Thursday, November 17, 2005

Bad Santa?????

Any of us with children have probably told our children at some point that they had better be good or Santa won't bring you anything for Christmas. After all Santa has a list and he is checking it twice to see who has been naughty or nice. Several years ago at the North Pole Santa was making his rounds at several events, well there was one little boy who was probably three or four at that time and this little toe head was just one of those mischiveous types and I had witnessed some of things he had been doing. So the first time I saw him that year I just told James he had to work on being better and listen to mom and dad more. Then Santa was at another event about a week later and James came up to him and I said that he had been improving but still needed a little more work. About three days befoore Christmas that year Santa and Mrs. Claus were delivering gifts from the sharing tree at the North Pole, and we had knocked on the wrong apartment door, and James was there with some other children now he ask me if he was on the nice list? Mrs. Claus happened to have the list of places we were making deliveries to so I had asked her for it and as I looked at it I told James he was real close to getting over to the nice list. What James did not know is that his mom had been letting me know how well he was doing and that he had just kept getting better each time we had talked to the point that after our last talk he had become almost angelic. So that was a situation that had worked out real well.

The next summer Mrs. Claus and Santa were able to get even closer to the source of information on James and his many other brothers and sisters as we had moved in next door to them. Santa was a little concerned about protecting his identity at that time, so right from the start any time I was out in the yard I would tell the children that I was the meanest man in town figuring that would throw them off course. Mrs. Claus however being such a nice lady would go out and visit with mom and the children and it wasn't long before the let her know that I could not be the meanest man in town because Mrs. Claus was far to nice to have married someone that mean. For several years we had a lot of fun with those children, their mother would make sure that we had at least one pertinent point of information about something that had happened during the year. Probably the best one was when James had gone to Church one Sunday with his family and part way into the service he realized he had his pants on backwards he stood up and promptly announced that fact to his mother and the rest of the congreagation of this problem. Moms response to him was " we can fix that but you do not have to say it so loud that Santa can here you clear up at the North Pole. That next Christmas season I made sure he knew that I had heard his statement.

So that should bring me to an event that occurred yesterday and completely backfired on Santa or was it Mom. A mother came marching right into the set with fire in hereyes and two boys following very hesitantly about 25 feet behind her so she was able to tell me the one boys name and that he had been misbehaving and wanted me to tell him he was not going to get anything for Christmas unless he straightened up. Well when he finally got up to me I was very gently trying to let him know that he needed to work on being better and listening to mom and dad doing as they ask. Santa would never tell a child that he would not be coming by there house on Christmas. Well this had completely backfired, as soon as I told him that he needed to try to be better he started crying. Santa is not the one to make a child cry so I was hugging him and trying to let him know I would be bringing him something, what Santa brings would be dependant on his behavior though. As I looked at his little brother though I could just tell that there were two sides to this situation so as the older brother had started to calm down I asked other one if he picked on his brother and I was right he fessed up with no problem so that part went well and the visit finished up on an o.k. note. The best part though was that dad had been standing there watching all of this and as he was leaving way behind the other three he looked at me and said he wasn't sure who he should be scolding mom or his son. Must have been something pretty bad going on just before she came in to see Santa!

Today right after lunch I went into the administration office at the mall to put some more water in the refrigerator and when I came around the corner into the reception area there was a mom with her son and daughter. So Santa acted a bit surprised and let the children know that he had been looking for them. I asked them if they had been good, and then mom gave me a so so signal, so Santa said I needed to check with my elves and took out my camera cell phone pretended to take there pics and called elf number 12 to ask him what he knew about these two children. After I hung up I went into the brushing your teeth and cleaning your room routine with them as well as listening to mom better, that one went off without a hitch Santa presented them with candy canes and left the three of them, as well as some of the Plaza Bonita Team with smiles on their faces.

Sometimes it is alright for Santa to ask if you have been naughty or nice and sometimes parents have just put so much fear into their children that it makes Santa the bad guy. This Santa is not one that wants to be the bad guy. I live for bringing out the Joy and Happiness Christmas as well as the spirit of giving.

The happy sad moment of the day we had eight young men come in for a photo with Santa. They are all in the military and were going to send the group picture to each of their mothers. Right after them was a grandmother, and mom with a young man about 6 years old and another one about a month old. The six year old is the uncle to the month old one. We get the two of them set up for the photo and grandma tells Santa this is for the young ones father who is over in Iraq. Santa feels pretty good to be able to be a part of these two photo groups. I am proud to be able to say that I for one do appreciate that we have troops that protect our freedoms and are willing to help others find the same freedoms.

On set visits with Santa today 62 six day total 356 .

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