Why does visiting Santa cause so many tears?

being jewish, i never got to sit on santa's lap and tell him what i wanted. i was ok with it, in fact i never questioned it. now that we have taken olivia twice, it kind of makes me want to sit in his lap and tell him what i want! but i will pass. last year olivia was a little peanut and had no clue what was going on. she just sat there and stared at his beard. this year, totally different experience. at first glance, she busted out in tears and had death grips on BOTH of my hands. todd and i were laughing, trying to coax her into his lap. she went for it, with extreme hesitation, and of course, tears! then came the ringing of the bells. they were loud enough to wake the dead, which of course caught olivia's attention...enough to divert her long enough to get a few decent pictures, or so we thought. the first round of pictures were terrible! then the genius behind the camera said they'd take some more. we were game. but then the genius decided she would turn around and start talking to her co-worker like there wasn't a 14 month old sitting on santa's lap like a ticking-time-bomb waiting to go off! i quickly interrupted her and reminded her of the situation and got her to quickly snap some shots. although olivia isn't smiling, we really like the pictures! we'll see how next year goes...i hear between the ages of 2 and 3 kids are the most scared of santa....great! looks like i might get a chance to sit on santa's lap after all (with olivia, of course!).