I was appearing as Santa at a party for a company that I've performed
at for the last 5 years. I was sitting
there as usual having the kids come tell me what they want for Christmas and
posing for pictures, when out of the corner of my eye, I spotted a young lady
in her 20's who came acting very excited to see me. She stood there talking with her co-workers
and excitedly pointing at me. Finally,
when there was a lull in the crowd she eagerly she came and sat on my
knee. I asked her what she wanted for
Christmas and I could tell by her accent that she was not from America. So I
asked her where she was from originally and she said she was from Austria.
Well, my second language just so happens to be German, so I
started to speak to her in her native language much to her surprise! She quickly responded back to me in kind that
she didn't know I spoke German and I responded that of course Santa knows
German. With a big grin and a sparkly
tear in her eye, she told me that what she wanted most for Christmas was to go
back to Austria to visit. I didn't
exactly know how I could respond to that request, so instead I asked her what
her favorite memory was of Christmas back home in Austria. She got a faraway look in her eyes and told
me how she used to love to sing Christmas songs as a child.
Without hardly thinking, I started to sing, "Kling,
Gretchen, Kling" (one of the Christmas songs that I knew that German speaking
children sang). She immediately joined me and we sang the song together. When
we finished, she smiled, clapped her hands and gave me a big hug. She said that besides going back to Austria,
I had just given her the best Christmas gift she could have gotten.
As she walked away, I thought of the scene in the movie,
"A Miracle on 34th Street" where Kris Kringle is able to speak to the
little Dutch girl and then they sing a Christmas song together in Dutch. I chuckled to myself.
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