This is a photo of my brother and myself sitting on Santa’s lap in 1960. I’m the older one (practicing my movie star smile) and my brother is the little one in the Davy Crocket jacket. I distinctly remember that this Santa had the smell of alcohol on his breath. In fact, I think he was drunk. Notice that he couldn’t even get all of his fingers into his glove! Merry Christmas!
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Allee Willis
The glove is killing me!!! And a drunk Santa. Let’s hope he grabbed the wrong gloves as opposed to being so tipsy that he couldn’t maneuver his hand in. In which case, let’s just hope that that glove is the only place his hand tried to fit into
Love your movie star smile. You look exactly the same.
I never had a photo taken with Santa and there was no Jewish equivalent but I do have an excellent one with the Sears Easter Bunny when I was 4.
Michael Ely
I’ve always wondered why there wasn’t a Jewish equivalent to Santa. When I was growing up, a lot of my young playmates were Jewish and besides Hanukkah, they also celebrated aspects of Christmas with such things as blue and white outdoor lights and some even had blue and white tress, but no Santa. As a Jewish kid, Allee, how did you view Santa (like when you would spot him in a department store)? How did your folks explain him to you? Was he a strange character to you? Did you want to believe in him? Stupid questions, but I’m curious.
Allee Willis
I definitely didn’t miss Santa and the 8 nights of Hanukah with 1 present a night made up for it. But, as a party thrower from the time I learned how to talk it was always a drag to me that Hanukah wasn’t accompanied by the pomp and circumstance of Christmas.
I used to collect homemade Christmas ornaments. One year I finally hauled them out and hung them on all my venitian blinds. There were hundreds of them and all unique and classic. But then when I woke up the next morning it felt so blasphemous as a Jew that I took them all down immediately and gave them away as gifts that year. I LOVE Christmas lights though and drive around incessantly looking for killer displays. There are very few of outstanding ones though as all the yard displays are storebought and similar these days.
windupkitty
Oh man, I have to offer up a correction to the no Jewish equivalent to Santa Claus….Ya see, there is the great legend of Chanuklaus…..He was a grouchy, sarcastic overweight Rabbi whose sleigh consisted of a cardboard box driven by 6 cows…Of course, he always bellowed Oy,Oy, OY and he NEVER comes down the chimney because it’s faaaaaaaaaaar too dangerous and he’d never hear the end of it form Mrs CK,( not to mention, only a rude man would come down the chimney, and someone that rude, would never be a worthy husband, nor welcome into the house)….My friend’s dad actually used to hide upstairs and kick a cardboard box around while yelling things like, “Oy! What a day!? What am I doing with this moonlighting?! Will it matter when the bills come!?” , ” they don’t pay me enough for this crap! It’s freezing out there!” , and ” slow down Bessie, put on the breaks LuLUbelle, you’re breaking my back!”…..We kids would shriek with laughter……THis is a true story and I will ALWAYS believe it!!!!
Allee Willis
Love that!!
k2dtw
LOL…OMG so funny…What a great Dad!!.
You gotta believe!! ..Yes, Windupkitty there really is a Chanuklaus!
I think it’s time for a new Holiday Special, it would be great if you should get together with Douglas Wood and Story Troy and write something, I know a songwriter for all the music….lol..
windupkitty
hahahahaah! awesome! there needs to be more chanuka specials on tv! i loved the stop motion rudolph specials when i was a kid…i really miss those! they were beautiful! ya think we can come up with a good triumph over adversity story line for the jews though? hmmmmmm…..i just don’t know!?! :D
denny
Oh Michael. This is hysterical and I really do love your little smile!
I have one with the easter bunny (posted somewhere here….) and my easter bunny had long, yellow finger nails on.
I love your shirt but the glove on Santa is supreme!
k2dtw
Great post.. Just love this photo..shades of Ralphie and Randy?
Are you a fan of “A Christmas Story?”…
“You’ll shoot you eye out, kid…Merry Christmas…Ho Ho Ho”
Douglas Wood
“If the glove doesn’t fit, it isn’t St. Nick!”
Great photo, Mark! The three of you look like you’ve had just a little bit too much spiked egg-nog. With all due respect, your brother looks like he’s ready to hurl.
And to weigh in on the Christmas/Jew thing– both my parents are non-practicing atheist Jews so we never celebrated any of the Jewish holidays, including Hanukah. But we DID celebrate Christmas and even had a tree, presents and decorations, and my sister and I believed in Santa as young kids. We got into the whole “Peace on earth, goodwill toward man” aspect of the holiday but with no mention of religion or Christ. We wound up baffling our Jewish friends and neighbors and pissing off the Christian ones who felt we were bastardizing their religious holiday.
As an addendum, my wife is also a non-believing Jew with atheist parents so we continue to celebrate Christmas (not Hanukah) each year. So the bizarre tradition lives on.
Allee Willis
Love all aspects of your comment!
windupkitty
Your photo is so fabulous, I can’t even stand it! Your little brother reminds me of my dad’s childhood photos….He was never without a cowboy jacket and guns on his hips :D Your movie star smile is so fabulous!!!!! HOw cute are you guys!!!????!!!!!! If I were a SAnta, I’d probably be drunk too and that glove completely slays me!!!! BUt maybe he didn’t have all his fingers, huh!?! A little drunken accident in his workshop, maybe?
BRBill
I’m thinking he’s missing his index finger and part of his thumb, or he was really drunk to the point where the glove putting one things was just a bit too hard. Or maybe he’d just had a nip from the bottle without the glove on and uh oh, here comes more kids, better put it back on and didn’t quite accomplish that difficult task in time.
denny
Me too Doug!
Loved your commentary!