Santa Claus, as we presently think of him, is pretty much a creation of 19th century artists and lithographers. It is said, that around 1882, Thomas Nast drew a never before-seen figure called Santa Claus--a warm and endearing grandfatherly gent. It was the first drawing of this joyful little man, and it didn't take long for him to become our friend.
My Santa was my Uncle Bill! When I was real young, we lived in a house that had coal heat and big grates in the floor for the heat to rise to the bedrooms.
We did Christmas Eve and I think it was because that way every one got to sleep later in the morning.
Santa never visited our home. Pop was a postmaster of a small rural post office. Mom was one of his postal clerks. They were so overwhelmed with the Christmas mail, that they had little time or inclination to celebrate Christmas at home. My sister and I would go out and get a tree from our neighborhood market, with money we had saved for the year. Then we would decorate it with our own handmade decorations. That was our Christmas. On Christmas day we all went to an uncle's house. His wife was Italian and they made up a big pot of spaghetti and sauce. Christmas was at their house. Easter was at another aunt's house. Thanksgiving was at our house. There often would be about 40 people in attendance to these holiday meals. Everyone brought something to eat. There were always lots of pies and goodies.
I particularly remember one Christmas, when my youngest brother received a large vinyl blow up Santa as a gift. It stood about five feet high. He was the first to sneak downstairs that year, and as my other brother and I were leaving our bedroom to check on our gifts, my youngest brother came hurriedly tiptoeing up stairs to warn us that "He's still down there!"
Santa came to my house, More poems and stories. Follow the list of links.
Think back to your early childhood. Did Santa ever come to visit you?
I remember on two occasions when Santa came to our house. The first time, my brother was so frightened he crawled under the sofa and refused to come out. Another time, my brother and I were standing on a chair in the kitchen helping our mother wash and dry dishes. We heard someone at the back door and saw Santa peering through the glass. My brother jumped off the chair and ran out of the room. Santa said we were good children because we helped our mother. I didn't find out until much later that Santa was our next door neighbor.
Read what some of our authors at Lara's Den wrote about their memories of Santa Claus.
I would go up to bed about 8 pm and lay there with my eyes wide open. I usually fell asleep anyway. By 10pm
there would come a "HO HO HO" up through the floor grate, accompanied by the smell of cigar smoke.
I would hit the floor running and no matter how fast I got down stairs I had always just missed him!
We didn't leave Santa any milk and cookies.
We DID leave him a glass of peppermint schnapps.
Although Uncle Bill always had that minty smell on his breath,,,,I never caught on.
By age 11, I did. But he still came with my Aunt Bette on Christmas Eve, and he still "Ho Ho HO-ed" when he came in.
He did the same thing for my kids and all of us will equate the smell of "Dutch Masters Cigars" with Santa Claus.
They seemed to make Christmas official. I still miss them.
By Swampetta (SWAMPETTA@aol.com)
by Sharon (Sunyskys1943@aol.com)
By RickMack (richard_mccusker@comcast.net)
But he never let me see him.
My job was to keep baby sister from "knowing."
Strange in keeping the "secret," convinced was I of him.
Oh, I believed in Santa,
Longer than most kids do,
It was no fun at all not to,
So I did! I did! I do!
By Norma (Twi1ite@sbcglobal.net)
