No Rest For The Merry The Festival Of Trees Children’s Workshop Saddles Santa With A Whole Lot Of Elves And Little Time For A Latte

The line at the espresso bar was long and red.

It blazed from the yarn hair of a couple caffeine-crazed clowns. And it was red, too, from the suit worn by Santa Claus, who had just wandered to the back of the line.

“Santa needs a latte!” hollered a clown, clutching her own cup.

“A double!” yukked another.

Santa, though, had other ideas. “A double,” he said. “With olives.”

You really can’t blame the jolly old elf. On Sunday, Coeur d’Alene Plaza was completely kid-crazy, with about 400 children tearing through the place doing crafts and making wishes. It was the Festival of Trees Children’s Workshop, a fund-raiser for Kootenai Medical Center. And for Santa, it was a kick-off for his busy season.

So that java sure smelled good, but the line wouldn’t budge. Kids kept pointing. And poor St. Nick had a schedule.

“Oh, man,” he muttered. He gave up and returned to work.

The scene looked like a cross between a pricey mail-order catalog and a Rockwell painting. Parents brought little girls dressed in long, velvet dresses.

Little boys leaned over a fence to watch a mechanical elf cast his jerky line and pull back a plastic fish. All this was encircled by shops, the employees waiting to send their registers a-ringing.

Kids and clowns sat down at tables, making Santa masks. They’d cut the center out of a paper plate, pasting a red paper triangle and cotton balls to the leftover edge. Others made ornaments out of uncooked pasta.

A giant teddy bear stumbled around with a guide, hugging kids as it went.

Santa, back on his golden throne, held court.

It was Jake Mullen’s turn to mug for the camera. This was not his idea.

The 2-year-old sat on Santa’s lap, head down, shoulders hunched. He wore a pretty big football jacket.

“Want me to take your coat?” asked photographer Landi Gorton, gently. “Jake, you’re being such a big boy.”

No response.

“Jake, show Dad your smile,” Brian Mullen coaxed. Then, a change in tactic: “Jake can’t smile.”

Clever. But ineffective.

Another tyke was next and he nuzzled Santa’s white beard and giggled. Everyone oohed and ahhed.

Mullen watched this and turned back to Jake. You want your candy cane? Smile for Santa, OK?

So father and son went back up to Santa, together.

Mullen smiled big. Jake pondered his shoelaces. Click.

Another kid went. A relative whipped out a snap-o-matic, pirating the moment sans portrait fee.

Meanwhile, the clowns competed for the spotlight.

One named Candy juggled a ball one-handed.

Fidget, her pal, walked around holding a stiff leash with no dog at the end.

“I call her Isabella,” she explained, “because she’s In-vis-i-bella.”

Michael Cuentas, just 7 today, knelt down and patted the air above the leash.

The empty harness shimmied.

“She likes that,” Fidget said.

Michael grinned at his big sister, Madisen.

“All she does is move that thing…”

Now Santa needed a break. But he learned his lesson about the latte line and the pointing, waving kids.

So he headed outside, walking down Front Avenue.

No kids, but there were cars.

All honking for Santa.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: 2 Color Photos