For many years, many, many years, my spouse would sleep on the floor in front of the fireplace with the kids, trying to catch Santa. Santa showed up around 2:00 a.m., after she had spent a few hours at church singing for Midnight Mass. Santa was tired.
Much to Santa’s dismay, the very first year of this “tradition,” a little pipsqueak woke from a dead sleep to query, “Mom, is that you?” “Go to sleep.” “Mom?” “We’ll talk in the morning.”
Morning came and that little girl remembered all too well and Santa had to think on her feet, hoping to keep some semblance of belief in a generous and goodly fat old man for at least a few more years. Santa was still awfully tired.
”Yes, it was me.” A few moments of silence. “Does that mean you are the Easter Bunny and the Tooth Fairy, too?”
Sigh. “Yes. But now do you know what that means? YOU are now the Easter Bunny and Santa’s helper. You can’t say anything to your brother!”
There must have been some delight in that response as my daughter took that task to heart for many years. Also, Santa learned to run a fan on Christmas Eve, drowning the noise of her clomping down the stairs and placing crinkly wrapped packages on the fireplace.
Sending Christmas smiles and joy to you and your families!
