When Chris Burd of Minnesota sat on Santa's lap in 1998, he never thought he'd see that white-bearded man again. But 13 years later, Burd realized that that same Santa had become his father-in-law.
Chris' mother, Charlene Burd, made the discovery last year while sifting through old photos. Chris had just gotten engaged to Liz Abbas, whose father, Elmer Abbas, had been dressing up as Santa for 20 years. Charlene realized that the Santa Chris and his three-year-old sister were sitting with in one photo looked exactly like Elmer (Chris was 13 at the time and posing with Santa for his sister's sake).
"I just told her she's nuts. So later in the week I went over to the house and saw [the photo] and decided it wasn't him," Chris told ABCNews.com. "But later on, I took a closer look and was like, 'Oh my God. That's Liz's dad."
Liz and Chris displayed the photo, along with Liz's 1998 Santa photo with Elmer, at their wedding in September. Chris said it was "creepy" to realize he had met his father-in-law 13 years earlier, but he and Elmer have enjoyed joking about the coincidence.
"It was fun to tease my future son-in-law about sitting in his father-in-law's lap. And I think I probably made up a couple of stories about what he wanted for Christmas," Elmer said.
Check out the cutest (and funniest) Santa photos in the slideshow below.
