Santa “Part One” at Oakland Nursery
Last year we had such a great experience with Santa at Oakland Nursery in Dublin that we decided to go back – especially since we could take Boof. We wanted to get our tree while we were there too.
*last year*
This year, I can’t say it was bad…but it was more crowded and Santa wasn’t ready when we got there so we had to wait in line for a bit. It was also nearing naptime, so that probably didn’t help. He was really excited to see Santa and was having tons of fun while waiting in line at first.
Even though we only waited about 10 minutes, he started to get restless and a little unruly (for him), and I don’t think it helped that he heard another kid crying who was with Santa. We felt rushed because there was quite a line at that point, so we didn’t try to ease him into it…but I don’t think it mattered. He was not happy to see Santa anymore. He immediately started crying, so I told Lo to hold him on his lap. We told him he could have a sucker when we were done, which is probably what stopped the tears. This kid loves suckers, and rarely gets them, so it still works. If I think there’s going to be a rough situation with him, I try to remember to tuck one in my purse or in the diaper bag.
We were even able to get him to sit by himself on the stool beside Santa. He did okay (again, it was probably the promise of that sucker), but he was not interested in Santa trying to talk to him.
We didn’t make him linger long…just grabbed a couple of photos and got him out of there and gave him the sucker. We headed outside to pick out a tree. He was much happier since he had the sucker.
While Boof looked like she was behaving so well for all of the pictures, she was pulling and sniffing and just acting like a dog who rarely gets out in public (imagine that). We probably won’t go there again next year – it was a little much to wrangle Boof and him when it was crowded, and we’ll have another little one too, so it won’t be worth the drive when we can find somewhere closer or go to a real tree farm.