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Santa's Helpers

I remember my first Christmas party with Grandma.  I was just a kid. I remember tearing across town on my bike to visit her on the day my big sister dropped the bomb:

"There is no Santa Claus," she jeered.  "Even dummies know that!"  

My Grandma was not the gushy kind, never had been.  I fled to her that day because I knew she would be straight with me.  I knew Grandma always told the truth, and I knew that the truth always went down a whole lot easier when swallowed with one of her world-famous cinnamon buns.  Grandma was home, and the buns were still warm.  Between bites I told her everything.  She was ready for me.

"No, Santa Claus!" she snorted.  "Ridiculous! Don't believe it.  That rumor has been going around for years, and it makes me mad, plain mad.  Now, put on your coat, and let's go."

"Go? Go where, Grandma?"  I asked. I hadn't even finished my second cinnamon bun.

"Where" turned out to be Kerby's General Store, the one store in town that had a little bit of just about everything.  As we walked through its doors, Grandma handed me ten dollars.  That was a bundle in those days.

"Take this money," she said, "and buy something for someone who needs it.  I'll wait for you in the car."  Then she turned and walked out of Kerby's.

I was only eight years old.  I'd often gone shopping with my mother, but never had I shopped for anything all by myself.  The store seemed big and crowded, full of people scrambling to finish their Christmas shopping.  For a few moments I just stood there, confused, clutching that ten-dollar bill, wondering what to buy, and who on earth to buy it for.  I thought of everybody I knew: my family, my friends, my neighbors, the kids at school, the people who went to my church.  I was just about thought out, when I suddenly thought of Bobbie Decker.

He sat right behind me in Mrs. Pollock's grade-two class.

Bobbie Decker didn't have a coat.  I knew that because he never went out for recess during the winter.  His mother always wrote a note, telling the teacher that he had a cough, but all us kids knew that Bobbie Decker didn't have a cough, and he didn't have a coat.  I fingered the ten-dollar bill with growing excitement.  I would buy Bobbie Decker a coat.  I settled on a red corduroy one that had a hood to it.  It looked real warm, and he would like that.

"Is this a Christmas present for someone?" the lady behind the counter asked kindly, as I laid my ten dollars down.

"Yes," I replied shyly.  "It's.....for Bobbie." The nice lady smiled at me.  I didn't get any change, but she put the coat in a bag and wished me a Merry Christmas.

That evening, Grandma helped me wrap the coat in Christmas paper and ribbons, and write, "To Bobbie, From Santa Claus" on it -- Grandma said that Santa always insisted on secrecy.  Then she drove me over to Bobbie Decker's house, explaining as we went that I was now and forever officially one of Santa's helpers.  Grandma parked down the street from Bobbie's house, and she and I crept noiselessly and hid in the bushes by his front walk.

Then Grandma gave me a nudge. "All right, Santa Claus," she whispered, "get going."  I took a deep breath, dashed for his front door, threw the present down on his step, pounded his doorbell and flew back to the safety of the bushes and Grandma.

Together we waited breathlessly in the darkness for the front door to open.

Finally it did, and there stood Bobbie.

Forty years haven't dimmed the thrill of those moments spent shivering, beside my grandma, in Bobbie Decker's bushes.  That night, I realized that those awful rumors about Santa Claus were just what Grandma said; they were ridiculous. Santa was alive and well, and we were on his team.

~Anonymous~
Submitted by Sylvia

 

Click here for a complete bibliography of works by Leo Tolstoy
 
7 Wonders
of the World
A Favor
A Fountain of Good
A Psalm of Life
Abraham Lincoln
Accountability
Addison
Advancement in Life
Albert Einstein
Allan Bloom
Anna Quindlen
Apples of Gold
Benjamin Disraeli
Brian Azar
Burnett
Character
Children
Choosing to Survive
Courage
Daniel Goleman
Desiderata 
Dogs Can Teach
Dreams That Come True
Edward Young
Energy and Ill Temper
Fair Treatment  
Faith 
Forgiveness
Fyodor Dostoevsky
Gary Zukav
Glenn Clark
Glenn Clark on Trust
God's Loan
Happiness Is....
Happy Is The Man...
Henry Van Dyke
History
How Far You Go in Life
How Rich Are We?
I Wish You Enough...
I’ve Learned…
Ibn Hazm
Information Please
Just Checking In
Kahil Gibran
Keep Your Fork
Kind Words
Kindness
Kingsley on Friendship 
Knowledge
Laura Lee Randall
Leaves of Gold on Education
Leo Tolstoy
Let Yourself...
Life
Life Is.....
Living Life to the Fullest
Look to this Day
Love
Love of Truth
Mary Stewart - Collect
Norman Cousins
Oliver Goldsmith
Oliver Wendell Holmes
On Life and Love
Parable of Motherhood
Pascal
Personal Worth
Plato
Politics
Prayer to the Holy Spirit
President Ronald Reagan
Public Speakers Library
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Reflection
Remember Me....
Right to Choice
Robert Louis Stevenson
Ron Yarnik
Rousseau
Rumor
Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Santa's Helpers
Santa's Prayer on Christmas Eve
Self
Serenity Prayer
Simone de Beauvoir
Social Intercourse
Someone Special
Sonnet 116
St. Jerome
Success
Supreme Happiness
Take Time...
Tewa Indian Song 
The Answered Prayer
The Best Day of My Life
The Christmas Spirt
The Common Good
The Crow
The Father's Eyes
The Gold 
The Goose Story
The Hero
The Lord's Prayer
The Man in the Arena
The Paradox of Our Time in History
The Prayer of St. Francis
The 'Present'
The Trouble Tree 
Thomas a' Kempis
Thoreau
Thought
Thoughts From
the Shore
Tom Brokow
True Glory
True Passion
Unique Flaws
Wealth, Success and Love
What I've Learned in Life
When You 
William Ellery Channing
William Faulkner
Within the Human Heart
Words of Encouragement
Words to Live By
Wrapping Paper
Youth
Your Children

 


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