December 24th

I have had a wonderful time this year bringing the love that I feel is at the heart of this season to about 2-3 thousand children. The thing is each of those children has given it back to me, even those that wouldn't sit on my lap! Sometimes the withdrawal is difficult tho. Christmas Eve and Christmas day can seem empty after the rush of the season coming up to them! I find I need to take steps to combat going down the rabbit hole! Friends have invited us over for breakfast and I am cooking dinner this year. Well, microwaving it, but we will have all the traditional dishes that I love: Turkey, Dressing, Mashed Potatoes, Gravy, & Sweet Potatoes! I also have not opened any of our Christmas cards yet(Yes, I still get some cards each year!) and I plan on reading them all tomorrow afternoon. Then we start another year! Best wishes to all of you who have read this tales, sharing them with y'all is a big part of my enjoyment of the season! May your Christmas be wonderful and may your New Year be happy and bright and full of wonder!

Sunday addendum!

Ok in looking back over what I wrote last night, as a very tired Santa, I found I omitted the real highlight of the week from my account!  You see during the middle night of the Dare Center week, a little girl, about 6 or so, after she got her gifts, turned to me and said , "Santa , I have something for you!"  She dug in her pockets and brought both hands out separately, tightly clinched!  Then she opened them up palm up and showed me that she had, in one hand a bright shinny penny and in the other, the head off a dandelion!  Now I'm sure when she picked it, that the head was open, showing all the bright yellow petals.  No matter because it was her most precious thing and she was giving it to Santa!  "Greater love hath no man!"  I gave her the biggest hug and told her I loved it and her!  The picture shows her treasures!

The week before Christmas!

As you can imagine this last week before Christmas has been a busy one.  In fact this whole season has been a busy one, 49 appearances in all by Santa!  A good portion of this week was spent at the Dare County Center in Manteo helping out with their Toys for Tots program.  They had expanded to  four nights this year but the first night was a party for the teenagers and they had no need for Santa!         Tuesday night we had the 9-12 year olds and though the generosity of Dare County folks and businesses, each of them got a big bag of toys and a tablet.  Now Santa presented these to each one, and to preserve the surprise I made up something about the wrapped package that was the tablet!  For example, the first one I told her she had a treasure map that showed where Blackbeard buried his treasure on Roanoke Island, the second I told him he had rattlesnake eggs and the third one I said there was a book in it with really thin pages so she had to read it really fast!  Anyway, you get the idea, I was having fun with it! And we had over 80 kids that night. 

The next night for 5-8 year olds and each of them through the help of several churches on the Outer Banks received a bike.  It was really special to see the look on these kids’ faces when those bikes came out!  There were about 130 children this night.  The last night was 0-4 year olds and as is common with this group there were a number that refused to have anything to do with Santa.  I have learned not to take it personally.  We had over 100 this night also!  This whole undertaking is managed by Sandy pace and I don’t know how she does it but it goes off without a hitch each year!  Santa also had a harem of three wonderful  ladies who helped with wrangling the children!  In-between  these outings, Santa also did some home visits.

Friday was an interesting day in that I was at a nursing home and a daycare!  I always donate a home visit to the Dare Center and to Surfing for Autism for their silent auctions.  This year the winner of the Dare Center one was one of the couples that works out when I do.  Anyway his Mom is in a nursing home and he asked if I would visit her when the home was having their Christmas party.  Actually I have some history with  this one because 5 years ago I had appeared at their party and his is the nursing home where Mary was when she passed away!  But I agreed to go and it was a wonderful time, warm but wonderful, then I went to the daycare and it was a return trip because I had been there last year!

The week finished up with a gig at Belk which was one of the busiest I’ve had this year.  Lots of kids and pictures!  And some unusual requests too!  One of the first was a policeman costume and her older sister asked for happiness and lots of money.  The Dad asked which of those comes first and the Mom asked for a 24” waist!  Another little one wanted a Super Woman costume but her Mom corrected her and said what she really wanted was a Wonder Woman costume.  Yet another little girl asked for a Barbie house because she had so many Barbies she can’t even count them!  A little guy asked for a submarine and a little girl asked for a tractor, later amended to a tiny one, please!   And lastly I had a request for a vacuum, Pretty sure that’s a first!  Well that’s it for tonight, I was going to go to an ugly sweater party tonight but I’m too tired to get up!  Y’all have a good night!

December 16, 2018

To continue the account of Santa’s weekend:  my next stop on Saturday was The Christmas Shop, which is a great place for the kids to come in and visit Santa and get an ornament for their tree!  Had one little girl who kept repeating, Jump, cook, paint!  Jump, cook, paint! Jump, cook, paint!  Finally her Dad explained it to me.  She wants a trampoline, a toy kitchen, and an art set!  Then there was the little guy who was wearing a hoodie with a shark fin that was asking for a shark for Christmas. And then this little guy in yellow walked in!

Full Pikachu outfit and rubber duck boots!  There was also a request for a cotton candy maker and another cart for a hover board!  Now just because I haven’t mentioned it doesn’t mean Santa wasn’t getting requests for baby dolls and Legos, because those were coming in all the time!  Another young man asked for a hatchet and a bargain barn, never did find out what that was!

Sunday started with my last trip to Bluewater this year, another favorite venue of mine!  There were lots of kids already waiting for Santa when I got there.  So I started off by going around the entire room and greeting all the little ones!  There were two little girls who just made my day.  They were both so great, wanting to talk to Santa and give him a hug, and color a picture for him.  I’m including a picture one of them

I will scan into the computer some of her art work!

And her Grandpa, who is a very natty dresser.

There was a request for 2 bean bag chairs, several dinosaurs, and a longboard.  Then there was the fellow that asked for a new motorcycle because he ran his old one into a pole!

After Blue Water Santa made a home visit to two of his favorite little girls who show him love all year round!  Their cousins were also there so we had a great time with their younger sister and cousins.  It was truly a marvelous day for Santa and it was great to feel all of the love flowing around about!  That love is the true spirit of Christmas  IMHO!

December 15, 2018

What a great day! If you can be surrounded by love all day long and know it, I don’t know what could be better! That was my experience today, I felt love all around me throughout the day, but let’s back up a bit and get to today first. Thursday I helped the Infinity dance troupe with their fundraiser, and I'm including a picture of something I saw on their wall.  Then on Friday I worked a party for a friend, Saturday started with Ms. Sam’s fundraiser for Mane & Tail at BK Shucker’s starting at 8am. BTW that place is 45 minutes from my house so that was an early call to be dressed and on the road by 7:15! One of the best parts about doing multi-years of the same event (this was my 4th time for this one) is that you get to see the little ones grow up. There was one family where I remember working on this one little girl for a long time(she was about 2) now she is the elder stateswoman of the family and the youngest was the challenge!
Some interesting requests over the week, One was fuzzy socks. A little guy wanted a “digger” There were a lot of sports in the requests, football, basketball and basketball goal because he broke his old one! Animals were also big on the list: someone asked for a duck! And some chips! A kitty was requested and a horse and a cart for her hover board! One little guy wanted some teeth and he needed them! I will be finishing this post tomorrow but I’m really beat right now. I just had to share what a wonderful day today was for Santa!

Dec 12, 2018

Santa is done for the day, at least the fully costumed version of this old body.  I am working a 4:30-8:30 shift at The Avenue tonight where I will be wearing red of course!  This morning started at Manteo Post Office for Santa's yearly picture with the staff there, No, Bill Black, they weren't taking my picture for a wanted poster for the post office!  Then it was off to The Dare County Center for breakfast with Santa and a group of preschoolers!  They were , as you can imagine bundles of energy.  When we were gathering them all together for a group picture I likened it to herding cats in a thunderstorm!  But they were also a lot of fun.  There were several requests for Monster Trucks and Dinosaurs of numerous varieties!  We got everyone in for a picture of some type! One little guy when he was leaving Santa walked really slow because he didn't want to go.  Ben, a special friend of Santa from Miss Sam's room stopped in to say hi!  And Santa's favorite today was the little girl who asked if I would bring her a crown next week!  Of course I asked what the crown was for and she replied, "So I can be a princess!"  When asked which one she said "Cinderella!"  And that's the latest from here, Folks, have a great day!

December 11, 2018

Lest you think Santa has been loafing, I want you to know  he has had 5 appearances since Sunday night. The last was for the Hospital's party at the Elizabethan Gardens , which were lovely decorated again this year! This event is another favorite of mine and I think we had a lot more kids than last year! There were a few unusual requests that I have to share with you. One little girl asked for a unicorn stable, I guess they have taller doors to accommodate the horn! There was another request for a sewing machine and this little lady wants to design and make clothes, Look out, Ladies of the costume shop, here comes the younger generation!

There were a couple of very specific requests, one young fellow wanted his very own hammer and another asked for Lego Train set #9012! There was also a request for a turtle and one little one was very careful to tell me that it was a toy dinosaur she wanted because she didn't have room for a live one! One young lady asked for peace and joy for her whole family and all her friends! The last one I'm going to share is the little girl that wanted a wallet so she could give it to her Dad because all he had was a rubber band! And that's the latest from Santa's lap!

Pictures from the week Dec2-9

Requests from Dec 7-9

    Back again!  After a weekend when I wore the big red suit a total of 20 hours I have a few requests and comments to relate.  Probably the most requested item over the whole weekend was Legos.  Boys and girls want Legos this year, specific sets and just Legos!  Baby dolls were popular, especially LOL dolls!  Scooters and dirt bikes came up pretty often.  The most popular electronic item is the Nintendo Switch but let's talk about the more unusual requests.  My costumer friends will be glad to know I had two separate little girls ask for sewing machines!  Then there was the little boy who wanted a shotgun, a cap gun and handcuffs!  Not sure what he is going after but watch out!  Two Moms came up to me out of earshot of the kids and one asked for World Peace and some really cute shoes!  The other wanted new underwear!

    Had one little guy come up and he was so sad because he had accidentally touched his elf, which of course makes the elf lose their magic.  So after he apologized  I had his Mom hold up her had and I gave her the magic to bring the elf back!   

Lest you think all children think only of themselves, on two separate occasion I had something happen that boosted my faith in this next generation.  One little girl only wanted one thing and that was that her brother not get cancer anymore!  Another little one asked for toys for all the kids that weren't going to get any this year. . . wise beyond her years, she was!

    Mermaids and unicorns are popular this year, in fact one little girl asked for something that was a combination of the two!  One little one wanted a unicorn to ride and another wanted a remote control unicorn, while another request was for a mermaid with wings that could swim.  Not sure about that one!  And one asked for a unicorn and a rabbit as a pet!

    There was one little boy who had several cars on his list, including a Zebra car but his most unusual request was a watermelon.  When I asked what his was going to do with a watermelon he said, "Smash it with a hammer!"  To each his own, I guess!  Another wanted a giant stuffed Blue dog! and a recorder, because he wanted to learn how to play it!  One little girl wanted a new dress and her sister wanted a football!

    I want to close by telling you about a little girl about seven who came to sit on my lap.  I will usually tell the kids that I like their dress, or sweater or shirt, if they are wearing something special!  She was wearing a gorgeous long dress and I told her how pretty it was.  She explained to me that she tried to dress like she thought Ms. Claus would dressed.  I told her that was a very nice of her and Mrs. Claus would have been proud of her.  That was the biggest smile I saw all night!  I am so glad I get to gladden the hearts of so many kids.  I probably saw between 4 and 500 kids this weekend.  So that's the latest from Santa's Lap!

December 9, 2018

OK, here's a short description of Santa's day! It all started at Blue Water Grill at 1. When I walked in there were already at least half a dozen kids present so I circulated and told each one to come see me at my chair by the tree and tell me what they wanted for Christmas! And before they left each one of them did stop for pictures and conversation! All of that group did come sit on my lap! I did have time to visit the lovely Brittany at the Silver Bonzai shop which is located in Blue Water temporarily!

Now's a good time to explain what I have observed about the refusal of children to come to Santa. I can almost always tell when a child first appears what the result is going to be, not that I don't get surprised sometimes! First there are the ones that come running up to me, then there are those that come in kicking and screaming and I know if there is a picture to be taken it will be one with the little one crying! Then there is the large number that fall somewhere in-between those extremes! I have learned a number of tricks to get them to come to me but mostly I just act like I'm interested in them and I what to hear what they have to tell me. I know I have said this before but it has been my experience that between 11 months and 2 1/2 it is a 50/50 shot whether they re going to cry! And with boys it is probably 60/40 slanted towards refusal! Today I had about 4 real successes, one was a little girl that her Mom said it was 4 years in the making!!!

Next stop for Santa was the Christmas Shop which is one of the best locations for kids. You see they give each child that visits Santa a gift bag containing an ornament, a candy cane and a toy. Pretty nice swag for visiting the fat guy in the red suit! We had several nice family groups and one of those screamers I told you about! She didn't even want to come in the room, I knew she was never going to sit on my lap!

    After this Santa had to brave the storm and travel up to Kitty Hawk UMC for a visit! "The weather outside was frightful" Santa read the assembled children about the reason we give presents at Christmas! Had some really delightful children tonight there including some I had seen when I visited the daycare there. After grabbing a few cookies Santa was off!

    Then back into the rain to Faith Baptist in Manteo, to see some of my favorite children, some of whom have grown into teenagers! You can see some of these pictures here also. Finally Santa was able to go home and get out of the storm with some fried chicken and potato salad for supper! A bonus was the schools are on a 3 hour delay tomorrow so I'm sleeping in! Good Night!

December 8, 2018

    Whew, I am TIRED! This was probably Santa's busiest day of the season and he packed about 300 children into the day! It all started at Sugar Creek for a fund raiser breakfast at 8:30 and it was a good one, location was great and we had lots of kids! The folks running the breakfast did a great job and I only had to relocate Santa's chair a bit further away from the fireplace! I am going to do a run down of Santa's day and come back and go over the requests because I truthfully don't remember where what was requested! The Sugar Creek gig ran until 11 then I was off to Southern Crossing foe a 12-3 gig!

    Along the way I stopped at McDonalds for 2 cheeseburgers and a milkshake, because I figured that was one thing I could eat while driving. Unfortunately they were cleaning the shake machine (Isn't that always the way?) so one of the nice ladies made me an iced coffee drink instead!

So I gobbled down one cheeseburger, made a not so quick stop at K-Mart, Santa runs into lots of folks when he is in full regalia! And I pulled into Southern Crossing in plenty of time. I even beat the photographer there! The three hours there were almost nonstop with just a bit of a slow down at 2:30 or so. Lots of families and Santa did his best to encouraged or enable a picture for each one!

      At three Santa hopped back in the car and drove down to The Baum Center to meet up with a fire truck for transport to Kill Devil Hills celebration at their Town Hall! Along the way I ate the other cheeseburger, now cold of course! There were lots of kids there too for almost the full two hours that were scheduled there. I was a bit concerned about Santa's last stop because I was supposed to be at Manteo High School for the close of a dance recital. I said I thought I could be there by 6:20 which was pushing the limit to get from KDH to Manteo in that time.

      Half way through the gig I got a voicemail that the dance recital was going along quicker than thought and they wanted me to get there as soon as I could. Luckily the crowd stopped about 5:45 and the fire truck with the fine crew from Kill Devil Hills picked me up and took me to my car and I was on the road at 5:55! Now I didn't go more than 4 MPH over the speed limits all the way back and I only hit 1 traffic light. So I cruised into MHS parking lot at 6:15, hustled inside!(as I was going up the walk, there was a family with a little dancer coming down the walk, but they told me the recital was still going on, whew!) Then I was ushered backstage to make my cameo appearance just in time!  And we did pictures with all the dancers and some of the younger members of the audience!

A very full day, so I am at home enjoying an uncrustable ( I got hooked on them this summer, peanut butter and grape jelly, yummy!)) and a soda with my feet up!  Hope y’all are taking it easy too! Upon further reflection, I realized what I didn't say was that it was also a totally wonderful day because I got to bring joy into the hearts of a lot of little ones. I got so many hugs, each of which tends to renew my energy. The light that I was able to see in the eyes of these children was fantastic and I wouldn't have traded a moment of my busy day for anything!

December 6th, 2018

Yesterday was a very fun day for Santa.  It started with a visit to Kitty Hawk UMC daycare.  90 some 2-4 year olds greeted Santa warmly.  It was among the best visits this old Santa has ever had!  This age group can be a little leery of Santa, but not these children.  Everyone of the 90 some either sat on Santa's lap or stood beside him for a picture.  Now some needed a little time to get used to the idea but eventually Santa got a hug or high five from EVERYONE.  Some of the classes even  had a song they sung beautifully for Santa!  The teachers were wonderful too and all are definitely on Santa's nice list! 

       There are a lot of different ways to be Santa, some portray him as a bigger than life boisterous character, some just sit back and let the kids come to them.  I tend to use a middle of the road approach and gently encourage the shy ones to come to me.  My role model has always been the Santa in the original "Miracle on 34th Street", the marvelous Edmund Gwenn.  If you have never seen the movie, give yourself a treat this holiday season and make it a point to view it!

    The evening was devoted to a gathering of the faculty of First Flight High School.  Since it was a casual affair Santa dressed appropriately, including socks with his picture on them!  See the picture!  Such a feast, Santa may have to let out his suit pants.  Great music also!  Santa topped off the evening with a visit to his favorite watering hole, Bluewater Grill, for a dessert with his favorite bartender, Coffee!  All in all a marvelous day!

December 2nd

Well, today I had a first, a costume malfunction! Nothing scandalous but it was disconcerting! I was at The Dunes for a Breakfast with Santa sponsored by the great folks at Village Realty, one of my favorite activities each year! About 15 minutes in I realized  something didn't feel quite right and then I figured out something was wrong with Santa's belt. After fussing with it for a bit I saw that the buckle was broken. You see those fancy Santa buckles are pretty but they arent very strong.So I just removed it. I was wearing what is referred to by many as a Coca Cola Santa Suit that has big brass buttons all the way down the front of it and not having a belt was not a huge loss! Anyway The Dunes was a great location for the event because the families ate in the same room that Santa was set up in. That way I could see the kids all the time and as think I've said before it is the interaction with them that inspires me and gives me the power to continue this calling because that's the way I view it, as a calling!

So there were lot's of little ones I had seen before, in fact a couple of the Mommas had pictures on their phones to show me of previous years! A friend of mine sent me a cheat sheet for his daughter and her cousins and it's always nice to surprise the little ones with what Santa knows about them!

One little girl fairly early asked for a horse and when I asked where she would keep it, she said in her back yard and she would feed it carrots. I thought that was a good one, then I heard a little later from a young man who wanted a live dinosaur which he would keep in his back yard and he was going to feed it carrots also!

One thing they did today was they had a form for the kids to fill out which had their gift requests on it and several other things! I'm going to try to bring you the best of these submissions! There was a 3 year old who whats to be a teacher and two of his requests were a yellow fan and a yellow Vacuum! And a 5 year old who wants to be a singer and was requesting a treehouse, to help with the high notes I guess! A 4 year old boy who wants to grow up to be a wrestler, every Mother's dream, and he wanted a big monster truck. One little guy had some help writing a lengthy list, including, his own binoculars and a new ice maker and concluded with "That's all" but he added in his own had a P.S. & a P.P.S. unfortunately I can't read either !

There was a handwritten list I could read but not figure out. It said " Treasure X" when I looked it up I found it is a game that you can find treasure. "Untamed raptors" He wants to tame them I guess and "Swing Scooter" which is a 3 wheeled scooter! See Santa isn't too old to learn things, but I'm not riding that either! Had one letter from an 18 year old who said she has been "amazing" this year and one item on her list was plastic forks! Another little one,5, wants to be a horse trainer and asked for a selfie stick and flower toys! There was a 3 year old who wants to grow up to be a pizza teacher, sounds like a tasty profession. A little girl wants a pink guitar, A six year old wants to be a paleontolugist and wants a slime lab and a pottery wheel, first time I've been asked for that! There was an unsigned note that asked for a flute and a trombone!

Santa's day ended with a visit to Blue Water Grill where I met several really cute little ones including one little girl who had on Santa earrings!  Santa also saw the most beautiful woman on Roanoke Island!   Several folks complimented me on how well I interacted with the children which I took as a good sign! Santaś doing his job! I do want to close with one letter from a 4 year old who wants to grow up to be an elf and would really like some rainbow slime for Christmas! Her last wish was for snow to come down! So watch out, Outer Banks! Until next time Santa signing off!

December 1, 2018

It was the best of days, it was the worst of days! Thank you Charles Dickens for that opening! It was the best of days because it started with the Manteo Christmas Parade! It is hands down Santa's favorite event of the Christmas season! It was also  the biggest parade, in my memory anyway.
 Sitting in the bucket on the fire truck I get to see the entire parade pass in review and today that took 30 minutes! The day began with Santa getting his usual ride from the elementary school to the high school in a golf cart that was tricked out fine enough to be in the parade or at the North Pole. It was complete with reindeer Ralph, one of Santa's alternate reindeer! After a cruise of the parade lineup we went back to meet the chief of Roanoke Island Fire Department and his fine crew! I climbed into the bucket and was given a radio and fitted with a safety belt, more about that later. I have always believed that it  is important for each child watching the parade to know that Santa loves THEM. So it is my personal goal to make eye contact with each child along the route. Now I know that I probably don't reach that goal, but that doesn't mean I don't try each year and I'll bet I do make eye contact with most of the kids. It also means I don't look at many adults so please don't think I was ignoring you today if I didn't look at you! About halfway through the parade route the safety belt slipped off so I stepped out of it and I never fell out of the bucket once, though I did the Limbo under one low-hanging wire!

Now as to how it was the worst of day, Santa made a mistake and booked himself for two different places this afternoon at the same time. It was totally my fault and I will try to make it up to the folks I couldn't get to til late!

After the parade Santa was taken the Manteo Elementary for pictures. Lots of great kids with fantastic outfits for pictures! Here are the highlights from their requests! Several FitBits were requested, if that's any indication we are going to have a load of well-conditioned kids. Smart watches were popular today and Barbie campers! Two requests for snakes and one lizard in addition to the usual cats and dogs! One fellow asked for a remote control Gravedigger and for those of you not from North East NC, that is a monster truck that has his own house and playground. So he wasn't asking for a way to dig graves! Another fellow wanted an excavator and a remote control helicopter. Several girls asked for makeup and one asked for a makeup table. I asked if she had any makeup for the table and she said no! Guess she figured it came with makeup! One little one asked for a kitchen! I had one young fellow on my lap and I asked him if he had been to the parade, when he said yes, I asked what time he got up. He replied he was up at 3 and a half! That was earlier than I, for sure!

  After the grade school it was off to Southern Crossing for another session with the FFHS Journalism students.  One thing different today was we had several dogs in for pictures and some  repeat business, including Santa’s favorite elf, and two young ladies on their way to Nutcracker with their beautiful Mom!  The request ranged from the expected to the strange.  In the first category were a Bumblebee Transformer, a kit to make bracelets, earrings while in the latter group there was an animation tablet,  a unicorn that could be walked, a robot Monkey and a robot bunny, not by the same child!  Well ol’ Santa is tired so that’s all from Santa’s lap for today!