Funny Christmas Disasters

Here's the thing, while perfection is often the goal, it's life's imperfections that often make it more interesting and create the most memorable moments. As many of you celebrate Christmas today keep in mind that disappointments may occur despite your best intentions and preparations. But that's ok :) Below are two less than stellar holiday experiences I had growing up, both of which crack me up today...

Bad Santa Photo

Of course the goal it to capture a classic image of you, on Santa's knee, looking super cute and smiling at the camera. But things don't always turn out that way.

To this Santa I was just another nameless, wailing child at Valu-Mart, a discount shopping chain. For years this photo served as a stressful and tragic reminder that I didn't like Santa, and Santa didn't like me. Where was the jolly smile? Where was Santa's trademark "ho, ho, ho?" With hindsight I think Santa was either there for a paycheck, and clearly whatever hourly rate he was being paid wasn't enough to put a smile on his face and have to put up with the likes of me at the same time. Or he was there volunteering and didn't feel obligated to smile for hysterical children. Either way I can't say I blame him. LOL

If you look really closely you can see I was drooling I was crying so hard.

When compared to the elaborate, sometimes bordering on theatrical, Santa photo backdrops I've seen at malls these days this photo from my childhood, particularly the too-small-sheet-as-background, is hilarious!

The Worst Christmas Tree

Then there was the year my Dad decided to save money and instead of buying a Christmas tree he would drive up to his friend Mac's property and chop one down himself. We were so excited. A free, freshly cut tree from the woods had to be better than those pre-cut trees you could buy around town. We eagerly awaited my dad returning victoriously with his pine scented bounty. When he did come home we were speechless...

The tree had a big gaping area with no branches. Our hopes of the most lush tree we'd ever imagined quickly evaporated as we gazed at this branch deficient specimen.

Ah, but my dad had a plan... He'd chopped down a second smaller tree that he intended to use as a patch to fill the gap in the first tree MacGyver style.

After trimming half the branches off, so he could press the trunks together, he was ready to lash the two awkwardly shaped trees together. It all just seemed so wrong.

Success!

You could hardly see the rope when he was done. As we came to grips with the situation we figured we may as well make the best of it and move forward. And guess what? After the tree was strung with lights and decorated, it didn't look half bad.

In fact, (at night) it looked pretty darn ok! So in the end our disappointment turned into a really funny Christmas tree story that we good-naturedly teased my dad about for years and still makes me laugh to this day.

Ho, ho, ho! Merry Christmas Everyone!