Only 41 days til Christmas.

Hi there,

Let me first say, Hi Court !!!! One of my faithful blog readers. I would say hi to elf Cindy, but she is mad at Santa (not really, but it sounds good). So I'll say hi to her later.

Today we had 47 photos taken and one dog - a Cattle and Shepherd dog mix. Great looking dog and minds very well. I guess it is a cattle herder... Oh and last year we did 41 photos. So we are way ahead of the curve with a big weekend ahead.

The photos up top are of the annual Harrisburg Sand Castle. They build it in the Harrisburg Mall, using 120 tons of sand. If I can get another shot, I will add it another day, but the mall Santa sits in front of the castle for his photos. Here is the rub, they can't show the castle's artwork because it is copyrighted and the Santa company does not have the rights. So you only see Santa, child, Santa's chair, and a bit of sand. That's it. The Mall Santa's kick off is the 14th. I am already looking forward to seeing the competition!

Today was a very normal day in terms of being Santa. The early season start really does toss a odd factor into the holiday, and it does catch people off guard. I am running into a fair amount of kids that have not even thought about what they want for Christmas. BUT there are the ones that have a five-page list. You are most likely asking yourself, "Why are they there?" That's easy, the free picture. Bass Pro is selling packages in the store and online (No, Santa does not get a % of those sold. Why? Because the company I work for did not know about it.) Usually the Santa receives between 10-25% of all sales... Bass Pro was very wise to offer a free picture the last two years, mostly due to the poor economy. That gets the family in the door, and makes it a destination if they keep it up.

Now about a couple of the kids. The first one was a family from Korea. A young lady walked up to me and asked if they had to be a kid to have a picture with the Dude in the Red Suit. I told her they had to be a "kid at heart," so we did a family photo (grandma, grandpa, husband, wife (who is pregnant), and 4 kids). One guess who the stinker was. Grandma! She kept pulling my hat off! You have to watch those grandmothers. The other was a family that did not want to see Santa. Instead they broke the racetrack, broke the wireless remote control monster trucks, and according to the elves, terrorised Santa's Wonderland. The worst of the bunch were the parents because they "tried" to fix it themselves. So poor maintenance! They have their work cut out for them in the morning. The most disappointing part was that nobody could then play with the two funnest games.

Well tomorrow is another day, but I have to go to bed first.

Santa