Photo Session Tries To Tap Holiday Spirit

“Courtney,” the photographer cooed. “Courrrrrrrtney.”

There was trouble at the Coeur d’Alene Plaza late Saturday morning. The toddler in Santa’s lap wouldn’t smile.

“Courtney. Courtney. Courrrrrrrtney. Wherrrrre’s Courtney?” Nothing. But the photographer, a blond woman dressed in black, wasn’t giving up.

“Courtney, Courtney, Courtney, Courtney, Courtney, Courtney, Courtney, Courtney, Courtney, Courrrrrrrtney!”

This went on for about a year.

Finally the kid, dressed in pink coveralls and holding a ribbon attached to a green helium balloon, took pity on the poor woman poised behind the tripod and smiled.

CLICK.

Other shots followed, rapid-fire.

For her efforts, Courtney earned herself a candy cane. She promptly inserted it in her mouth, plastic wrapping still intact. And her mom eased her back into her stroller.

“Good-bye,” said Santa, who was seated on a throne-like red and gold chair positioned in front of a tall Christmas tree.

Who’s next?

A line had formed there inside the small shopping mall on Sherman. Holiday music filtered out of speakers.

Some kids grinned the moment they spied the big guy in the red suit. Others seemed to have misgivings about the whole idea. They had to be coaxed into the spirit of the season.

“Patrick. Patrick. Paaaaaatrick. Don’t smile! Donnnnnn’t you do it. Paaaaaatrick!”

Parents tried to help the photographer with out-of-frame antics - everything from jumping jacks to silly voices, comical expressions and cartoon-like sounds.

Sometimes these happy-face squads hovered around the kids on Santa’s lap so intently that it looked like an emergency room team attending to a sucking chest wound.

“I can’t see now,” a little girl in a green reindeer sweater calmly reported after the flash went off.

Santa mostly kicked back and waited for the pictures to be taken. Then, before the kids rejoined their families, he asked them what they wanted for Christmas.

Some whispered their answers conspiratorially. Others, choking on the pressure, drew a blank.

But as they left, you could tell at least a few of these kids were confident about receiving delivery.

A mom pushing a baby in a stroller asked her son walking beside them if he had told Santa what he wanted.

The boy just smiled.

, DataTimes MEMO: Being There is a weekly feature that looks at gatherings in the Inland Northwest.