A Santa Story!

 Wilard Chapel came alive on Sunday, December 11 with a lot of Christmas spirit as “Christmas Present” himself, Santa,  came to visit! He was there as part of the Literacy Volunteer’s Annual event, and when Santa walked in with his sleigh bells, a joyous sound went thru the beautiful Tiffany chapel!

There were many families of happy and excited children and parents there waiting to see him come thru the door!

Santa was in a VERY good mood, for he is, as you know, “a jolly right elf” and we all laughed when we saw him, in spite of ourselves!

The first thing Santa did was to gather all the children about him, but he didn’t even really have to ask, as they were all crowding around the merrymaker and jostling each other to get close enough to the magical man.

He held counsel with the wee ones for a bit and there were some interesting questions and answers!

“Does anyone know my name?” the bearded one in the red suit asked.

“SANTA!” they cheered.

“Yes, but I have many names, do you know any of them?” he asked with a twinkle.
“St. Nicholas!”

“Father Christmas!”

“Pere Noel!”

and one little tiny girl chirped “Krip Kingle”

“Almost…that’s Kris Kringle!” and he laughed and laughed and squeezed her tight.

“Santa when you come, can your reindeer come inside my house too?” queried one ambitious young man. “Well….someone will have to clean up afterwards!” said Santa with a wink.

The young man thought better about it and smiled …and then decided to ask him instead, “How do you get to the North Pole, Santa?”

“Well, do you know North Street here in town? Just take that north and keep going!”  the children thought that was a very good and likely answer.

He took out a pair of spectacles and placed them on his nose. "Oh it's hard to get old" he giggled (as did most of the parents). Then Santa had them all gather round for his reading of “T'was the Night before Christmas”.

 St. Nick said to them, “This is a very special story! It’s very old, but do you know why I like it best? Because it’s all about ME!” He laughed and his belly did jiggle like a bowlful of jelly!

Of course, he showed the children the special pictures on every page, and he stopped to answer questions all through the story as well. 

When he got to the part of the tale about “He was dressed all in fur, from his head to his foot, And his clothes were all tarnished with ashes and soot” , he stopped and whispered to the wee ones, “Poor Mrs. Claus…she has a terrible time with my laundry the next day…I get so filthy!”

 He especially thanked all the children and their parents for the cookies and milk that they leave out every Christmas eve, but to be also sure that they don’t forget Rudolf and the reindeer! “They work SO hard that night, and they need to keep up their strength, so make sure you leave out a carrot for them We don’t want them to get jealous!”  

He listened to the wishes of every last child, as if they were each the only one there. He heard about their Christmas desires from dollies to IPODs.

“This is VERY important! I want to make sure you are very good and helpful to your families and be GOOD!” the jolly old man said to all the attentive kids there.

The children were then encouraged to pick out a brand new book as one of their first holiday presents. Santa LOVES to read and gave them all a book to tide them over till Christmas Eve!

“We have refreshments available for everyone here” said one of the volunteers. “Santa, would YOU like to join us for some cookies?”

 

“Me? Want cookies? What a question!” belly laughed Santa, 

 

and like a Pied Piper, he led the children clutching their new glorious books, all the way to the fun holiday treats that the Literacy Volunteers had prepared for them.  It’s always magical when Santa comes to Wilard Chapel! Merry Christmas!