A Story of Christmas Past

When I was a little girl, Christmas was a special time for me.  I loved the excitement, the Christmas carols and the sparkling lights on the Christmas tree.  What child would not be intrigued by the imagery?  I cannot tell you how many times we waited up just to sneak a peek of Santa placing gifts around the tree.  To me, Santa was such a mystery.  He did more than pique my curiosity, there were definite things I needed to know.  Like,  who was this Santa, where did he really come from, and how did he know so much about me?  It seemed as if he could keep track of all my shenanigans better than me.  The other amazing thing about him was that he had an unusual effect on children's behavior.  He had the uncanny ability to keep children in check from afar.  One thing was for certain, the pressure to behave couldn't be ignored.  All of my friends knew that if they wanted Christmas toys, they had to be good little girls and boys.  

A couple of times, I came pretty close to catching Santa in the act.  I pretended to be asleep. because I didn't want to risk his taking any of my toys back.  My Mother had told me that Santa was funny about things like that.  She said, he didn't want anyone to see him taking the toys from his great big sack.  I often wondered if she was making that stuff up, but Mothers don't make stuff up, right?  It did kind of puzzle me as to how she knew so much about Santa.  Especially, if, as she said, he wanted to keep a "low profile."  Yet strangely, he and my Mother seemed to have a special connection.   I puzzled over so much about the Santa mystery, but hey, what did know?  I was only a kid.  I learned to put all my questions aside, because as long as Santa made sure the things I wanted were under the tree. I was good.