FITCHBURG, MASS. (WHDH) - It’s a Christmas tradition, 40 years in the making.
Two sisters from Fitchburg, Tammy and Stefanie, go to the same mall in Leominster every year to have their picture taken with Santa.
“We wanted to keep the tradition going,” Tammy said. “That’s the only tradition we have.”
Forty years ago, their parents took Stefanie, who was only 9 months old, to visit Santa. The following year, Tammy was in the picture. The rest is history.
“And they have continued to do it every year since without missing a beat and they don’t even tell us they’re going until after the photo is done,” said their mother, Joy Walsh.
When the girls got older, their mother thought they had outgrown it, so they didn’t take the girls to see Santa.
“Out of the clear blue, they came home with this photo to surprise us, and it was a photo of them with Santa,” she said.
The photo albums featuring the annual Santa photos have become a conversation piece, even if the sisters would like to forget some of them.
“Teenage years, definitely. Awkward years, definitely teenage years,” Stefanie and Tammy said. “Clothes, hair braces, leather bombers. The leather jackets.”
To make the tradition even more special, it’s mostly been the same Santa every year.
“We ran into him a week before, he stopped the line came over to us and said, ‘Sisters,’ and he gave us a hug,” the sisters said.
And at this point, there’s no stopping now.
“Absolutely forever,” the said. “We’ll never stop doing this.”
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