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Alias Santa Claus
Rebecca Sicree on Childhood Encounters with a Christmas Icon
It was after dark on Christmas Eve, and my younger sister Jessie and I were arguing. I was telling her that Santa Claus did not exist. She was stubbornly refusing to believe me.
There was a knock at the door.
"Girls, come here," my dad called, with an odd expression on his face. "Someone wants to see you." So we went to the door.
And there he was.
"Ho! Ho! Ho!" he chortled. "Merry Christmas! I was at your neighbor's party and thought I'd stop by. What would you little girls like for Christmas?"
Jessie's face lit up with excitement. She said that she wanted a Chrissy doll with hair that grew. I stood and stared. Our guest seemed to think I was afraid of him. Finally, I stammered that I wanted a Chrissy doll, too. "I'll see what I can do," he assured us and left. Jessie turned on me with a look of fierce triumph.
"See?" she said. "I told you so!"
My parents burst out laughing.
Both of us had Chrissy dolls the next morning.
I was very, very confused.
Rebecca Sicree writes from Boalsburg, Pennsylvania. She and her family attend Our Lady of Victory Catholic Church in nearby State College. She and her husband Andrew have ten children, six of whom are now adults.
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more on Christmas from the online archives
35.6—Nov/Dec 2022
on the Divine Promise Fulfilled by the Child of Bethlehem by James M. Kushiner
31.6—November/December 2018
on Childhood Encounters with a Christmas Icon by Rebecca Sicree
21.10—December 2008
Early Christian Teaching on the Incarnation & Redemption by Patrick Henry Reardon
more from the online archives
24.1—January/February 2011
Marriage Thrives in Reality, Not in Our Dreams by Nathan Schlueter
27.2—March/April 2014
Higher Education Should Advance the Glorious Liberty of the Sons of God by Anthony Esolen
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