
Taking a picture with Santa Claus is a time-honored Christmas tradition. But from the vantage point of a child sitting on a stranger’s lap while your parents step away from your side, it can be scary to say the least.
Hopefully, this type of upset doesn’t cause any lasting trauma. Because good or bad, most parents want to capture this moment with a photo. And if you can’t have a picture of a smiling child, a slightly frightened one is just as entertaining.
This family has a tradition of sitting on Santa's lap during the holiday season.
Apparently, one family got that type of entertainment across three different generations. One user on Reddit shared three images of children on Santa’s lap. They were his wife, his daughter, and his grandson. Though the first and last picture were taken 60 years apart, the expressions on all three children’s faces are identical.
While the children look terrified, the Santas are all doing their own thing in the background.
Each child looked absolutely terrified. We don’t know who was standing behind the camera, but it appeared that each of the children were crying out to their parents for help. Meanwhile, in the background, the first two Santas look detached and unamused. The last Santa seemed at least to be aware that the photo would make for a good story.
The third Santa really sold the story.
Contributing to the story, the third Santa offered a surprised expression, making the image one worthy of the family mantel, albeit hilariously so. His performance made the commenters on Reddit dub him the “real” Santa. The other two looked like “they would rather be anywhere else.”
The real beard makes all the difference.
The third Santa’s look was made even more authentic because he was the only one who had a real beard.
“The real beard makes all the difference,” one user wrote.
We have to agree. But more than just the beard, the third Santa is either a really great actor or actually takes pleasure in his work. Whatever the reason, he contributed quite a bit to this family’s Christmas tradition.
These stories are based on posts found on Reddit. Reddit is a user-generated social news aggregation, web content rating, and discussion website where registered members submit content to the site and can up- or down-vote the content. The accuracy and authenticity of each story cannot be confirmed by our staff.