and started crying. I felt like the worst mother ever.  I seriously didn’t think about the impact it would have on my child to be teased as Naughty by Santa, the man he believes would give him the best gift every Christmas.  He was sad the rest of the afternoon, sometimes sitting on the stairs with tears falling down his face saying“Santa says I’m bad”.  It broke my heart.  My bad sense of humor and need to tease was biting me in the a**.   So I made him another video which he watched with much trepidation.  As soon as Santa pronounced him Nice, he smiled the brightest smile and said that Santa made a mistake with the earlier video message.  He continued saying that while walking to the playroom, already excited for the gift (a truck) that he asked from Santa. (I can still hear him say “Santa made a mistake” as I write this with a sigh of relief). My idiocy aside, I would recommend parents of small children to make these videos for their kids.  It is exciting for them at the same time gives them a goal to be good the rest of the year, or at least until they get their gifts from Santa.  In fact my friend said that today, for the first time ever, her son went to school early in the morning without a single complaint because he said Santa wants him to be good.   An incentive for us parents as well as our kids don’t you think?  The videos are very easy to make, just make sure to have nice pictures of the kids and yourselves in your computer for easy access to make the videos really personal.  As for the length, the video from portable north pole is five minutes long so I ended up using the one from magicsanta which is three minutes short and just as nice.   So learn from me folks, no matter what, just type in NICE for your kids’ videos.  The happiness on their faces is priceless.   By the way the videos are not limited to just kids… you can actually make them for your husband, wife, mother and every other relative you might have.  So go on and surprise them with a Santa message.  At the very least you can expect a smile out of it. Happy Christmas everyone!   _______________________ Lyn's personal blog, click here.