Wanna Trade?: 2005

It's hard to know how three three-year olds and a baby are going to respond to Santa. Often children of this age are afraid. As we entered the home there were mixed emotions and the safety of mother's arms and father's legs was held in high regard. Santa tried to hold the ringing of his bells to a minimum and used a softer "Ho, ho, ho." It helped and soon the young children were feeling brave enough to gravitate towards Santa's direction. The baby came to me without hesitation...something that tickled me to no end.

The first little boy wasn't sure he wanted to go to that "silly Santa". He had both pointer fingers in his mouth. It was hard to understand what he was saying. That seemed to be common among all of them. The next boy got out that he wanted a "aekell.kcopeter". We finally figured out that he meant a helicopter. It was the third boy who made the evening for me. His mother kept reminding him that he had something in his pocket for Santa. Finally he reluctantly took out a pacifier and made a trade with Santa--the binky for a Christmas present.

Santa took it from him. We talked about it on the way home. We hope this doesn't end up turning this little boy against Santa and Christmas forever. I mean, it could be very tramatic. We thought about him all night long. Good luck, little one.

Mrs. Claus