Visit with Santa

Santa's beard is for real, and so was his special visit

Posted 12/24/14

Breakfast and Santa – those two marvelous things came together Saturday, Dec. 6 at Veterans Memorial High School.

It wasn’t by coincidence, rather extensive planning on the part of …

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Visit with Santa

Santa's beard is for real, and so was his special visit

Posted

Breakfast and Santa – those two marvelous things came together Saturday, Dec. 6 at Veterans Memorial High School.

It wasn’t by coincidence, rather extensive planning on the part of Lauren Slocum of the Central Rhode Island Chamber of Commerce, her staff and members of the board plus a lot of help from Peter’s Coney Island. Without Peter Stevens in the kitchen, it wouldn’t have been the same.

Santa was the hit of the event. He circulated among tables to the delight of children and their parents. And then he took a seat in front of a Christmas tree and spoke with the children – and some adults, as you can see in these pages – while they were photographed. There were smiles, whispers of toys wished for, hugs and even one boy who tugged on his beard to make sure it was real. It was real. Santa said “ouch.” But there were also those kids who after moments of anticipation weren’t all that sure of what to do. Some froze like statues, their parents urging them to inch closer to Santa. Others clung to their parents.

It’s that way for the more than 35 years I’ve been taking photos of visitors with Santa for this annual Christmas feature. Somehow we always manage to get photos of them all, even though they may be far from sitting on Santa’s lap. This year was daunting, as so many children were ready to be pictured with Santa as soon as they finished breakfast.

I had some great help from Sharon Greenless and Tim Forsberg and, of course, the star of the show, Santa. My hope is that in the confusion, we have all the names properly recorded. My apologies if they aren’t.

Don’t worry, Santa knows, for sure.

Wishing all of you a merry Christmas and a happy and healthy New Year from those of us at the Beacon.

John Howell

Publisher

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