Every year my husband writes a Christmas story. Here is this years Christmas offering. Merry, merry to all and to all a good night!
A few years ago, back when we still lived in New Jersey and William was just about 6 or 7 (he was asking the same questions about Santa that Logan is now)
Christmas Eve & the Santa Suit
It was Christmas Eve, Kate and I sent the kids and the dog upstairs for the night. After a while we stopped hearing them move around up there and figured that they had finally settled off to sleep. We went to the basement and got out the presents, put them under the tree and had a glass of wine. It was getting late and Kate thought we ought to head off to sleep ourselves. We turned off the lights and Kate and I started upstairs off to bed. I stopped half way up the stairs and made some lame excuse about forgetting to clean something up and headed back down.
I had a plan to re-spark the belief in Santa. It was hard keeping it a secret from Kate, but I wanted her to act surprised in front of William. I had bought a Santa Suit.
I snuck out to the garage and put on the Santa suit complete with the beard and jingle bells. My plan was to creep upstairs and jingle the bells just outside William’s room. I would then peak into his room so he could see Santa. Then I would make mad dash back down the stairs and out the front door before he could get out of bed. The next day he’d tell his mom he had saw Santa and she would act all surprised. – Perfect plan.
After dressing up like Santa, I crept back into the house, up the stairs and down the hall to William’s room. Once outside William’s room I jingled the bells and peaked in (everything according to plan). William picked up his head and saw me... then SCREAMED in terror. This was not a Holiday Season sound, unless the holiday in question had been Halloween. It must have been the loudest most horrific scream our town had heard in years. It sure scared the holly out of me!
Almost instantly, the dog shot out of my bedroom and began growling and barking (she never liked Christmas much to begin with and she was also EXTREMELY protective of the boys). I turned and started to run down the hall to the stairs. Kate came out of the bathroom yelling "WHAT THE (Non-Christmas Expletive) WAS GOING ON!" A quick thought came to mind..., maybe I should have told Katie about my plan. As she stepped out into the hall, she screamed and threw her toothbrush at me. It hit me dead in the right eye. (Incase you were ever wondering – tooth paste stings when applied to the eye). As I ran and stumbled down the stairs clutching my eye, the dog gave chase. Either the dog did not recognize me with the long white beard, or instinctually chased something running, or was trying to protect the boys – in any event she wanted a piece of me.
I made it out the front door with the dog hot on my heels. I Stopped on the front lawn to catch my breath and tried to rub the pain out of my eye. How could my plan have gone so wrong? A few seconds later our dog burst out the front door, continuing to give chase. In my haste I must have left the door ajar. I screamed and ran. The dog looked like she wanted blood.
As I ran across our yard I noticed our next door neighbor, Jim, come to his front door. I guess he had heard William’s scream and came running out to investigate. As I passed from our yard into our Jim’s the dog finally caught up to me and clamped down on my leg, ripping my Santa suit. Jim called out "what’s going on?" By this time Kate had made it to our porch and yelled "stop him".
Now, Jim –he was my size and more! Jim was big man and as I ran across his yard with the dog tearing the legs off my Santa Suit, Jim leapt from his porch and tackled me good and hard. We tumbled across his yard and came to a crushing halt in the middle of his life size Nativity scene. The three of us, Jim the dog and I were a jumble in the manger. Elbows, teeth, fur and mock frankincense was everywhere.
I screamed "quit it, cut it out, ITS ME, ITS ME" At hearing my voice, Jim let me go and I swear the dog bit me harder. By now the rest of the neighbors were coming out to see what was the matter and even some of their kids were peaking out their windows, including William. Great, now I’ve ruined Christmas for everyone I thought.
Jim being quicker of mind then me and in considerably less pain, saw all the kids at their windows ... he smiled and called out –" It’s alright folks – Santa just fell from his sleigh and I’m ahh helping him back up – Santa’s ok everyone – go back to bed"
By then Kate had made it to the manger and pulled the dog off of me. She leaned in closely and growled under her breath "what’s wrong with you? Get in the house! "
I said good night to Jim thanking him loudly enough for the kids to hear and limped back to our house clutching my torn red pants to me.. When I reached outr porch I called out ," I’m Just gonna umm finish up at the Yoquintos and be on my way .... MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL AND TO ALL A GOOD NIGHT.
I stayed downstairs for a while as Kate made sure that William went back to bed. After a bit I crept back to the garage and changed out of my torn Santa Suit and finally made my way to bed.
The next day William told me how he had seen Santa and how Santa had fallen from his sleigh. All the kids in the block were talking about it for weeks. And Jim became the local hero for helping Santa. Jason couldn’t believe he slept through the whole thing, then later claimed he had seen an elf push Santa from the sleigh, but didn’t want to say anything..., you know how elves hold grudges... Logan, was just too young to know what was going on.
We got another year of belief out of William until he found the torn Santa Suit in the garage when we were packing for the move to Pennsylvania. He smiled at me when he found it.. he sighed, and said "I guess I still believe" then gave me a hug and wished me a Merry Christmas in the middle of July. .
Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night.