Thursday, December 24, 2009

A Story of Christmas Past

When I was a child I had more than a healthy belief in Santa Claus. This belief was tempered with a bit of childish cynicism as it is with most children but my belief was basically strong because of a few events that happened to me when I was growing up.

I was born the oldest of three children, two girls and a boy. My family wasn't always together but I believe my mother sincerely tried to give us as much as she could to make up for what we were lacking. We would take drives to admire Christmas lights and she always made sure we visited Santa Claus. Now like most children I was aware that not every street corner Santa Claus could be the real Santa so this was justified in my mind with the belief that each of them were Adults helping Santa out by appearing in public while he went about the business of fulfilling children's dreams.

One December my mother took my siblings and I to visit a Santa Clause who had set up a tiny hut behind a small bank. I remember waiting in line while other children went in before us. For this Santa, the parents stayed outside the hut while the children went inside to speak with Santa. Yea I know, it was a different time back then. Anyway, when it was our turn to go in, we did so and mom waited outside. I sat on Santa's lap first and he began by asking if I remembered a toy that I had lost a few years earlier. This toy had been left outside and forgotten where it permanently disappeared. I replied that I remembered it and he told me that he saw the toy had been left carelessly outside and alone so he had come by and collected the toy. He said he cleaned it up and gave it to a child that would not treat it so carelessly and would love it. I thought, if he's not the REAL Santa, how could he possibly know about this toy?! That caused me wonder for many, many years afterward.

During this time it was our family's tradition that on Christmas Eve we would have dinner and then gather in our family room to open presents. My Father would always take home movies of this event. We would set up a child's chalkboard, record the current year on the board and he would film this scene and then record all of us opening up our gifts. Sometime during the night, while all this was going on, there was always a knock on the front door of the house. We children allways eagerly awaited this knock because we knew when the door was opened it was always Santa Claus! Every Christmas Eve he would take time to personally deliver small plastic net stockings full of toys to us. Now I figured this had to be a Santa's helper because, after all, the real Santa would have been somewhere in the air at that time delivering presents but, still, I didn't recognize the person behind the beard so I thought he must be someone pretty "official". After all, he knew we didn't have a chimney and used the door!

Now this tradition went on for as many years as I can remember when I was growing up. After Christmas when I would see my neighborhood friends we would always trade stories of the gifts we had received and one year I mentioned the stockings that Santa had delivered and I related that he had done this for as long as I could remember. My neighbor friends responded with disbelief because they said that he had never visited their house, yet they lived right next door. I replied that perhaps he had to wait until they had gone to bed because they actually had a chimney and he couldn't likely go down the chimney while it was actually lit! Yet they insisted he had never left them anything similar to what my family had received from him and so he couldn't be a REAL Santa. This made me very determined and I decided to confront Santa the next Christmas Eve he visited my house. Well Santa ended up visiting my neighbor friends house that year. And he gave each of those children the same plastic net stockings he gave my siblings and me, I know because I watched him go over there with a feeling of satisfaction. And I watched with a smile as those children stared at him in wonderment and surprise as he handed out those stockings.

We all grow up and of course we realize that Santa needs help because in reality he's a spirit. The embodiment of Christmas in human form. So one year I finally asked my mother about that Santa and that year. She told me, after that trip "Santa" had to make an emergency trip to the store to replenish his supply of plastic net stockings because he ended up being short after that unexpected trip to the neighbor's house. You see that Santa was actually my Grandmother's boyfriend visiting all of her Grandchildren and delivering those stockings on her behalf. So when I asked him to visit my neighbors, that was unexpected and naturally he didn't have enough stockings left for the grandchildren he had not visited yet. Of course I now regret making Santa run short of stockings for that year but the memory of the look on those children's faces is still bright in my mind. And it still brings a smile to my face.

These are some of my favorite childhood memories and as I am now a parent, it has made me ever more determined to keep that same magic and wonderment alive in my own child's heart. I think I've succeeded. He is now 13 years old and has told me he will testify to any one of his friends at school that Santa really does exist. I believe him because I've heard it for myself. He is very convincing, too!

The magic of Christmas in a child's heart is more valuable than any possession they will ever receive under the tree and it is the most precious gift I can give.

Merry Christmas everyone!

X

No comments:

Post a Comment

Thanks for reading my blog! I would love to hear your comments, please tell me what you think!

Samples of my Stock Photos

I have a DeviantART account where I store stock photographs. These are free to use for any non-commercial purpose. You may tube them, use them as backgrounds or textures. All photos listed in my "Stock" folder Here are available for use.