AS IT SHOULD BE – HO, HO, HO! IT’S SANTA CLAUS

I will never forget the first time I met my friend, Santa Claus, or S. C. as his closest friends get to call him.  It was a few days before Christmas, and my mom had evidently pulled some strings to get him to come to visit my kindergarten class.  I have to admit that I was sort of wavering between excitement that this jolly old elf could keep track of millions of kids and afford to give us all a gift on Christmas morning and fear that he could keep track of millions of kids and afford to give us all a gift on Christmas morning! 

He and I have been best friends ever since!

I said, “You must have had a great childhood, what was your favorite thing to do when you were a littler elf, S. C.?” 

He said, “My favorite thing to do when I was a littler elf was feed the reindeer with my father! Oh, those were magical times, the sun glinting off the frozen tundra, sparkling like diamonds! My dad, Santa Claus, Sr., is why I love to give gifts and honor Christmas now, and I hope to pass it down to my son, Santa Claus, Jr., Jr. I also really loved sledding and making snowmen with my brothers and sisters, Andy, Donald, Amy, and Caroline Claus. 

“Santa?” I asked while sitting in his cozy living room sipping Holiday Spiced hot tea one day recently.  “What was your most memorable moment?”

He said, “Oh, Kathy, there have been so many! But probably the one thing that always fills my heart with joy is the memory of the Christmas morning that I delivered a very unexpected bicycle to a very special child.” 

I said, “S. C.  You must have delivered millions of bicycles over the years!”

He replied, “And every one of those bicycles became very special memories for me. There was one for Johnny, David, Claire, Chris, Michael, Bradley, Alice, Bill…”

His voice trailed off, and when I awoke, there arose such a clatter, that I jumped up from my chair to see what was the matter!  What I saw was amazing, beautiful, and such fun!  I saw a man in a sleigh and eight tiny reindeer taking off toward the heavens and I heard, “Ho, ho, ho!  Making more memories!  Here I come Tyler and Rose and Christopher and Michael and Nicholas and Emily and Tony and Laurissa…”

So tip your hat to that bearded man in the red fleece suit and hug your families close and hold your friends near your heart!  Santa Claus is watching!