Dec 12 2008
Short Story: Santa Snores
SANTA SNORES
We had moved to a nice big two story house and were living with my grandfather. I remember the front room of the house for I was not allowed to go into his room. There were naked women on the wallpaper in black and white. I was five years old and it was the month of December.
We had a great time picking out our tree at the local farm. We brought it into our lovely living room which had ceilings that stretched to nine feet. The tree fit nicely in the corner where the single wall plug was located. We had moved the television to the other side of the room and hooked it up to an extension cord that ran under the ratty and tattered carpet.
The tree was our Christmas treat because we didn’t have very much money. I used to love going over to my Aunt’s place for she was an avid baker. The short bread cookies with the sprinkles on them in shapes of trees, wreaths and little snowmen.
The gingerbread cookies and the gingerbread house was the best part! Making the white icing and applying the colorful candies, red and white candy-canes and the spearmint leaves. Half the time we would be munching on the candy and not putting on our work of art. At night we would suffer with our many tooth aches and sugar rushes. I would get a headache if I had eaten too much candy in the daytime. I’ve since learned to control my cravings for sugar.
I loved wrapping presents and at the age of five when you don’t have any money to buy some you will use anything in the house. In this case anything goes! My father was a carpet layer so I would wrap up the blades from his knife. He would go the next day to work on a piece of carpet and be looking frantically for said knives and wondering how the screw got loose on his tool?
I would draw pictures and make my very own Christmas cards with money in them. I would find the loose change in dad’s blazers and suit coats after Sunday dinners. I never considered it stealing and when I had taped the pennies and nickels in the card Dad would inquire where I got the money. I didn’t want to get in trouble so I would say I found it laying on the ground.
For many years I would pick up pennies and throw them into a coffee can. Years later I had thousands of pennies but unfortunately I had moved in with a crooked roommate that stole my coffee can of pennies when they walked out the door one day! So I have no idea just how much I had saved up over the years. I just remember the can was almost full and it was very heavy!
Finally Christmas Eve had come and I was having trouble falling asleep. It was a blizzard outside and I told my parents that I hoped that Rudolph could still drive in the bad weather. I worried that Santa might get hurt in the storm like a friend of ours had while driving their car. At the age of five I didn’t realize that Santa had his own speedway up in the air!
It was late at night and I heard a loud thumping overhead and it had woken me up. I laid there in my bed looking at the ceiling of my bedroom wondering if Santa would be too fat to get down our tiny chimney piece. We didn’t have a fireplace and I was very upset about that. I had asked Grandpa to build one so that Santa could come in but he said it wasn’t necessary. He said that Santa had magical powers and that he would find a way into the house in a safe manner and that I wasn’t to worry about it.
I heard the clatter again then crash, bang, boom! I was terrified, maybe Rudolph had fallen off the roof. It was snowing rather madly outside and I peaked out my window through the slit in my curtain. I couldn’t see a thing it was a white wall of snow out there. I thought poor Santa, what a rotten night to have to work. I knew that if it was really snowy, cold and blowing that Mom and Dad wouldn’t go to work. How nice of Santa to still come when he really didn’t have to but then again if I didn’t get any gifts I would think less of him as a child.
The clattering had stopped and then I heard Santa walking down my stairs! I knew that creaky stair. I always got yelled at for trying to go down to the kitchen late at night to get some milk and sneak a cookie or two. I always wanted a midnight snack. Dad finally got smart and started feeding me a peanut butter and jam sandwich before bed with some milk or juice. Usually around nine or ten o’clock and then I was able to go to my room and try to settle down and sleep.
I had never been much of a sleeper. Usually I would sleep four to six hours a night and that was it. I had been taught to stay in my room and play or read a book in the mornings. At the age of three I once woke up at five am and I was ferociously hungry. So I grabbed the frying pan, threw some eggs in it and turned the stove on high. I added some bacon and was throughly enjoying cooking my own breakfast until the bacon splattered in my eye.
I ran crying to my parents room and they awoke to billows of black smoke in the kitchen. Needless to say at the age of three I was banned from cooking on the stove until I was around ten years old. I was allowed to make my own toast or play with my easy bake oven and only use what was allowed. No more eggs and bacon for me. For many years after I was actually afraid to cook bacon for I hated the grease spitting on me and burning my little arms.
That night I listened at the doorway and looked out. There was a ladder placed by the trap door to the attic. We must have a robber I thought! What if they stole our presents! So I sneaked a peek down the stairs. I saw the backside of a red suit and someone bending around the Christmas tree and putting gifts under it. I was filled with anticipation and excitement. I looked to see if my home made cookies were gone off my Santa plate and they were. I went back to my room and waited.
Santa must have come through the attic then! I guess he came through the chimney after all. I was happy that he would be nice and warm for awhile and that I had fed him my cookies and milk. I dozed off for a bit but then I heard this loud strange noise. It sounded like something rumbling and it kind of sounded like Grandpa at night. Grandpa usually snored very loudly and he would at times forget to shut his bedroom door. I would wake up and run down on my way to the kitchen and shut the door for him.
I walked out and carefully went down the stairs. The man in the red suit was sitting in Grandpa’s lazy boy chair with his head resting on his chest. Loud snores were coming from him. All the gifts were under the tree but now I was worried that Santa wouldn’t make it to the other children’s homes because he was snoring in Grandpa’s chair!
I went upstairs and into my parents room. I shook my mother awake and told her we had a serious problem downstairs. She woke up my father and told him to go down and deal with it. I followed closely behind. I told him Santa had fallen asleep and he was snoring in our living room. My father tried to control the silly grin on his face and he busted out laughing. I started to cry. I couldn’t understand why he wasn’t upset about Santa falling asleep then Santa woke up and looked up saying, “Humph oh!” I yelled, “Grandpa are you Santa?” He looked at my Dad then smiled and said, “No honey, I decided to help Santa out tonight. I got the gifts out of the attic for him.” I turned and looked at my parents and then started to cry. I realized there never had been a Santa and that I had been believing in something that wasn’t real! I wondered who was answering my Dear Santa letters and figured it was someone who worked for the post office.
I never told my cousins or anyone else. I let them all believe in Santa Claus. But that night at the age of five I no longer believed in Santa until I was much older. I read the history of Kris Kringle and found out that Santa really did exist! He may not come to my home and pay for all the gifts but he taught us the importance of giving at this time of year. To show love to our friends and family and to spend time together celebrating being a part of each other’s lives.
Some of us celebrate according to our religious beliefs whether it be the baby Jesus in the Manger, the Mother Mary, or the other beliefs that circulate in this lovely world of ours. The main thing is that we take time out of our daily, busy schedule and make time with our loved ones. So that we may build wonderful memories and live with our traditions of a fine meal and exchanging of gifts!
Links
E bay-
Google-
http://www.google.com/search?q=santa+snores&sourceid=ie7&rls=com.microsoft:en-US&ie=utf8&oe=utf8
New York Times-
http://query.nytimes.com/search/sitesearch?query=santa+books&type=nyt
Kris Kringle Cookies
http://familyfun.go.com/recipes/special/feature/famf1202_feat_kringle/
Teach children the History of Kris Kringle
http://www.ehow.com/how_2103929_teach-children-history-kris-kringle.html
