Encounters with Santa Claus
The first time a child meets Santa Claus, it’s like meeting the world’s biggest celebrity. Most of us never forget the racing heartbeats, the giddy excitement, or maybe even the fear of meeting this omniscient, supernatural being who can either make your dreams come true by laying your most desired toy under the Christmas tree, or crush you with lumps of coal in your stocking. As we get older, our ideas of Santa morph and evolve until many of us actually become Father Christmas — either at the office holiday party or when we have children of our own. The Santa experience offers genuine miracles on both sides of the fluffy white beard in a world where most mysteries are dying off at an alarming rate. Childhood is full of myths and monsters. On the bad side are ghosts (sometimes) and boogeymen, on the good side are the Tooth Fairy and the Easter Bunny, but the kingpin of them all is Santa Claus. Old Saint Nick’s roots are based in the kind-hearted ways of a wealthy orphan who lived centuries ago and spent his life giving gifts to children and those in need. But since Santa went mainstream, he’s has been deified, lampooned, imitated, commercialized, scorned, and overexposed. But through all the murk and mess, Santa’s magic still shines through like Rudolph’s nose through the fiercest blizzard. We teach our own children about Santa because, even if only for the first few years, it’s right to believe in magic. Do you remember thinking you heard footsteps on your rooftop? Or did a red, glowing light in the night sky on Christmas Eve make you think that it was certainly Rudolph leading Kris Kringle’s sleigh team and surely not an airplane? Did your parents use Santa for extortion to get you to behave better — at least in December? Remember your Uncle Larry who dressed up as Santa, had way too many hot toddies, and crushed the Christmas tree? Anyone who has ever survived Christmas has a Santa story to tell. As a side project I started collecting interviews with people about their Santa experiences for a possible future book. As a holiday treat, I’ll be sharing some of these interviews in the coming days. Reader beware… they ain’t all warm and fuzzy.