Kids Scared of Santa

To many, the sight of Santa is a joyous one, but not to these kids.

ByABC News via logo
December 12, 2008, 6:04 PM

Dec. 13, 2008 — -- She was elegant, in a red-and-black velvet dress bedazzled with sequins. Her patent leather Mary Janes glinted in the glare of shopping mall lights. She was tugging at her tights. At the ripe old age of 3, Ava Azara was already a "cover girl," and she knew it. But, there was no airbrushing here.

"That's me," she said proudly, her tiny finger pointing at the cover of a book called, "Scared of Santa: Scenes of Terror in Toyland." The cover shot shows a screaming child in the throes of a super tantrum, being restrained by a very worried looking Santa Claus.

The traumatized girl in the photo is a far cry from the smiling girl who is now displaying her scary Santa past.

That was two years ago. It was Ava's first introduction to the Big Man in Red.

"As soon as Santa was in sight, it was instant screaming," Ava's mother Jamie explained.

"The panic set in, and she started to scream, but it was a great picture," added Ava's dad, Scott. "Smiling pictures happen all the time, a picture like that is once in a lifetime."

Ava is one of the hundreds of terrified children featured in the book.

It is a compilation of Christmas memories that some parents would rather forget.

But what makes Santa so scary?

"Not many men these days have beards," explained Denise Joyce, who co-authored the book.

"Or red suits," added fellow author Nancy Watkins.

"Scared of Santa" is an offshoot of their popular holiday feature in the Chicago Tribune.

A few years ago, the pair began soliciting holiday photos from readers. The response was overwhelming.

"We got hundreds and hundreds of pictures," said Joyce, who explained why taking young children to visit Jolly Old St. Nick, often ends in disaster.

"The kid is sweaty, he's waited in line for hours," she said. "And then you get up there, and all of a sudden ... there's this big, loud guy in a red suit. It's the perfect recipe for a meltdown."

It was, for Calvin Proskey. The energetic 3-year-old with a shock of curly reddish hair and a missing front tooth has had nothing but troubled run-ins with Santa.

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