(Image courtesy of the Negaunee Historical Society)

NEGAUNEE — Do you believe in Santa Claus? I’m really sure you do, if you would only stop to think just what he means to you. He’s more than a name. have to admit it, I like Santa Claus.

I love the magic of Santa. When my children were at that age of not believing, I just told them it was up to them if they believed or not, but that I believed. I never told them that there wasn’t a Santa. Yet the magic was there and it didn’t matter how old they were.

On Christmas morning when they looked at their gifts, they wanted us to look at them as if we had never seen them. My son was in middle school when he rushed into our bedroom early in the morning and said, ” I got my skis, I got my skis.” That was the same Christmas that my oldest son, a freshman in high school got a new piece of technology, a tape recorder

Have you ever had your conversation taped when you were not aware of it being done? I think they call it wiretapping. The skis needed to have the binders adjusted to fit my son’s ski boots. My husband and I had different ideas of how it should be done.

You know how voices clash when two people think they are both right, well on that Christmas morning son number one reminded us what we sounded like. On the tape recorder we heard the words from dad, ” If I told you once I told you a thousand times it can’t be done that way.” I don’t think my way was acceptable.

And we heard it played many times that day. In spite of it all Santa is a wonderful concept, a gift of generosity and love from parents to children to show them love in a special way during a special season. Each family makes its own choices and traditions. When I was growing up Santa came to our house.

In the early years my father dressed as Santa Claus and handed candy out to neighborhood children. My brothers and sister were a lot older than I and they all had children of their own, so we gathered at the family home on Christmas Eve and Santa came with a gift for all. It was a gift that each parent had bought for their child.

On Christmas Eve 1949, Santa did not make an appearance. My father was very ill with cancer and was in the Twin City Hospital and died on December 26th.

Santa did not come in person that year but he came in the caring and love of other people. I was only 11 years old but people who had never given me a gift before made sure that I was taken care of knowing that my mother had just spent a month at the hospital with my dad. Another Christmas comes to mind.

My mother told me the story about the time she and my brother Bobby were shopping in Ishpeming and she was in a hurry and passed up the red kettle. Remember how the Salvation Army had little red booths on the street and the bellringer sat inside so you didn’t really didn’t have to make eye contact.

My brother said, “Ma, we have to put money in the kettle so poor people can buy coal.” When my brother was in the U.S. Air Force and her and I were shopping she put money in the kettle and said, coal for the poor and she put in another dollar and said one for Bobby. So I have kept this tradition. “For the poor and one for Bobby.” One Christmas when I went to get the mail, I asked my mother if there was a letter from Bobby could I read it? I had a little walk from the mailbox to the house so I had time to read it. In it was a $20 bill and a note to tell my mother to buy me ice skates for Christmas.

Although my siblings no longer exchanged gifts between their families for Christmas, when Ken and I returned home from California with our first child when Christmas came they all bought him a gift.

So Santa is real, he doesn’t always come in a red and white suit, he comes in the gift of other people. More often than not Christmas spells joy, but there’s also a longing. A time to remember what has been. A time to remember the stories of Christmas past. In the days to come we will be busy wrapping gifts, trimming trees. Some of you will be busy baking.

I won’t be one of you, I have left the baking to someone else. We will all be preparing for a season of celebration, Yes Virginia there is a Santa Claus, and he will live in the hearts of children for centuries to come. Santa is the magic, but it should never overshadow the real meaning of Christmas.

The love that comes not from magic but from “the word became flesh and lived among us.” Jesus coming at Christmas was God’s perfect gift, a gift of generosity and love. A Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all from the Negaunee Historical Society.