It's no secret that I embrace the roll of Santa Claus. Basically, I look like the guy, so it's an
easy transformation to become the character so beloved by children, malls, and
department stores.
Each year there are many memorable moments as I visit in
homes, corporate parties, fund raisers, special needs homes, and children
everywhere. And each year I try to
remember my most treasured occurrences and narrow it down to just one or two
absolute favorites. This year isn't
over for me as I write this, but already I'm overloaded with favorite
moments.
If I had to pick one favorite moment so far from this year,
it would be with a five-year-old girl in front of an audience of many hundreds
of family members. (Not just her
family, but families of a large group of children brought together for a
Christmas pageant.) She came up on
stage to tell Santa what she wanted for Christmas, but she had a couple of
questions she wanted me to answer first.
It went something like this:
Santa: What would you like this year?
Child: Santa?
I want to ask you some questions first.
Santa: Okay.
What are your questions?
Child: Which reindeer is your favorite?
Santa: All of them. Santa has no favorite.
Child: Oh.
Well, what is your favorite cookie?
Santa: The round ones. Santa likes the round ones best.
Child: Okaaaaay.
I see where this is going.
Santa: HoHoHo.
I guess you had to be there, but the audience was in
stitches, and Santa almost fell out of his chair laughing.
Last year I received a photo taken of me holding my
grand-niece, and I do believe it is my all-time favorite moment. To her I've always been 'Uncle Santa', and I
hope it always remains that way.