A Christmas tale

A very cute real
christmas story from our friends Amanda and Jesse and the twins

A few weeks before Christmas, a family of four went to a Christmas party. The party had a “special guest” on the itinerary and the instructions for all parents were to bring a small wrapped toy for each child. Before the party, the toys were collected and put into a big red sack. When Santa arrived, he distributed the gifts from his sack and the two boys received a set of four cars each. Both boys were overjoyed with the presents and thanked Santa very much. Santa responded that, “the next time they saw their good friend Chuck, tell him he’s a ‘great guy’!” It was very cute. The family stayed at the party for a while, then when it was time to leave, collected all of the cars and set off for home. Once they arrived home, one of the boys became bossy and possessive regarding the cars. “Be careful!” the father said. “Santa brought those toys and he can take them back whenever you misbehave.” Thinking he’d tamed the dragon, the father turned around, only to have one of the cars ‘whiz’ by his head. “Okay,” he responded, “it’s gone. You lose it.” The father took the car and hid it, amidst the crying of the young boy. “You need to make better choices,” the father said.
“I’d like my car back please,” the boy said the next morning.
“Sorry,” replied the father. “You need to make better choices. If Santa wants to return it to you, you’ll have to wait until Christmas. If you’ve been well behaved, you’ll get it back.”
After a few days, the boy threw another tantrum. “You lose another one!” The father said promptly, taking another car, to the boy’s protest.
“I’ll make better choices,” the boy sobbed, slowly, after calming down.
The following week, the family decided to visit a Christmas show, with a song and dance routine by multiple characters including Santa. “Daddy,” the boy said, “can you tell Santa to give me my two cars back?”
“I sure will,” the father said. “But you need to make good choices until Christmas.” Eventually, Santa and the rest of the show came down to see the people, wave and say, “Ho Ho Ho!”
“SANTA!!,” the boy shouted, “I would really like my cars back, please,” after getting a brief moment of time with the showman. “Umm…” the Santa started, “I’ll see what I can do.”
The boy behaved well for the next week and the family decided to attend another function. This was a city-sponsored float, in which Santa rode around the town and waved to people who came out of their houses to see him. Occasionally, the float would stop and Santa (and other helpers) would hand out candy canes. Because the float would have to drive down some areas with heavy traffic, the city added a microphone and giant speakers to the float, so Santa’s merriness and cheer could be heard by everyone. The family watched as the float went by and waved to the Santa. At the next intersection, the float stopped and the family trekked down the street to get closer to Santa, and possibly capture some candy canes. The young boy, broke away from his father and ran to the side of the float.
“Santa!” he yelled. “Santa!!”
It would be at this point that the city-sponsored Santa SHOULD have just said, “Merry Christmas little boy! Remember to behave and leave some milk and cookies out for me…” Instead, he said, “Someone get that kid the microphone.”
“Would you please bring the two cars back,” the boy spoke clearly and directly into the microphone. “The two cars that were taken away from me…will you please bring them back to me. I’m making good choices now.” The crowd spun and looked at the parents.
“You have to make good choices until Christmas,” the father said loudly.
“Yeah,” Santa replied. “Then you’ll get those cars back…and two NEW ones.”

Thanks Santa. The lesson? Never give your child a microphone. Merry Christmas!


PS – This story is true. The boy’s name is Jack. The family’s name is Armitage.