Pick a cane, any cane. One? Two? Just give us a smile and stop wailing, kid!

That’s all Santa seemed to want for Christmas back in December of 2008 from little Sophia DeFrancesco when she was plopped on his lap at the Galleria in Red Bank for a happy holiday pic gone downright miserable. Now, that’s the magic of Christmas.

Gifts? Never mind what little 19-month-old Sophia wanted, which was for this big, red-clothed demon to release her, let her go from his mammoth, gloved man hand clutches. Let’s face it, she couldn’t care less about that list and his checking it twice. She couldn’t read or write anyway.

“She (Sophia) was all excited. Well, as much as a 1 1/2-year-old could be … until she saw him (Santa),” Sophia’s mom, Ali, a Rumson-raised girl, said. “She wanted nothing to do with him.”

Well, Santa didn’t get his wish for the wailing to stop; but, Sophia’s mom made the most of the classic moment captured by photographer Karen Waldman. She got a good, “bad mommy” laugh out of the botched “happy” holidays freeze frame. And that’s something to brag about — or at least talk about.

“I felt like the meanest mother, because I could not stop laughing,” Ali said.

Don’t feel bad, Mommy, neither could we. Santa? He’s another story. What do you think he was muttering under that beard? Hmmmm …

Join in the miserable child with Santa fun. Send us your photo and story at [email protected].

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