A Note From Santa

Doreen was pleased with herself.  She had just completed the assembly of a plastic bicycle-type thing for Darcy.  Never mind it had taken her four hours to do what someone else could have done in an hour.  After all, she told herself, as she put on her parka and mittens, she never had been mechanically inclined.  She took a peak at her two sleeping sons, Tim aged 6 and Darcy aged 3, then headed out the door of the small basement apartment.  Now to bring the toys in from the trunk of the car.  What a great hiding spot she thought to herself as she reached street level and began slipping and sliding her way to the car.  The car glistened in the moonlight but it wasn't till she got right up to the car that Doreen realized that the entire car was covered with a thick layer of ice! YIKES!  What to do.  The lock de-icer stuff was, as usual, inside the car.  There was no place to plug in a hair dryer and nothing would be open till well after the boys were up.  What to do indeed!

Well, when Mom and boys got up on Christmas morning, they found a note. The note explained that Santa had run into a predicament.  Seems Santa had been unable to get into the apartment. Lucky thing, though, he was able to get into the trunk of the car and had left the boys' Christmas presents there - in the trunk of the car.

And so, even though Tim and Darcy had to wait a couple of hours for their gifts, it turned out to be a merry Christmas after all.  Doreen was grateful that the boys seemed so accepting of this explanation and the boys were in their twenties and Doreen already a grandmother before she was to learn any different.

Happy Holidays from Doreen Breland-Fines

Santa's Helper

It was around 1970.  My sisters and I wanted to stay up until Santa Claus arrived but my father said "If you're still awake Santa Claus won't come to our house".  The rest of the family attended midnight mass; it was a tradition in our family to celebrate Christmas Eve.  When our father thought we were sleeping, we managed to get underneath the living room table.  The table had a very long table cloth so my father had no idea we were underneath it.  We were so excited that we were finally going to meet Santa Claus.  Imagine our surprise to see our father filling our Christmas stockings with goodies.  We were crushed.  A mandarin orange fell underneath the table and my younger sister reached out and handed it to my father.  He quickly explained that he was one of Santa's helpers.  We were satisfied with that and everyone enjoyed Christmas.

Best wishes to all from Rose Bruce

Was He Or Wasn't He?

It was Christmas Eve 1965, Lorraines Mom was trying to get her five children off to their beds before Santa came.  Of course we were all procrastinating, excited because of the next mornings event.  Suddenly, Mom called out "Listen!".  All five of us stopped our chatter to listen.  Faintly we could hear this sliding noise on the roof of our house; then the sound of bells came to our ears! Mom whispered to us, "Uh oh! Santa's going to see you're not in bed yet!"  All five of us scattered in every direction for our beds and pulled the covers up tight.  After a time, three more mature children decided to check this whole event out, "Was he or wasn't he?".  Sam, Louise and I stepped into the nighttime snow and to our absolute wonder there were hoof prints in the snow!  Thirty-one years later thanks to Mom her five children know that there really is a Santa Claus.

Merry Christmas, everyone from Lorraine Freeman

Santa's Knee!

My mother-in-law used to take the kids out to see Santa and they went around to several stores. At one store the youngest sat on Santa's knee and was asked if he was a good boy and what he wanted for Christmas, so he told him.  A little while later at a different store the same child sat on Santa's knee again.  This time when he was asked if he had been a good boy and what he wanted for Christmas, his reply was, "I just told you at the other store.  Don't you remember!?"

Season's Greetings from Bonnie Murray