Being Santa

Playing Santa has taken up a lot of my weekends this month, but I have had some fun experiences being Santa so far.

I was Santa for a church/neighborhood party and a little girl, 5 years old, climbed up in my lap with about 8 pieces of paper stapled together like a book.  She had gone through the Sunday paper and cut out pictures of the things she wanted for Christmas and glued them into her book.  Under each item she had written the store where I could find each item and their prices.  She then told me why she had chosen each item and the store, because she had compared prices and found the best deal for me.  How thoughtful!

My heart was truly touched on another night last week.  I was hired to come to a trailer park's club house for their trailer park's Christmas party.  A 10 year old girl sat on my knee and I asked her what she wanted for Christmas.  She was quiet for a moment and then her eyes started to get teary.  She said, "I don't want anything for my, Santa.  But I want to make sure that my 5 year old niece has a Merry Christmas.  Her dad lost his job and they are having a hard time right now."  After swallowing the lump in my throat, I told her how proud I was of her, that she knew the true meaning of Christmas - that's it's not about what we get, but what we are willing to give to those we love.  She truly cared about others more than herself.  With tears rolling down her cheeks yet a smile on her face, I told her I was sure this would be a Christmas she would never forget.

I learned a new way to get the kids who are too shy or nervous to come sit on my knee for pictures.  I have a strap of leather with six large bells on it, which I have in my bag so I jingle as I enter a room.  It's a great attention grabber!  Well, as I was handing out presents at a family party, there was one little girl that was very nervous and didn't want to come see me.  As I got to the last few presents, I took the strap of bells out of the bag and set them aside while I searched for the last presents.  When she saw those bells and was instantly entranced.  I picked up the bells and jingled them and told her they were Rudolf's bells and held them out towards her and asked if she would like to jingle them.  She came right up and took the bells and shook them for all she was worth.  I told her she did it so well that she could be one of my reindeer.  I picked her up and put her on my knee and suddenly she was my best friend, telling me all about what she wanted for Christmas and even smiled for pictures.  I use my bells a lot now to entice frightened children to come see me and get their picture taken!