Seasons Change

 On an insignificant morning of an insignificant day a family of four arrived at my Santa set. It didn’t begin in any noteworthy way. Dad was present but uninvolved, Mom was very involved, which often is easily interpreted as overbearing tho’ this mom was not. She had put considerable thought into how her children observed all of the traditions of Christmas, least of which is Santa.

She seemed to recognize both the boon to the imagination and childhood fantasy that is Santa, but also the depth of the representation held in the lore of Santa, his goodness and his generosity and selflessness.

Mom, while watching her children meet Santa and getting the traditional Santa photos to keep and mark memories of the development of her young ones, was telling a member of my team about preparing to tell her eight year old the whole truth about Santa as he had begun asking questions that had an obvious outcome and she wanted to be prepared for the eventuality.

I was completely impressed with her foresight, though I learned much of this after her departure. 

A bit later that day she and her tribe were walking by to shop at one more store and I called to her and asked if I may speak to her. Dad and the children continued on to a nearby shop and we spoke for a few minutes.

I told her that my staff member had shared her story with me and I admitted that this was a topic that many in the Santa community had put some thought into and I shared some of those thoughts with her. 

She had already decided to “let him in on the secret” (though his visit with Santa on this morning was enough to quell any questions this season) which is not only one way of softening the blow but possibly a source of pride to become part of an “adult society”. I suggested that she might take him to a coffee shop to “have the talk” and I gave her a challenge coin, something I picked up mail order, very ornate but inexpensive and suggested that she invite him to invest himself by choosing someone to give a gift to, earning the money for the gift and giving the gift without taking any credit, for that is the way of the true Christmas Spirit.

She thanked me as she was on her way pre-planning a milestone in the life of her son.

You don’t know, do ya'

 Monday was a bit slow, as Mondays can be. There were of course, children whose very demeanor was encouraging as they came to my chair to to sit. Some on the spectrum, and some able to express what their thoughts about Christmas and their family. Actually, sometimes even when they are on the spectrum you can see how they feel about their family thru and behind their eyes.

I like to encourage parents who feel the pressure of exposing their child to the world and sometimes exposing the world to their child. Some of them can be a bit much. 

But the high point for me was a… I don’t even know if he was a parent to be honest. He and his wife and cohort in many adventures that he told me about and likely some that he didn’t even allude to, but the stories came with pictures.
He had a marvelous beard. One that I am truly envious of. Thick, full, I believe his natural color, he shaved his head so what do I know, and about the length that mine has grown to (in years). He said it would be twice it’s length in eighteen months. Envy and jealousy and covetous, those were my three issues.
And he showed me pictures of things where he had gone with a theme- a beautiful red white and blue dye job as well as a picture where he teased out his beard into an immense bush and dyed it pink in a gambit to make fifty thousand dollars for breast cancer awareness.
We talked for about fifteen or twenty minutes and I had the opportunity to encourage him to go forward with his plan to let it go white and be Santa. He and his wife spend Christmas in Mexico and he told me that the people there tell there children that Santa’s beard is dark until it changes with the snow, so they tell their children that Santa has come to check on them. Of course they assume he doesn’t speak Spanish and he doesn’t let them know tat he is carrying an AI interpreter in his pocket so he doesn’t miss much. He has had ideas but no real rudder for when he started. I gave him a challenge coin to remember the things we talked about and I think he’s going to come by again and I’ll give him a card. Maybe I’ll be able to teach him a bit. Maybe I’ll be able to introduce him to a deeper Santa heart.
Here’s hopin’.

Some History of 2024

Today was the first day of the season, nearly two weeks before Thanksgiving, Uffda.

Spent time with the old gang today, Jack and Sally, Elsa, Anna and Olaf, the indomitable Grinch… 
I played a game with the Grinch, although he was more subject to than of. I did the very UnSantable thing and sneaked up behind him while he was distracted by children and I hooked three candy canes in the back of his jacket. He had no idea until sometime after I left a child asked him if they could have a candy cane. He didn’t know he had any and so he told them and they told him he had candy canes on the back of his jacket- We had a pretty good laugh about it.

A child, a wonderful child with a dirty face and hair just slightly unkempt, offered me a drink of his beverage which I was forced to turn down. Children can be so very generous, it touched my heart.

We have a couple ladies whose family gets involved doing set dressing. I think they have covered over one hundred boxes by now at their own expense. Last year they purchased a dozen stuffed animals that we named (and they still remember the names) and this year their brother has joined the team with half s dozen more including an otter and a goat so the set looks grand.

I want to tell you about one other child when I was just outside of Dublin at a motorway rest area which is a nice little area of commerce. A convenience store a number of food retailers selling chicken, pizza, ulster fries, sausage rolls- many of the spectrum of foods available in Eire are represented.

I ate my meal and got up to go- and I don’t know the moment I was spotted, but this lovely little, I’d guess, three year old girl saw me and caught my eye on my way out. She was adorable but mute, as was her older brother- he was more stunned, and mom and dad watched this unfold. 

I stopped by their table and said “Hi”. This beautiful little girl looked up at me with beautiful eyes and behind them was a whir of thoughts on generosity. She turned and looked at her lunch, which was nearly finished, arranged a piece of chicken that she wasn’t quite finished with, and held that little lunch box up to me in an offer to share in her meal.

Of course I thanked her and praised her generosity, quickly departing because I can only take so much cute at a time. I will be remembering that sweet little Irish lass for some time to come. 

Today was an adventure and a time of new beginnings, new winter beginnings. We will see what tomorrow will bring. Hopefully more good cheer and welcome to the love of family and friends. The thing that the world makes this day about instead of hatred and division. 

One other thing, it nearly slipped my mind. A mom and two girls, one aware of a true nature of Santa and one that didn’t want to hear what Santa had to say because she had been told that she was on the “naughty list” and she didn’t want Santa to confirm it so she was in an avoidance mode.
So I told the big sister, who was fighting hard not to interject while I spoke to the little sister, to go stand with her mother… (Well I actually told her that this was between me and the little sister)- And I pulled out my trusty Naughty/Nice list. I showed her a blank side and I showed her a side with names written in elvish. I asked her if she saw her name on the naughty (the blank) side and she said “No”. I said did you see any name at all? And again she said “No”, and I said, “If your name were on the naughty list you would have seen it there. If you didn’t see it then it’s not there”. Then she settled down a bit to know that Santa isn’t not on her side- does that make sense? I followed up by telling her that no one wanted to see her on the nice list more than her mom and that if her mom told her something she could count on it being something that would help her stay on the nice list.

Then I let her go and called her sister over and told her being the big sister comes with responsibility and she needed to help her sister want to be good. If she encouraged her sister she would witness change in her little sister but she had to do her part… So, in a sense we are our siblings keeper.

So, chin up! You’re amazing and God loves you. Keep treading on higher steps, each one carries you to a better place. 

I Still Believe in Santa

A story I remember
My Tanta sharing one eve
That makes Santa my friend
Because he believes what I believe
 

Remember the night
When the angel came
The Child was born
And nought was the same
He came in a humble
He came with a star
He came to raise us
All up where we are
Feared by a king
Heralded by stars
This babe neatly swaddled
Lain in a mangers spars
Quietly watched by
both shepards and kings
Silence broken only
when the angelic sings
He gave me a vision
of hard things to come
A death on a Hill
A great offense to some
The call home to many
if not call home to all
The only rejection
Is of the author of it all
By fearful mankind
Sure God judges like he
And so proof of good gifts
God gave you me
Both naughty and nice
Good gifts give I all
based on not merit but
A person's life's call
And coal, in the winter,
not so personal a treat
as an orange or dolly
but it burns to share heat
To warm your whole household
on a cold winters night
It's something much needed
When the ground is all white
And toys, well, you make them
with things within reach
You play when you can
And when you play teach
You share what you have
then you all have each
So when you hear of Santa
abused without thought
Remember His good gifts
And how my Father wrought
A path to salvation
the best gift of all
Remember the cross
When you see Santa at the mall
But until you can know Him
who forgave as He bled
Know the kindness of a jolly
little fat man in red
And from that beginning
Where naughty becomes nice
Find a savior, messiah
He points to The Christ
For the greatest salvation
And the greatest of all gifts
It comes from a babe
Who will heal all rifts
Who lifts up our heads
 Sets our view up above
Who came to acquaint us
With the source of ALL LOVE

Lovin' Santa's of Color

I thought I had put racism pretty much behind me (People who have a vested interest in continuing the rift will arguegivetlc3 the point but they'd don't give any grace to anyovj88 objlne lookout min i'mthis year as nearly every other year prior racism (my own racism) becomes a topic for my wandering mind...
I love that there ajjuju ujvore black Santas and I get that as close to totally as I can. I want to encourage them to come out and play and there have been some get the notoriety due the current attitude of novelty toward the manifestation of Santas of color.
Numerous articles have been written this year and some of them are only catching up, I get it but can you simultaneously say "color blind" and "looks like them"?
Just a question...
A rhetorical question...
Maybe

testing123

The equipment has been sketchy at best as has everything the parent company has been responsible for. I'm pretty sure that they make pretty good money, they could afford to be a little freer with upgrades, but the way much has been handled so far this year they don't expect to be in this region next year...  That's just the wind up for todays near- miss-

Every year, a Santa is noticed on the national screen, and nearly never for the good that we do.
"Santa refuses to see a little girl because her service animal is a pit bull"
"Santa refuses to let little handicapped girl sit on his lap"
"Santa manhandles little girl to ruin mother's cell phone shots"
(This line of work is fraught with perils enough that Santa often carries an insurance rider against such lawsuits)
You never see,
"Santa watches mom watch little boy put his finger up his nose just moments before she put him on Santa's lap and hugs child anyway"
"Santa saves family's Christmas memories"
"Old fat guy gets on floor to be less intimidating to children who's anticipation reached overload"
So today I am escorted out from my sanctuary/dressing room about 5 minutes late because part of the crew had gone and ordered lunch for the crew before the shift started. Along with her, in her apron pocket, were the keys to the cupboards with all of the incidentals that make it easier to make children laugh, or at least get their attention, and while we meant well and intended to begin without ado because children come excited and will "run out" if we aren't careful when disaster struck-
The camera that we used last night to replace the camera that wouldn't talk to the computer wouldn't talk to the computer and when it did the blur was pronounced enough that, in keeping with the talking motif, it had been drinking and was slurring it's words.
(At one point I'm pretty certain that it hit on the computer in some unwanted fashion and had to be removed)
The first guy in line seemed to have some knowledge of cameras but somehow couldn't hold his mouth just right and made no headway.
IT, who by now is on speed dial and the manager refers to "Jimmy" and her new BFF has today off, but so does the manager who has forged such a great relationship with him so we were happy that the first guy in line was at least willing to try. He wasn't very happy to be taking pictures with his cell phone but he was a pretty happy guy so it really just dialed down his happy instead of dialing up his anxiety.
There were others try their hand at "pulling the sword from the stone" but it took the PIC's slow hand tactic to get us off the ground.
After a while we had winnowed the crowd down and crying baby and helicopter parent thinned out to a fairly happy crowd and the tactic changed and I wasn't sure who was in charge. The source of children had split, and I am okay with that except that the flow had changed and visiting children, children whose parents had opted out of pictures, were now funneled through the same side as the folks with reservations.
Why does this matter you ask? Because people with reservations have reservations and visitors don't have them. They specifically don't want to buy pictures, which, again, is no skin of my nose but I'm hearing about a reservation and the side without reservations is coming toward me and there is someone coming from the reservation side at the same time...
I asked the crew who was coming and the wife of the man who was paying for pictures (happened to be dark skinned maybe Hispanic maybe South Seas I don't pay a lot of attention) asked what was going on and he replied, "He wants to make sure who is paying for pictures..."
I said, "No sir, I wanted to make sure we were going in the right order, I don't care who is paying I want these children seen in the order that they got here"
The OTHER guy, the other family looked to be a middle income household who may have already opted for pictures but there children wanted to see Santa again or they just wanted to check out THIS Santa but they went second because they got there second.
This world, this culture of racism that I keep hearing about- seems to me to really often be about looking for reasons to claim offense.
Santa has been dealing with folks who are different or stand out from the crowd for as long as he's been at the North Pole and longer. Bullying and freezing out, but if you will recall he is now the most famous reindeer of all

T'was The Morning of Christmas

the children all blessed and the goals were all met
 the elves all dancing at a well deserved fete
Santa's long trip, again, down in the book
 and Mrs Claus gives him that knowing look
she warms up his cocoa after pulling off his boots
there's a plate full of cookies and she hangs up his suit
then down sits she with him as he shares wonderous tales
of aurora borealis and great windy gales
of children so good they asked gifts for their brothers
these sweet innocent cherubs often thinking of others
and Tanta, the mrs, tells how it began
with an angel, a donkey an ox and a lamb
Angels some shepherds three wise men and a girl
that day, long ago and a child to change the world