The Wise & Jolly Old Elf

There are three hours and 50 minutes left of Christmas as I start to write this. Aside from things being a little tight financially and looking pretty bleak in the weeks to come (slow DJ season), I’d say this year was a success and a very Merry Christmas. The kids both got Nintendo DS game consoles; Lucas a black one and Cadence a pink one. They also got their share of other more traditional toys and clothing. It was enough stuff to keep them occupied for most of the day. And now they’re off to bed and hopefully quick to sleep.

The neatest thing last night (Christmas Eve) was a visit from Santa Claus. I had totally forgotten that we had purchased a Santa suit last year. We were somewhat disappointed with the sizing and quality of the thing once we got it –considering the $75 we paid for it- and we ended up not using it at all. Since this was our first Christmas at home and we were already preparing a Swedish Christmas Eve dinner, my wife thought we should go a step further and do another Swedish tradition… a Christmas Eve visit from Santa. She reminded me about the suit and I tried it on earlier that day for good measure. The plan was set into motion.

We had a nice Christmas Eve dinner with ham, Swedish meatballs, pickled herring, mashed potatoes, and some other unpronounceable traditional Swedish dishes. And, of course, snaps! After dinner, we moved the kids downstairs with our friends who celebrated the evening with us. I sneaked into the bedroom and got into the Santa suit. Then I exited the house from our bedroom, onto the deck, down the steps, out the gate, and around to the front of the house. I walked past the window where everyone was a couple of times until my kids saw me. They freaked out.

I came to the door, walked in, and sat down. My wife had given me a present for each of the children ahead of time. I handed them the present and warned them –in my best Santa voice- to be good and go right to bed. “Otherwise, I won’t be back later with more presents.” With that, I made my exit and as I headed out the front door I turned and said (this was more to give the adults a chuckle) “And don’t eat the yellow snow!!”

Once I was out the door, I quickly got back to the bedroom and changed back into my regular clothing and then popped downstairs and asked “What’s going on?!” The kids were jumping up and down... “Santa was here! He was here!”

It was obvious (but shocking) to me that they had absolutely no clue that it was me in a cheap Santa suit. I even went so far as to ask my son “How do you know it was the real Santa and not some imposter dressed up in a Santa suit?” He explained that this was the real deal because “Mom saw his reindeer out front!”

Nice cover, honey.

I pulled it off. I pulled off being Santa. It was fun. I did want to see if any of Santa’s warnings about being good had penetrated their sugar-saturated skulls so I asked “What did Santa tell you guys?”

My daughter chimed up first all excited. “He said to not eat yellow snow.”