Mom - I Swear I Saw Santa!

Mom - I Swear I Saw Santa!

I have a lot of memories of Christmas as a young boy. It's amazing how children's imaginations can open up whole magical worlds to explore - like the movie "Polar Express".

I can remember one Christmas eve - I must have been 4 or 5 years old, when I swore I saw Santa. It was a full moon that night and I woke up from a deep sleep after hearing bells - the kind of bells that would be on a sleigh. It was very late at night and everyone in the house was fast asleep.

I jumped up out of bed and looked out my window. The light of the moon was so bright, it was almost like daytime. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw someone walking from in front of my house towards my neighbor's house. That someone had on a red coat, a red hat, a beard and a large bag slung over his shoulders. It was Santa!

My Mom had always told me that Santa wouldn't come to our house unless all the children were fast asleep. So I quickly got back in bed and tried my best to go back to sleep. But there was no way I could - I had just seen Santa walking away from our house! And so that meant he had already left presents for us. But, I thought that he might come back and take our presents away if he sensed we weren't all asleep - because you know Santa knows when you're awake! My heart was pounding!

I managed to fall back asleep at some point - but I woke up again just before dawn and jumped out of bed, ran into the living room. Lo and behold, there were Santa's gifts under the Christmas tree! I ran and woke up my Mom to tell her that I had saw Santa that night. She said, "Of course you did!" and I knew she didn't believe me. So I said, "Mom - I swear I saw Santa last night!". She said, "Well if he really came, did you check and see if he ate the cookies that we left for him?" I ran back into the living room, and sure enough, he had eaten all the cookies except for half of one last cookie. And he had drank half of the glass of milk we had left for him too.

These memories are the ones that I can still remember in vivid detail, even though they were long, long ago. I only hope that my children have had similar memories that they can share when they grow old. Because that is what Christmas is all about. You know - I always wonder who that "Santa" was walking in front of my house that Christmas eve - or did I just imagine it. It must have been the real thing.

-Rick Gurkin