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!