Awkward silence

Should I stay or should I go?

Usually it’s the crying children that prove draining. They don’t want to be there, so why the adults insist on taking them to see Santa I do not know

But the flip side can prove even more exasperating, this time for Santa.

When the children hide their faces in shyness or fear, that is one thing, but when they say nothing and continue to sit there as the adults rattle on, on their mobiles, the mother of all awkward silences is… well awkward.

One Santa just looks straight ahead, saying ‘bye now’ in an attempt that by ignoring the children, he will send them on their way, another Santa looks like he wants to give the children a big shove out the door and the other looks despairingly at the adults in the hope that they will put down their phones and pick up their daydreaming children.