Christmas Repost

from 12/24/05....

The following post is from a story writer of the Milwaukee Journal by the name of Charlie House....a long time ago.....Like before I was born..which was a long time ago.

I am sure that he wrote this, published it and maybe never thought about it again but if one of his kids ever googles his name I want them to know that it has been used in our family for close to forty years and will be used when my kids find out. The following is from my Mom....

“I found this article in the Milwaukee Journal newspaper (we were living at 2227 N. 7th Street in Sheboygan). I’ve read this story to each of you children when it became apparent the proper time had come for you to hear it. You then became part of a
Very special secret and were allowed to stay up late on Christmas Eve, bring the gifts out from their special hiding place and place them under the tree for the rest of the family as they slept."...Mom

With that, here you go. A Andrews Family Tradition.

When you were littler than you are now, you believed in Santa Claus. Now that you are bigger, you may be wondering about the beautiful secret of the really, truly Santa Claus. You are old enough to know, so this is a real story. It happened. Once upon a time, a very long time ago, a baby was born in a city called Patara in a place called Asia Minor. The baby's name was Nicholas. I think they called him Nick. Except for one thing. Nick was just like other babies. He laughed some. He gurgled some. He cried some. He did all the things that other babies do. But the very one thing that was different about Nick was that he was going to grow up to become the really, truly Santa Claus.

Nick's father had a funny name; it was Epiphanies. Nick's mother had a pretty name; it was Joanna. Nick's name wasn't Santa Claus; not yet, anyhow. He got that name in a very funny way, which I will tell you about after a while. Nick's mother and father knew that Christ had come from heaven and that Christ was wonderfully good and kind. He loved people on the earth, and the people always tried to do the things that Christ wanted them to do. Nick's mother and father believed in Christ, so they called themselves Christians. They taught Nick to be good and kind, and to help people. As he grew from a baby to a boy and then to a man, he was always good and kind. One day some people came to Nick. They asked him if he would please come to work in their church so that he could help people. Nick said that he would like to do that, so he did. After a long time people saw what a wonderful person he really was. They asked him if he would come to a much bigger church in a much bigger city, which was called Myra. Nick did; and then, after a while, the people started to call him bishop, because that is what you call a person who is at the head of some churches. Bishop Nicholas was very happy. He liked big people and he liked little people; but most of all, he loved children. Sometimes he carried candy in his pocket so he could give little children a present when he met them. It was fun for him to see little children happy. Other times when Bishop Nicholas learned about people who needed something, he would go to their house and drop the something down the chimney. He enjoyed giving secret presents. Well, people began to think that Nick was so nice that they decided to call him a saint. (A saint is a person who is so nice that you could hardly know anybody nicer.) So the people called him Saint Nicholas. Nick began to travel from place to place to try to help people. Sometimes he traveled east; sometimes he traveled west; sometimes he traveled south, and sometimes he traveled north where it was very, very cold. And here is an odd thing. When St. Nick traveled to the north kind of places, he dressed as warmly as he could. He wore warm, black boots, and he wore red clothes (because some bishops wear red). He wore red mittens and a red hat and red trousers and his clothes were all trimmed with white fur. I am sure' that you know exactly how he looked. I think you know how he traveled, too. He had a big sleigh and he drove reindeer, just as you have thought of him doing all those years when you were little. But one day, after Nick had grown old become a very, very old man, a sad thing happened. He died on December 6 of the year numbered 343. That was 1,624 years ago. Everybody was sad. They looked at each other and asked, "Who can take his place?" Some people were willing to try. They dressed in red clothing trimmed with white fur, and they put on a make believe beard, and they went from house to house to give presents to the little children. They wanted to make the children glad, and they did. The people who dressed up like St. Nicholas couldn't make believe all the time so they did it just around Christmas time, because it was near to the time that Saint Nicholas went away. Other people got St. Nick mixed up with Christmas time, even though Christmas doesn't really have very much to do with the wonderful, true story of Santa Claus. Then a long, long, long time passed. Some Dutch people who lived in Holland moved away from there and came to America, where you live. Did you know that the Dutch people talk differently? When Dutch people want to say the name St. Nicholas, they say it this way: San Nicolas. Now I am going to stop reading for a little while so you can try to say San Nicolas a few times, very quickly. Try it. Now you see? It sounds exactly like -Santa Claus." So you see, the name as we say it is not a really truly name- it is a fun kind of a Nickname! Santa Claus is a kind of a fun man, too. Even though there was once upon a time a really, truly St. Nick, there isn't any more, except just for make believe. You are big enough to know that if the really, truly St. Nick had stayed alive all that time, he would be hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of years old and, of course he couldn't live to be that old, could he? So now, big people make believe that the wonderful man who lived ever so long ago is still in the world. The reason they do this is because it is a very special way to make little children happy. And that's the really, truly story of Santa Claus.

At 2:06 PM,  Anonymous said...

I LOVE this story and am so pleased that you've chosen to write it in your blog. Yes, it has always been part of the Andrews' Christmas traditions. The best part is being old enough as a child to be in on the secret, then playing Santa with your parents and putting all the gifts under the tree at midnight! Love, Mom

 

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