Santa Makes His Way to Milwaukee for Breakfast

Today was the annual, early morning breakfast with Santa Claus. An “early weekend morning” is being dressed and to mother’s-in-law by 9am. It was a couple of car loads that we came with: Hubby, our 2 kids, sister-in-law, cousin, mother-in-law, father-in-law. In this Santa Claus appearance we were even graced with the presence of Mrs. Claus. These were the real looking Mr. and Mrs. Claus. Not the kind with the fake beard attached to the fake hair. Nice to be able to tell the kids that’s not Santa’s helper that it’s really Santa. In the great scheme of things my 5 and 6 ½ year old don’t care either way because they will have nothing to do with Santa in person whether he’s real or fake. They won’t sit on his lap or stand next to him or even wave from afar. When he was making him and his wife were making rounds to say hello to all the kids having breakfast, my daughter slouched down in her seat in fear that he would approach our table. Lucky for my kids, Santa and Mrs. Claus would have had quite the challenge weaving through the tables and chairs in the cramped room to get to our table. Before he visited with all of the tables he went to prepare for all of the little girls and boys that were going to sit on his and Mrs. Claus’ laps this morning. My daughter could relax again.

As delicious and variety-filled as breakfast was, it wasn’t the only highlight of the visit with Santa. After breakfast we were guided to the Children’s area of the large library where outside the door they allowed the children to decorate a Christmas cookie. Luckily they provided bags as well so we didn’t have to wait for the kids to inhale their cookies before we could move onto the next attraction. We stopped for a tattoo that’s already begun to wear off, but that’s ok. It was fun in the moment.

Then we entered the Children’s area where we were given the privilege of picking out a book for the appropriate age group of our two children. The added perk to this is that it was brand new books we were able to pick from. There was a craft table where the kids were able to color a paper gingerbread man that we have hung on the tree. They were also able to get a coloring sheet in this area which we decided to take home to complete.

We sat back and watched as families went up to sit with Santa and Mrs. Claus knowing full well that our two little ones had no interest in going to sit beside them. Instead we opted for a family photo in front of the Christmas tree. My husband has brought up an excellent point about the fear many children have of Santa. His philosophy is “wouldn’t you be afraid of a man that can see when you’re good or bad and comes into your house in the middle of the night?”

After our memories were captured on film in front of the tree we left the Milwaukee Public Library with smiles on our faces and full bellies. It’s a wonderful even the local library puts together and I haven’t had any complaints in the last few years we’ve been going. I think I look forward to it just as much as the kids.