Last week I stopped at the Starbucks in the Safeway shopping area to pick up some teacher and babysitter gifts. I had my three-year old son with me. A woman approached him and asked him what he was he wanted from Santa Claus this year for Christmas.He hid behind my legs--all things Santa scare him. Have you seen the Santa who trolls the Safeway shopping plaza with candy canes hanging on his belt looking for little ones to either delight or freak out? My 7 1/2 year old daughter who is now wise to all things Santa and Tooth Fairy happily takes the candy cane while the little one hides from the scary man in red.
The woman at Starbucks joked with my little guy asking if he wanted "world peace" and of course I had to share my story from when my little girl was two and a half.
That year, we went on the Snoqualmie Santa Train ride and at our destination, we went to meet Santa.
Jokingly, but not so much, we told our little girl to ask Santa for World Peace. When it was her turn, she completely fell apart. The picture I have is of a terrified little girl just trying to get away from the creepy old guy.
She left with a pocket full of fear and a Northwest Railway Museum key chain. It was one of those plastic tubes with colored gel and glitter floating around inside. She loved it and treasured it--despite her trauma.
A few days later, she was in tears. "Where's my World Peace? Where's my World Peace?" she cried. Yup, she had lost her keychain--she thought its name was World Peace.
World Peace is still floating around here somewhere in a toy bin. Every once and awhile we find it and declare we have found World Peace! We just don't talk about the Scary Santa
