Taking digital pictures for Christmas photo cards has become all the rage in recent years. It gives parents a chance to show off their adorable offspring as well as the chance for non-parents to brag about their wonderful pets, and occasionally, other possessions. It is fun to send these photo cards as well as to receive them. It gives everyone the opportunity to play “catch up” in a visual way every year with people they don’t see that often.

However holiday photos do not have to be shared via holiday mailings to evoke fond memories. Recently while cleaning my parents’ house, I came across a small 4 x 4 grainy green photo taken with an old Kodak box camera from the 1960s. I almost tossed it into the “trash pile” until I took a closer look. There was a picture of Santa Claus wearing a very fake-looking white beard and sitting on his lap was a young, pudgy girl around the age of eight or nine. The pair in the photo was sitting next to a magnificent looking evergreen tree decorated with homemade paper ornaments. The little girl was me and the scene in the picture came flooding back to me, bringing tears to my eyes.

The Santa in the picture was actually my grandfather. It was the annual Masonic family Christmas party. The real Santa had called in sick at the last minute and they asked my grandfather to take his place. He was a good choice due to his massive 6’4” frame and he didn’t need a pillow to fill out the Santa suit. I guess they didn’t expect that one of his six attending grandkids might recognize him as their “Pop-Pop.” And recognize him I did when I sat on his lap to have my picture taken with Santa. It was not his voice that gave him away; it was his huge hand with his well known ring that caught my attention. I immediately said, “Hey, you’re not Santa, you’re Pop-Pop!” Grandpa quickly shushed me with a hasty explanation and said it would be “our little secret.” I managed to keep the secret from my brother and four cousins that day and that secret between my grandfather and me became a special bond between us for many years. I had forgotten all about it until I picked up the photo that day.

My grandfather is no longer with us but I will never forget the man most people called “Big Jim.” He was my special Pop-Pop and for one day, my very own Santa Claus.

I love taking photos for my photo holiday cards, but the problem is getting the photos developed! I’m not quite up to speed with digital cameras, so I haven’t yet taken advantage of the instant gratification that digital photos can give you. Recently I took four disposable cameras that had been sitting on my dresser for several years to be developed, not really knowing what was on them. Were they vacation photos? Holiday photos? Photos of my cats? Who knows! I did not take the disposable cameras all at once though, as that would not be like me. I took one at a time and each time I picked up the one set of pictures, I would drop off another one to be developed. It turns out that any normal person probably would have been anxious to get at least one set of photos back quickly; they were my son’s wedding photos from September of 2006!

Actually, after getting the photos developed, I was very happy I did. Two rolls were from Christmas 2006 and 2007 at my son’s new home, with both sides of the new families in attendance. My daughter-in-law was very nervous having everyone over for the first time in their new marriage. The get-together was such a great success that we decided to do it again in 2007. I had promised to send her duplicate photos of both holidays, which I eventually did. I was better off not sending them to her at all though because she had forgotten my promise. When I finally sent her the belated Christmas photos, I got in trouble with her for not sending them sooner (not as much trouble as I got into for forgetting their first anniversary, but that is another story)!

The fourth roll contained photos of a fostered cat that I had to give up to an animal hospice due to serious illnesses. She died soon after I left her there. I was so happy when I realized I had those pictures of my lost friend Callie. I will never forget her and the photos are a special reminder of her.

Have I learned my lesson about developing photos belatedly? Yes, I treasure them even more once I get them developed, no matter how late, because they are fond memories of the past that were not quite vividly remembered until the photos were viewed. And when I go to my friend’s son’s pre-school graduation this May, I probably won’t get those photos developed until he goes to high school so she and I can have a good cry over how cute he was back then!