shedding a bit of light on an old myth

So you Believers all think Santa Claus(AKA, Saint Nicholas) zips around the entire world in one crazy night? 

Not so!  Sorry.  I hate to burst your little fantasy, but Santa Claus, despite stories to the contrary,  never did make the trip in one night. 

Here's how I know. 

My mother was born on Christmas Day, 1911.  She married a man who worked hard for a living and loved to sleep in any chance he got.  This included Christmas Day. 

We had a family council, I am told, and we decided that we would keep Christmas Day free of all labor so that Mother could have time for herself on her birthday.  This meant that our big Christmas dinner was on Christmas Eve.  This same family council agreed, I am told, that in order to allow Dad to sleep in, we would exchange Christmas presents  following our Christmas Eve dinner.  .  Because we were poor and because the price of Christmas trees went way down if you waited until the last minute to buy one, we actually purchased our Christmas tree late on Christmas Eve Day.  The price usually dropped from 50 cents down to 25 cents after about 5:00 PM.  One year the selection was so poor that we talked the man out of two trees for the price of one.  Dad cut the best bows off one tree, drilled holes in vacant spots  on the other tree and wired them in.  It was one good looking tree.  We trimmed it just before our festivities.  The tree stood in all it's glory for exactly one week, coming down New Year's Day, which is my kid sister's birthday. 

But in all of this, my two sisters and I believed in Santa Claus.  We knew the poem, T'was the Night Before Christmas, by heart.  Yet somehow we knew that our gifts came from Santa Claus. 

There could be no other rational answer. 
Santa Claus, despite the story he sent out to the world, snuck out the afternoon of Christmas Eve Day and made certain that we were not forgotten. 

And that's the truth! 

 

Curious Carl