A True Christmas Tale: Jordan's dad tells a real Santa story.

Is there anything as overwhelming as the love we feel for our parents, when we get to an age where we can really appreciate them? 


My dad has been harassing me for weeks to write out a particularly special Christmas story from my childhood on the blog. I haven't had time to work on it, because of my long work hours. The other night we chatted on the phone and I was really bummed out about work stress. Unable to help with the work stress itself, my dad went to work writing this blog post. He sent it to me, and it's perfect, so I'm sharing it with all of you. Hopefully it will help you get into the Christmas spirit.


This is a true story. I have never been able to get my parents to admit to having a hand in the matter. You won't believe it, but it really happened. 

JORDAN'S DAD, BILL, TELLS A TALE OF MEETING THE REAL SANTA CLAUS.

This is a story for all those people who have foolishly lost their belief in good ol’ Saint Nick. Both my wife and I will swear on a stack of bibles that this is a totally true story. My children had reached that time in their lives (10 and 12) when the Santa Crisis occurs: friends, school, and television, coupled with pre-teen observation, had brought them to the conclusion that perhaps their parents were somehow involved in the gift-giving process.

It was December 23^rd. My wife and I decided this might be the last time we could visit the ‘mall Santa’ and have any chance of rebuilding Jordan and Mike’s flagging belief. We set out in our mini van after convincing the kids we needed to do this as a family adventure. Of course, Sue had told them I would be heart broken if we didn’t go and I had played the same guilt trip on them only moments before. I think they came along just to shut us up.

Our first stop was our favourite shopping mall but all that was left was an empty throne. “Oh,” I said, “Santa must be feeding the reindeer!” To the parents out there, let me ask: do you remember those times when your kids give you THAT LOOK? You know, the one that says you’re a complete lame-o? Well, we went to three other malls and no Santa at any of them. Of course, I continued to point out that this validated my hungry reindeer theory, but we were getting desperate. It was 8:30pm as we raced towards the Lincoln Fields mall. “Give up, Dad, they never have a Santa!” “The Santa, not a Santa!” I said indignantly.

As we walked into the mall, Sue and I were truly sad that we had missed our last kiddie Christmas with the kids. Just then, we turned the corner and there, sitting on a chair, was Santa Claus. No throne, no cattle corral, no elves; just Santa. Well, not just Santa, but the best Santa we had ever seen. Even his beard was real. Santa hollered, “Jordan, Michael, where have you been? I have been waiting all night.” Now I must admit, I have run some great scams on the kids in the past but as they gave me the evil eye that night, both Sue and I said we had nothing to do with this. “Come on and get up on my knee you two, I don’t have much time!” Santa said.

For the next 10 minutes, he talked to them like he had known them all their lives. Then he said he had to get home to the reindeer (Ha! Feeding time, I smirked). As we piled into the van, the kids thanked us for organizing such a great Santa. We told them we had nothing to do with this, and it was true! We truly had no hand in this. With little patient smiles, they said thanks once again.

Later that night I asked Sue if she had organized this. She said it had been my idea to go to Lincoln Fields, not hers. The next morning, Sue called the office at the mall to thank them for having such a great Santa. The secretary said, “Sorry ma’am, we didn’t have a Santa yesterday.”

To this day, none of us can explain what happened that night; but I have never heard a single word of doubt about the existence of Santa after that.

Merry Christmas!

-Bill Kent

What do you think? Stranger than fiction? Cool? Crazy? Comment below!