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.