Christmas Fables

As we all know parents lie. And yes we all know salesmen lie. Being both I’m just better at it, my wife may disagree, but I think I’m pretty good at it. Not that I am really proud about it, it is just a fact of my life. Sometimes I can put it to good use.


Last week I was telling the girls a story about when I was a little kid I had wanted to sneak out of my bed and hide behind the biggest chair in the living room and see Santa Claus leave present. That is the truth. The girls thought that was a wonderful idea and wanted to do it this year. I told them they couldn’t and I had once met Santa Claus, somehow the following story came out, sort of remember I’m a salesman and a father.

A few years ago while we were still in the house in Nyack on Christmas Eve it was late and I was in the recliner falling asleep, you know the one that is now in the bed room upstairs. Your mother had said to come to bed, it’s late. I said I would come to bed in just a minute. I fell back to sleep. I hear a rustling of material against material and think it’s your mother coming out to get me to bed. I open an eye half way and see someone bending over the still lit Christmas tree humming quietly to them self and old song that I had remembered hearing on an old Christmas movie. I turn on my side and the song stops and I start to drift back to sleep when a deep voice chuckles. I slowly open my eye again and this time a bearded face is turned towards me. His white beard hangs down and just touches his red coat. His face is creased and his cheeks are red, his smile never leaves his face as he puts a single finger to his lips and quietly says sleep, it’s the lord’s birthday. My eyes close and I go back to sleep. I wake up the next morning having forgotten the story until just now.

The above story is the way it only happens in fairy tales and the movies. The real way I told it was we were living in Nyack several years ago, it was Christmas Eve and I had fallen asleep in the brown chair in the living room. I was awakened by a sound and I looked up to see Santa Claus putting presents under our tree. He put a single finger to his lips telling me to be quiet and he went about his business as I feel back asleep.

The girls got a big kick out of the fact that I have met Santa Claus.