By Guest Blogger Michelle Spell
Years ago, when my children were 5 to 9 years old they decided they would set up a trail camera for catching Santa. My husband and I knew we had a long night ahead of us so we prepared with a hat and a ‘sack of toys’ and waited for the kids to doze off.
The trail camera only captured images when there was motion and it was infrared which is basically black and white. The kids positioned the camera directly facing the Christmas tree and from our vantage point it seemed as though the camera was facing upwards towards the top of the tree.
We decided that we should place the infamous red hat on Steve’s hand and he would gently wave his arm high in the air to make the it appear as though Santa was ‘walking’ along the path of where the gifts would be placed. Our hope was that the trail camera would pick up the top of Santa’s hat as he walked back and forth!
We got the shots in and quickly retrieved the SIM card to view our amazing display of Santa hard at work. As we watched the footage with great anticipation and enthusiasm, we quickly realized what we were looking at and it was by far the most hysterical moment of the season!
All we could see was Steve’s arm stretched high into the sky with Santa hat covering his hand like a puppet. I even remember seeing the very top of his head peeking out from behind the ‘toy sack’ which was a black beanbag!
After laughing heartily at our failed attempt at being clever and not even coming remotely close to succeeding, we tried again and again and again…
We stayed up until 3am that night, posing and reposing and positioning ourselves to get ‘caught’ perfectly by the camera and laughing in between. Once we finally caught the perfect glimpse of Santa, we deleted the frames before and after so all that the kids would discover were pictures of the tree with one frame that caught Santa’s hat! It was perfection and once all the gifts were perfectly displayed, Steve and I headed off to bed with our hearts full of anticipation for their discovery.
The next morning the kids raced downstairs; retrieved their SIM card; and watched with wonder while Steve and I stood by with smiles a mile wide knowing how much fun we had just a few hours earlier.
That night will never be forgotten as Steve and I reminisce every year once presents are put out. We end every year’s gift display by raising our arm as high into the air as possible, wave it back and forth robotically and we laugh hysterically recalling how funny that night was and will always be to us!
Catching Santa will always be one of our most treasured holiday memories!
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