The Hudson Valley Has Too Many Santas

Santa overload is confusing children in the Hudson Valley, causing parents to to throw their hands up in frustration and spoiling the magic of Christmas.

When I grew up there was just one Santa. He came down from the North Pole a few weeks before Christmas and sat on a throne at our local mall. Every child in my town waited in line for what seemed like forever to sit on Santa's lap and ask him for that one gift he or she really wanted.

Today, sadly, it seems that a lot of that magic is gone for a whole new generation of children.

On Saturday morning we took our son out to brunch at Bluestone Bistro in Poughkeepsie to visit our Santa. It's become a tradition in our family, as we've gone to the same Santa since our son was born.

After our visit, however, things began to get a little tricky. During a quick stop at the mall my son spotted another Santa in center court. A quick explanation of how Santa's sled is faster than our car seemed to be good enough, and we moved on. When we arrived home we heard loud sirens in our neighborhood. It was a firetruck driving up and down our block with Santa on board, waving and smiling. No doubt, this is a fun activity for our local fire department, but boy did that take some creative explaining. Later that afternoon a trip to another store found us face to face with Santa again. This time he had some funny looking glasses. "Daddy, why is he wearing those glasses now?" Ugh.

I hate to say it, but I'm pretty sure my 3-year-old is now questioning the existence of Santa. Either that or he's terrified that Santa is stalking us. Kris Kringle was at the Christmas tree farm when we got our tree. He was at Kevin McCurdy's Holiday Lights display. He was at Adams when we were buying groceries. He was at the tree lighting in our town. Last week we even saw ol' St. Nick walking down Route 9 with a shopping bag in his hand.

I propose that we come together get rid of a lot of these Santas. Sure, there are a handful of people who provide Santa as a community service with the best intentions. But for the most part, hiring Santa has become just a cheap way to get more business through the door during the holiday shopping season. And all of this Santa business is harming the innocence of the very children Santa is supposed to be for. There's very little wonder now, just a whole lot of confusion and tough questions.

Last year, a department store in England made headlines by deciding to get rid of their Santa after witnessing confused children first-hand. The store said that although having a Santa kept them competitive with other stores, it was not in the best interest of the children. Debenhams department store sent a simple message to parents that said:

To avoid confusing children and spoiling the magic for them by having two Santas in one location, we are not having them in stores this year.

I wish some businesses in the Hudson Valley would think more about the children than competing to be the "most awesome holiday experience ever". Maybe if they really wanted to do something special for children during the holidays, they would let Santa return to being as mysterious and magical as he was when we were kids.

So what do you think? Are there too many Santas out there? If so, how do you explain all of those Kris Kringles to your own children?