Shooting Santa: A Print Photo Has its Place

In this age of age of digital photos displayed in electronic flip frames, a print photograph taken as part of a tradition definitely has its place.

HOLIDAY SHOTS| My longtime friend Elyse is an incurable romantic who still lives in the big, old house she grew up in surrounded by furnishings that belonged to her mother (who had exquisite taste), and interesting, idiosyncratic things she and her husband, Ben, have acquired over the years.

While both Elyse and Ben have careers that distract them, they are determined to stay focused on family at Christmas, making time for (at least a few) rituals that result in strong memories that contribute to their family’s story. For as long as I have known them, one of the things they do every year is take silly Santa pictures, and I love visiting their house over the holidays to see them set out in individual frames, their three kids, who are now young adults, looking progressively more sheepish as the years go by posing on some random department-store Santa’s knee—and then finally reaching an age where you can see in their pictures that they have embraced the tradition and find the experience kitschy good fun.

Inspired by our friends, we now have a silly Santa photo archive, and although my kids currently loathe the notion of being snapped alongside the man in red, I’m hoping they’ll come around the way E and B’s did and see that it’s really all about family fun, which is one of the “reasons for the season,” after all (to borrow from Oprah magazine vernacular).

At a time of year when buying things can feel like the story, I like to think that when it comes to family history and remembering, experiences are going to trump stuff at least 90 percent of the time.—C. Rule

To all of our fabulous and faithful readers out there in cyberland, every good wish for a happy, healthy and productive 2011 from everyone at frubalbits.com. <3<3<3