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He looked so strange to me. <\/p>\nHe looked so strange to me. <\/p>\n
It was the first time I had seen Santa<\/a> wearing something other than his Santa<\/a> suit. <\/p>\n He was speaking before the Chamber of Commerce, one of those networking functions you always hate to go to. <\/p>\n His comments were brief, conservative and frankly kind of bland. <\/p>\n Here I was seeing Santa<\/a> in the real world for the first time. I wasn\u2019t convinced I was witnessing the same person. <\/p>\n We met later at his office, a very casual almost messy kind of place. <\/p>\n His desk was large but looked like it came from Ikea. A small table behind it was covered with more pictures than could be looked at while a mounted elk jutted out from the far wall, as if listening to every conversation held in the room. <\/p>\n From these modest trappings no one could assume that Santa<\/a> was loaded. <\/p>\n But I had since learned that his business reach was pretty long and he is worth millions. <\/p>\n His business interests go far beyond our country valley \u2013 he\u2019s got companies in Colorado, Nebraska and Canada, too. <\/p>\n \u201cNobody here knows you\u2019re Santa<\/a> Claus?\u201d I asked behind the closed door. <\/p>\n \u201cNobody. And it needs to stay that way\u201d he insisted. <\/p>\n I asked him if anyone that knew him had ever seen him as Santa<\/a> or recognized him \u201cin uniform\u201d. <\/p>\n He said once had he put on the suit for his grandkids but that it was the most nerve wracking experience of his life. <\/p>\n They certainly enjoyed it more than he did. He swore he would never do it again. <\/p>\n \u201cWhy?\u201d I asked. \u201cWhat\u2019s the harm?\u201d<\/p>\n It\u2019s the pressure. Santa<\/a> takes being Santa<\/a> so serious that those worlds just cannot collide, he explained to me. <\/p>\n \u201cI can\u2019t lie to a kid,\u201d he told me. \u201cIf a kid looks at me and says \u2018I know you\u2019re not the real Santa\u2019 or \u2018I know there is no such thing as Santa\u2019 I\u2019m not going to argue with him. If I can\u2019t do this honestly I won\u2019t do it at all. St. Nicholas was a real man and few really know the story. But I know it. I can tell it. But honestly it isn\u2019t about his story \u2013 it is about being him, being Saint Nicholas.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAre you afraid that if people you know are aware that you\u2019re Santa<\/a> that you\u2019ll be bugged to do it all the time?\u201d I asked. <\/p>\n \u201cPartly,\u201d he admitted. <\/p>\n \u201cI only do this in December when I can and don\u2019t misunderstand me, I love<\/a> it. I love<\/a> being Santa<\/a>. But the experience playing Santa<\/a> the first time taught me that every time I put on that suit I pray. I make it a sacred experience.\u201d<\/p>\n Ok. I had heard him twice now talk about his first experience wearing a suit.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat happened that was so bad that first time you put on the suit?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI was working on contract with a local company that I ended purchasing,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n \u201cI was there for three months working their financials, got to know some people, and got sucked into going to the Christmas<\/a> party and eventually asked to put on the suit. Just before Christmas<\/a> it was announced that I was acquiring the company and thus becoming everyone\u2019s boss. I had already committed to the suit thing, wasn\u2019t sure how I felt about it and just walked in totally unprepared for what would happen. Thank goodness my wife was not there. Santa<\/a> attracts all sorts and he\u2019s got no place at a company Christmas<\/a> party, Hmmm. <\/p>\n \u201cSo what convinced you to put the suit on again for real?\u201d I asked. <\/p>\n \u201cRedemption, I think. Guilt\u2026\u201d he admitted. <\/p>\n \u201cI wanted to make it right. The rest is history.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cBut why hide that?\u201d I said. \u201cI think you\u2019re a wonderful Santa<\/a>. Magical. Almost perfect.\u201d<\/p>\n He shook his head. \u201cBecause it is like I told you,\u201d he explained. <\/p>\n \u201cSanta makes me a better man. He forces me to give without recognition because he has taught me the pure power of love<\/a> in doing that. The minute I am found out any biases associated with me bleeds into the purity of Santa<\/a> and his intentions. That isn\u2019t Christmas<\/a> and ultimately that isn\u2019t why I\u2019m doing it. Giving, I\u2019m convinced, was meant to be completely anonymous. You don\u2019t find yourself until you lose yourself completely. Jesus said that and I didn\u2019t get that until I found I could give anonymously under the cloak of Santa<\/a> Claus.\u201d<\/p>\n Wow. Mind blown yet again. <\/p>\n How do we clone this guy?<\/p>\n A day later I was standing in the cold, this time with my kids \u2013 who are all ardent fans of Santa<\/a> Claus. They also happen to be experienced critics. <\/p>\n They know a good Santa<\/a> when they see one. I didn\u2019t tell them a thing about what they were about to see. I wanted to get their honest assessment. <\/p>\n It was cold, trying hard to snow, the sky cold and gray. The band had passed, then the horses, then the Boy Scouts. <\/p>\n Now came Santa<\/a>, on the fire engine \u2013 lights<\/a> ablaze, horn blowing and an occasional sounding of the siren announcing him to the crowd, as if he needed an introduction. <\/p>\n Santa<\/a> was digging it. <\/p>\n Every little boy wants to be Santa<\/a> riding through town on a fire engine and Santa<\/a> could not hide it. <\/p>\n He waved, he pointed, he said hello. He climbed down a ladder and hung off the side and did high fives along one side of the street. <\/p>\n At one point when the parade slowed to a crawl he climbed down, and walked towards the crowd only to be mobbed with kids who begged to ride the fire engine. <\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s got the look, Dad.\u201d My 14 year old observed. She\u2019s been raised right. <\/p>\n Santa<\/a> lingered, nearly pulling the parade to a mere crawl as he worked the crowd. The cheers, the excitement and the energy would only mean that his line would be longer than ever on this, the last appearance he would make in town this season. <\/p>\n I urged my girls to hike over there with me so we could be deputized as elves and help pass out candy to all the kids. <\/p>\n We got there long before Santa<\/a> did. So too did Mrs. Claus, who not only had us pass out candy but also arranged for hot chocolate for the line-up of kids. <\/p>\n I could tell she was a little worried about Santa\u2019s late arrival. <\/p>\n He was brought over by a police cruiser \u2013 lights<\/a> flashing, of course \u2013 but he slowly got out of the car and approached Mrs. Claus, whispering into her ear. <\/p>\n Something was wrong. <\/p>\n Santa<\/a> was profoundly sad, his face drawn with pain and shock. <\/p>\n Rita was dead. <\/p>\n This is Part III in our series telling the true story of a small town Santa<\/a>. In Part II<\/strong><\/a>, we saw Santa<\/a> in action. In our next installment, Santa<\/a> has to make an appearance he doesn’t want to make — because not everything is about Santa<\/a>. <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" He looked so strange to me. It was the first time I had seen Santa wearing something other than his Santa suit. He was speaking before the Chamber of Commerce, one of those networking functions you always hate to go to. His comments were brief, conservative and frankly kind of bland. Here I was seeing […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":25402,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","iawp_total_views":12,"footnotes":""},"categories":[52,2,20],"tags":[641],"class_list":["post-25398","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-christmas-memories","category-christmas-news","category-christmas-opinion","tag-servant-santa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25398","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25398"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25398\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25402"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25398"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25398"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25398"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nI\u2019ll just say that. I felt dirty afterwards, like I had worn a priest\u2019s robes for Halloween<\/a> or something.\u201d<\/p>\n