The problem with too many Santa Clauses

I'm not sure if anyone has noticed these past few years, but there seems to be a lot more Santa's roaming the streets than when I was a kid. Maybe 2015 was the mating season for Santa impersonators, and it was a very productive season. I'm no scrooge, but now that I have younger ones I try to make the Santa visit special, with the usual photos, going over the gift list, and of course the horrible crying moments on Santa's lap. At least that's what I try to plan.

The problem I'm now facing is that everywhere I go in the month of December I see our jolly ol' friend. Any event with a "Holiday" or Christmas" in the title is sure to have old Saint Nick there greeting us. There's Santa roaming the aisles of Target for some reason. Hey! Santa Clause is fishing on the pier! Oh, there's Santa cruising in his golf cart. Hmm.

Now, when we actually go to purposefully see the dude, my kids can't be bothered to even look up at him, let alone sit in his lap. It's like being excited to go see your weatherman or your next door neighbor. I'm pretty sure my kids think that Santa lives in fairhope in the winters.... the truest of Snowbirds. He probably has a condo on Scenic 98 with a very clever title too. Maybe, "Jingle All The Bay.." or something.

I don't mean to complain. I'm actually going to utilize this situation to give my family a new yearly tradition that maybe all Fairhopers can join in on. On Christmas Eve, when the local news showcase the usual tracking of Santa's sleigh, our family will instead do our own tracking of Santa's street legal golf cart as he cruises door to door wearing his red Columbia poofy vest. Anyway, Merry Christmas to all from TFI and we'll see you all at the Fairhope New Year's celebration in Birmingham!