There are lots of different stories about Santa Claus and where he came from before he went to live at the North Pole. One story says he came from Russia, where his name was Saint Nicholas. Another story says he came from Holland, where his name was Kris Kringle. There are lots of stories about Christmas, and about Santa Claus and Saint Nicholas and Kris Kringle, so I’m just going to tell you my favorite story.
Saint Nicholas and Kris Kringle lived a very, very long time ago in countries far, far away from here. They just loved children, and both of them were very famous because they gave presents every year to good little boys and girls. And they gave lumps of coal or switches to bad little boys and girls. Switches are kind of like tree branches, and parents used to spank children with them, so if a child got a switch for Christmas, he knew right away that he had not been a good kid. A lump of coal was sometimes a good present, because all the people were very poor, and that little lump of coal could warm them up for a little while during the cold winter. So if a kid got a lump of coal, he knew he hadn’t been very bad, even if he also hadn’t been very good.
Then one day people started coming to America, and Saint Nicholas, Kris Kringle, and all the others stayed in their own countries. And all the children in America were very, very sad because they thought they weren’t going to get any presents from Saint Nicholas or from Kris Kringle or whoever was the star of the story in their own country. Well! When the mommies and daddies saw how sad their children were, they just couldn’t stand it. They decided to sneak out of their beds in the middle of the night and make presents for their children all by themselves. After all, parents just hate to see their children being sad.
So the parents cut and painted and pasted, and they hammered and sawed and sewed, and they did all the things that had to be done in order to get the presents all ready by Christmas Eve. They found out how much fun it is to give secret presents to people they loved, and that’s why we keep our presents secret even today.
Well, when all the presents were all finished and ready for all the children, then the parents remembered that Saint Nicholas and Kris Kringle always came to the kids’ houses to bring the presents. But Kris Kringle and Saint Nicholas weren’t there. So what do you think the parents did about that?
They went looking around for the happiest, jolliest, most fun person in the whole country so they could ask him to take the presents to the children on Christmas morning. They looked and looked and looked and looked. And when they finally found him and asked him, he said, "Sure! I’d love to!" He ran and got his horses and his wagon (there weren’t any cars in those days), and the parents loaded all the presents into the wagon. It was piled up way over the top, too!
The happy, jolly, fun little man was all ready to go around to all the houses and give all the children their presents when somebody decided it would be a good idea for the happy, jolly, fun little man to get all dressed up in a costume so the children wouldn’t know who he was. Just in case one of the kids woke up early, you see. One man had a bright red suit, but it was too big for the happy, jolly, fun little man, so they had to stick a pillow under the jacket to fill it up. That's why he looks so fat. And another man had some shiny black boots with a shiny black belt to match. And another man had some warm white gloves that just fit the happy, jolly little man. And one of the mommies made a big red hat to match the bright red suit. But something was not quite right about it, and for the longest time, nobody could figure out what the problem was.
But then it started to snow, and the happy, jolly, fun little man started getting all covered all over with snow. He got snow on his bright red suit and on his shiny black boots and on the belt that matched them, and on his warm white gloves. He got snow in his hair and snow on his eyebrows and snow on his cheeks and snow all over the place. And one of the mommies got real excited, because the snow gave her a great idea about finishing off the costume. She went running back to her house and brought a whole armful of sheep’s wool that hadn’t been made into cloth yet. She piled it up on his head and pasted it around his face so it would look like a beard. Someone else pasted the wool on the cuffs and hem of his bright red suit, while somebody else pasted some of the wool on his hat. And some silly daddy pasted sheep’s wool on the little man’s eyebrows, too! But when they were all done, nobody could recognize him.
Then, for the finishing touch, somebody’s grandma let him wear her funny looking granny glasses just for the fun of it.
And then he was all ready to go, and it was getting very late because it was almost time for the sun to come up! He climbed up into his wagon and started off to take the presents to all the children. But it was almost time for the kids to get up, and he was kind of scared he wouldn’t get all the toys delivered in time. Well, that’s why he was wearing the costume, wasn’t it? So that even if the children got up real early, they wouldn’t know who it was and would think it was Saint Nicholas or Kris Kringle.
Well, he managed to get almost all the toys delivered before any of the children woke up. But at the very last house, the littlest girl in the family just happened to wake up extra early, and she saw him! Oh, she was so excited! She ran to get her brothers and sisters, and dragged them all onto the front porch, because that’s where the man was leaving the presents. She was so little that she couldn’t say "Saint Nicholas" very well, and it came out sounding like "Santa Claus" instead. All the children came running out, but they were too late. All they saw just the flash of his red suit and the back of his wagon as he drove away.
All the children were very excited because they all thought Saint Nicholas or Kris Kringle had brought them their toys. But the kids in that one family who actually saw him told them it wasn’t Kris Kringle and it wasn’t Saint Nicholas! It was Santa Claus, and they told all their friends and neighbors about seeing him. The littlest girl even told about the bright red suit and the shiny black boots with the belt to match and the warm white gloves and the long white hair and the white eyebrows and the white beard. And all the children were very happy that America had her very own Santa Claus and didn’t need to borrow Kris Kringle or Saint Nicholas.
Well, that’s the way it’s been ever since. Mommies and daddies still work hard to make sure all the presents are ready by Christmas Eve. And a lot of daddies want to have a turn wearing the bright red suit and the shiny black boots with the belt to match and the warm white gloves and the big red hat. That’s why you see a Santa Claus in all the stores and on all the street corners - there are so many people now that we have to let more than one daddy at a time be Santa Claus.
And grown ups never, ever tell the children who Santa Claus really is until the children ask. That's because it’s so much fun for the little ones to try to catch just a peek of the happy, jolly little man who brings their presents. Over the years, we’ve made a real superstar out of our American Santa Claus, haven’t we? He doesn’t have a team of horses and a wagon any more, because somebody thought it would be more fun if he had a team of reindeer and a sleigh. And he doesn’t leave presents on the front porch any more, but comes tumbling down the chimney and leaves the presents right under the tree. I think our chimney is too small for anybody to come tumbling down it, don’t you?
And not very long ago, somebody thought up Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer - and that made the Santa story even more fun, didn’t it? Grown ups had to think real fast when the kids started asking where Santa Claus went when it wasn’t Christmas! And some smart mommy came up with the idea that Santa went to the North Pole, and that when it wasn’t Christmas time, he was working hard in his shop to make a lot of toys. And a daddy figured out that there are so many kids in the world today that Santa just has to have help to make the toys, so he made up the elves!
Well, today there are hundreds of companies making all the toys, and there are thousands of daddies who get to wear the costume every Christmas, so that eventually, every daddy will get a turn. And the grown ups still get up in the middle of the night so they can be sure all the presents get put under the all the trees for all the kids. And lots of kids bake cookies for Santa, and leave them on a plate by the door with a glass of milk. And after the daddies and mommies get all the presents out of their hiding places, they get to rest up for a bit and eat the cookies and drink the milk.
But you know what? Every year, some little kid gets up extra early to see if she can catch just a peek at the happy, jolly, fun little man in the bright red suit, with the shiny black boots with a belt to match, and the big red hat and the warm white gloves, and all the sheep’s wool on his suit and on his boots and on his head and his chin and his eyebrows and all over him. What do you think? Do you think she’ll ever see him?
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