Santa Scorned

Whiteley's, London, 1958

I came across this while looking for another photo. I burst out laughing — and a friend my own age said  our “uninterested if not downright scornful” expressions were hilarious. She also said the one time she was taken to a department store Santa, she had the same reaction.

All I remember about that outing to Whiteley's (a huge department store near our flat) were the Christmas dioramas of Alice in Wonderland. The people and settings  looked exactly like the illustrations, and they moved. The Duchess and the cook and the pepper, complete with repeated hitting, were especially realistic. I was fascinated by them.

Maybe I wanted to get back to them  — but I don't remember. My sister says it looks like she and my little sister are watching something. My brother looks indignant; and I seem “scornful,” a more common reaction to adult plans among privileged children then than it seems to be now. When children now don't want to do something, they're free to say so (all too free, their parents probably think sometimes!).

But in those days, in our family at least, when your parents told you to stand with Santa, you did, without complaining.  You had to. But you didn't have to pretend to like it.