Here Comes Santa Clause - seeking creative HELP! (1 Viewer)

[Eric_L]

Quick background - I have an eight year old son, a six year old son and a three year old daughter. Santa is very much 'in' at my house, even with the eight year old, though time is short.

I have explained to him how as a child I believed in Santa, then stopped for a time, then started again as a Daddy. (Santa is real and I am one of his helper!)

I have bought time each year by planting 'evidence' of Mr. C. One year it was a bell from his sleigh hanging from their bedpost with a note (this was before the Polar Express) The next year it was a trail of polaroids that led to their 'big' present. In one picture you could see Santa's hand and sleeve. The following year I lightly etched parallel lines in the driveway from Santa's sleigh runners - complete with chewed carrots and oats my kids left for the reindeer.

This year we are in a borrowed house as a result of the storms. I really want to provide another piece of evidence for my kids, particularly since time is short for the suspension of disbelief of the oldest. I've been trying to figure out just what to do and coming up blank. Maybe there is some creative types here who would be willing to lend an idea?

 

[Mike Frezon]

Eric:

Is there something Santa could bring from the old house?

It seems the key would be to incorporate your temporary living circumstances. I would suppose the kids might have questions about how Santa will be able to find them since they are not in their usual home.

If Santa brought something that was still at the old house, he could say he stopped there first on his way to find you at your current digs.

Does that work for you? Good luck! Keep the spirit alive as long as you can!

 

[Malcolm R]

Nit-picking: Why does everyone spell "Santa Claus" with an "e" at the end now? I've seen this everywhere this year.

Too much Tim Allen, apparently.

 

[Eric_L]

Ooopse! (blushe) I didn'te evene realize Ie dide thate.

The items from home is a good idea, but I think mom may have already explaind that one and shut that door - I gotta check. I know the kids were worried about it.

 

[Jim Sentry]

Have you left the half empty glass of milk and the half eaten giant chocolate chip cookie

 

[Scott Leopold]

A coworker was going through the same thing a few years ago and asked for my help. I took a picture of some reindeer in a snowy field and added some very realistic looking light effects coming from one of their noses. If you're interested, send me an email and I'll send it back to you. I should still have it on one of my drives somewhere.

 

[Stacey]

Does the house have a Fireplace at all? If so, take two boots, lightly dust with soot and leave two "footprints" by the fireplace.

An alternative to this is to use a small amount of mud in place of the soot and leave the footprints near the front door.

Another thing to add would be a letter you write to santa that tells santa where to find you (tell your children you've mailed the letter) and then santa signs it and leaves it behind for the kids to find.

Santa could also leave behind a mitten or even his hat, or an elf hat or shoe could be mixed in with the christmas gifts.

 

[Dave_Brown]

One that takes a friend to assist that I did last year, without telling the rest of the adults:

I had my whole family over and kept telling my neices and nephews that Santa was going to be stopping by before they went to bed. It was all they would talk about and were really excited. As the night wore on, I eventually made a quiet departure to get ready for the event. 15 minutes or so later, Santa arrived with a special gift for each of the kids. They loved spending a few minutes with him before he "had to leave to finish his deliveries" and went out the front door. Of course, my sisters and parents thought it was great that I would dress up and hand things out, only to have their jaw drop open when 30 seconds after Santa left, I walked up from the basement asking who was at the door? I think it was the best for my 8 year old niece, as she was the most skeptical and pretty sure it was just me dressed up this year. Changed her mind pretty quick.

Truthfully, I just had a neighbor of mine get dressed up, but everyone thought it was me at the time but of course the adults figured it out pretty quickly, but the look on their faces when they saw there was no way I could have changed clothes that fast was pretty funny.

 

[Kraig Lang]

Something that we did for my little brother when he was 8 was take a bunch of Ice and crush it up to look like snow. We then took my Dad's boots and left boot prints inside the master bathroom (It had a window) with the "snow" all around.

Once that was done, all the presents went on Mom and Dad's bed with a note saying that Santa was in such a hurry that year (So many good boys and girls) that he couldn't wait for Tim to go to bed so he snuck in the bathroom window and left the gifts.

What really helped out was our neighbor came over and hit the back of the house a few times, which alerted Tim to something going on. We all searched inside and out, but made sure that Tim looked outside the bathroom window (finding Snow) and inside mom and dad's room before anyone else did.

He spent the next 10 minutes saying "Holy cow!(his favorite phrase), wow!, look!"

Good Times!!

 

[Eric_L]

These are some GREAT ideas. Thanks everyone.

Sadly, very few homes in Florida have a fireplace, I am not in that number.

Scott, I suspect I may not be the only one interested in seeing that. I'll send an email.

I like the snow idea, but i Florida I'm not sure how well it'd hold up.

I have to be careful too, my sons are pretty sharp. They are both in the gifted student program at school. They keep mom and I on our toes!

 

[Scott Leopold]

Here's the reindeer picture. I had a much higher quality copy back when I first made it, but couldn't find it.

 

[Greg_R]

My dad took some jingle bells up on the roof and stomped around (maybe 20 min after I had gone to bed but was still awake). In Florida this might be safe in December (dry roof, etc.).

 

[Peter Kline]

As Chico Marx once said, "There is no Sanity Clause".

 

[Eric_L]

Tile roof... :frowning:

 

[Eric_L]

The footprint ideas are all good, but the rental I have has white carpet. I'm not eager to bring soot or snow in. Not to mention that in Florida snow may be too much of a stretch...

 

[Eric_L]

OK, I have an idea, but I'm not sure if I have the time or skill to pull it off.

I'm thinking of downloading a photo of Santa or going to the mall and getting a shot there (best if I can get Santa to hold the camera and photograph himself.)

Then I will take a photo of my living room. I can then cut Santa from the first photo and overlay him on the photo of my livingroom.

The final touch will be loading it onto my memory card and placing it in the camera.

Leave the camera by the eaten coolies and voila!!

Trouble is, I don't have photo editing software that is sophisticated enough to do this. I'll have to purchase it and become adept enough to do it within the next three days!

Any generous photoshop guru's here??

 

[Eric_L]

Hooray! I did it. Here is a link to the photos. I'd post them here but I'm having difficulty figuring out how and I have to be somewhere in about 15 minutes. Took half the day. I hope it was worth the effort!
http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/csudel...r=6e40&.src=ph
Pic 1 is my rental livingroom. Pic 2 is the photo of Santa I took. Pic 3 is the two photos put together. I hope it looks convincing.

 

[Malcolm R]

Looks pretty good. Certainly good enough for young kids, I'd think.

Best of luck!

 

[Eric_L]

I just noticed the goober on the wall behind him. I tried to use the clone brush to fix it. I think I'll just cut it from the original and paste.
I'm using Paintshop pro online download.
Thanks for the kind words Malcolm.

 

[Mike Frezon]

I think it looks great, Eric!

I think its great that you're keeping Santa so "alive" for your kids! Maybe it might have been easier to have a Santa actually come and sit in your living room?!?!