After going through the Sun-Sentinel’s Scared of Santa photo gallery and reading Fark’s thread, I was in tears. The Christmas tradition of “Let’s go see Santa” confuses me at best. There’s the typical conversation with the child (assuming that the little one has progressed beyond distinguishing basic verbal commands) about how this isn’t the real Santa, but instead his helper, or delegate, or doppelgänger, or whatever. Then there’s the traditional standing in line, followed by the time-honored shelling out of dough, finally culminating in the forever-captured, cherished moment of childlike (that’s what children do) wonderment and joy.

Or it can go the other way.

For the next twelve days, MrPikes is proud to present some of his favorite images of it going the other way: