Will the Grinch steal Christmas this year?

Published 12:30 pm Thursday, October 9, 2025

Have you thought about if your house was on fire and you could only grab one thing (humans and pets are already out safe), what it would be?

For me, it would be a quite large multi-window picture frame. Ever since I became a mom, I have taken my children to go and sit on Santa’s lap. So for the past 10 years, I have a photo from every year with my children at Christmas, sitting with Saint Nick.

Every year, I take out this frame and hang it up. And then after the holiday season, it goes back into storage. I love hanging it up every year, it is so special to me.

I get more excited to take it out and dust it off than pulling out all of the other Christmas decorations. It is a tiny snapshot of time.

I don’t print out school photos, or frankly, many other photos. This shows just how fast they grow up every year. My children have, so far, happily obliged my request. They know how much it means to me.

During the pandemic, I panicked and was worried about getting these photos. I didn’t want a hole in my Christmas photo timeline.

As magical as Santa is, he apparently isn’t immune to COVID. My family knew how much this meant to me. My sister ordered a photoshopped picture with Santa. He is holding a photo frame and my kids are inside the photo frame.

It was so kind of my sister to do that for me. But then, my sister-in-law found a Santa costume and my father-in-law suited up. That was also extremely meaningful to me. This photo frame just holds so many special memories, and it is simply ten photos of Santa with my kids.

We are about to hit another challenge in my quest for a photo with Santa. A majority of my photos over the years have been taken during the annual Breakfast with Santa at the Prestige Hudson Bay Lodge.

The hotel decided this summer that last year’s event would be the last one. Organizers of the event cited lack of financial support and not enough human power to hold it.

They just couldn’t get the volunteers.

The free breakfast at the Lodge was a fundraiser for the food bank and was also a lot of fun. There was music, sleigh rides, and of course, photos with Santa. It will be very sad not to have it this year.

Hopefully, another event will replace it to help fill the shelves at the food bank, but also, hopefully, something pops up so I can get my photo.

There will also be a bit of a shake-up with the annual Christmas in the Valley, and it will be split up into two different days. There will be the late night shopping on Black Friday and then holiday family events on Dec. 6. I just hope that maybe I can catch a glimpse of Old Saint Nick. 

The magic of the community seems to be dwindling during the holiday season. And I think it is because we are all just too busy and too stretched out.

These events don’t just happen. They take a lot of people putting in a lot of hours to make them happen. They also take a lot of donated money, food and prizes from local businesses.

Times are tough. It isn’t easy, but I hope this year is just a reset and things next year will go back to holly jolly times.