SO Good Ihad to post this on my blog. My uncle DR John C. Morgan
Yes, Johnny, There Is a Santa Claus
I must have driven my father crazy around this of year as I spent so much time trying to outwit him and Santa Claus. It’s a time that comes in the early life of most children when they wonder if Santa is real. They want to believe because it’s a magical time and also because if they don’t perhaps the gifts won’t come.
I was a strategic planner. One Christmas I asked for a finger printing kit and the next Christmas eve dusted the fireplace in our house. Of course, my father had a long memory and made sure no one touched the fireplace.
One of our family traditions was my father dressing up as Santa and coming to the door on Christmas eve with a jolly ho, ho, ho. I began to be suspicious, perhaps more so because my father’s British accent did not disappear even in laughter. It began to dawn on me that whenever Santa came to the door my father was nowhere to be found. My mother would say he was upstairs in his office.
So I planned ahead. The next Christmas eve, Santa came to the door. I was prepared and called my father to come down. I waited, ready to call his bluff. But, then, I heard, not the patter of raindeer on the roof, but my father’s steps coming down. And he appeared as Santa let out a loud ho, ho, ho. My mother would later say my head turned back and forth from Santa to my father. For at least another few years, I was a believer.
Later my father told me he suspected I might pull a trick like this and had a neighbor dress up and come to the door. I learned to appreciate Mark Twain’s comment that when he was twenty he thought his father a fool, but when he turned twenty-one, he was amazed at how much his father had learned in a year.
Yes, Johnny, there once was a big elf dressed in red coming to the front door. I am waiting this Christmas eve for the bell to ring.
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