Santas see parents shaking head "no" to expensive gifts, scale back kids expectations

[Liberal_in_LA]

Yet this year, from the holiday parades, to the cheery carols piping from Main Street loudspeakers, to the “this way to Santa” lines at shopping centers, something more sobering has cast its shadow: the economic slump.

The result is a Christmas season in which Santas — including the 115 of them in this year’s graduating class of the Charles W. Howard Santa Claus School — must learn to swiftly size up families’ financial circumstances, gently scale back children’s Christmas gift requests and even how to answer the wish some say they have been hearing with more frequency — “Can you bring my parent a job?”

Santas here tell of children who appear on their laps with lists that include the latest, most expensive toys and their parents, standing off to the side, stealthily but imploringly shaking their heads no. On the flip side, some, like Fred Honerkamp, have been visited by children whose expectations seem to have sunk to match the gloom; not long ago, a boy asked him for only one item — a pair of sneakers that actually fit.

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Another, Rick Parris, said, “When kids start asking for the world now, I just say, ‘Hey, look, Johnny, you ain’t ]getting all that.’ ” The former Alabama state trooper added, “I just make sure to let them know that Santa seldom brings everything on a list.”

Even with the economic downturn, not all the Christmas lists have grown shorter. Some children show up with elaborate printouts, cross-referenced spread sheets and clippings from catalogs. “I try to guide the children into not so unrealistic things, and I do tell them that Santa’s been cutting back too,” said Tom Ruperd, of Caro, Mich., who added that parents often silently signal their appreciation.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/28/us/santas-taught-new-lessons-amid-economic-slump.html?_r=1&adxnnl=1&hpw=&adxnnlx=1322509133-SjfsGsaxsJ6dySaE8bQF+Q

[frazzled]

1. Why would parents shake their heads?

As if the fake Santa might actually fulfill the outsized request. (No Santa, don't bring the X-box!) These department store Santas wisely never promise the kids they will get what they ask for, even in good times. I think that's always been the case. It's rule number one of Santahood.

I appreciate the attempt to describe how people's budgets have shrunken, but I think we have here yet another instance of the New York Times holiday filler, written by second-string writers filing in for vacationing staff members. This is about the fifth poorly written, conceived, and edited article of this type I've seen over the extended weekend.

[Liberal_in_LA]

2. The parents is signaling that the kid will not get that gift to Santa so he won't promise it

[frazzled]

3. I already said that Santas never make such promises.

You think in 1947 when little Suzie asked for a pony that Santa said, "Sure Suzie, if you're a good girl."

Or in 1989, when little Cosmo asked for one of those new-fangled computer things, that Santa said, "Gotcha, Cosmo, just remember to brush your teeth!"

Santas never promise the big stuff (or even the little stuff), because they've always realized they don't know the circumstances.

[atreides1]

5. Are you a Santa?

[JVS]

6. Just because you say it doesn't make it so.

Lots of parents use the visit to Santa as a means of finding out what the kid wants. I doubt they'd want their inability to afford an expensive gift to devolve into an issue of Susie not being good enough and Cosmo taking shitty care of his teeth.

[frazzled]

9. Man oh man

Did you really get everything you wanted when you were a kid? I thought not. Did Santa always tell you, "Of course you'll get your wish." I bet you a hundred bucks he did not.

Others in this thread are also saying that this was always the case. So I'm not alone in my assessment. Lighten up.

[JVS]

10. You really should stop answering your own questions.

The realm of possible answers are not confined to the possibilities you've been suggesting in this discussion.

[Initech]

4. Sign o' the times.

My former high school's most recent yearbook devolved from who kids were in school to who owned the coolest techno crap. Sad sad sad.

[Diclotican]

7. Liberal_in_LA

Liberal_in_LA

Well, that was ALLWAYS the case when I was a child, that we might get the answer to expensive toys "we might se what is posible to get for you at cristmas". And even tho it never was what we wanted, we got presants that was proberly better than we dreamed about. One of the best gifts I ever got, was a book about "good night stories 365 days a year" when I was 7 or 8.. It was one of my most valuable books to I was rather old... A lot of the toys I get, just got in the way as the age was coming up, but I sherished that book for many years, long after I was "to old" to really read good night stories...

But then, I guess I never really was into that santa claus thing either...

Diclotican

[Liberal_in_LA]

8. The last generation of kids grew up getting everything they wanted, parents would

move heaven and earth to get that 'in' toy.