About thirteen years ago my husband and I were watching the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade on television, and they were talking about how much the Santa's at Macy's made during a season. My husband told me that he ought to be a Santa, that he thought he would make a good one, I agreed and told him that we ought to try it the next year, it was kind of late to get a suit and do anything that year, but we could see if there would be interest in having a Santa for parties and such.

That is just what we did, we had a suit made, my husband filled it out well without any padding, and I made handmade posters and put them up around town in some children shops and other places where families might see them, and I also called some day cares, we started advertising about a week before Thanksgiving and by the time Christmas had come and gone that first year, we had done about ten parties.

The next year, some of the same folks called again, and other joined in, we had hit on something special. Santa even made a couple of appearances on Christmas Eve. We had pre-teen boys when we started this, and it was fun for them to ride around for Santa on Christmas Eve.

Through the years, I have joined Santa on visits dressing as Mrs. Clause and though I am not the one that most kids look for, there have been a couple of different times when Mrs. Clause was a bigger hit than Santa, especially by the babies who are afraid of the man with the beard.

Santa now has standing appointments and we add several each year, it is fun for those who are inviting the special guest, but it is just as much fun for Santa. He goes to two of the same house that he went to the first year out. One of the parties is a come and go type party on Christmas Eve, and it is for the adults as much as for the children, the senior adults get as much a kick out him being there as the children, I think that it really brings back precious memories to them

When he puts on that red suite and beard, he cant grow his on because of his daytime job, they won't allow it, but he does dye his hair white), he become The Jolly Ole Elf Himself. We will see children when he is not dressed as Santa, he will not even have the beard and children will wave at him, I told him it was the Santa complex thing, like in the Tim Allen Movie, they just know he is Santa.

Our children are now grown and before long we will begin to have grandchildren, I asked Santa , what will we do then, he said he would continue to do the appearances we would just have to not let our own grands know who it is. We will have to hide the red suite very carefully, but he loves being Santa, and will be until he can't any more.

Living with Santa is great, I believe in him and it is fun to see how many others believe in him also.

Learn more about this author, K M Draughn.
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