Santa potential

December. It’s here. It should be cold outside. The local parades have paraded— truth is, as I write this column, the Picton Parade is happening in the rain. It’s more like April than December. In spite of the “weather outside” the wish lists have been written and rewritten. If you have to drive anywhere, parking your vehicle will be a test of your patience— enough to move you from the nice to the naughty list. Kettle minders are ringing their bells in doorways around the County and the CAS Angels are waiting for your generosity. Our food banks’ shelves are pining for donations. It’s December. Christmas is heading our way.

For years I have shared with all y’all my unshakeable belief in Santa Claus. But put the image of a red-suited, fluffy-bearded, shinyblack- booted and the sleigh-full-of-toys-commandeering Santa right out of your mind. For that matter, erase the notion of “a jolly old elf who delivers gifts to the children of world in one evening” from your mind. I believe in the Santa Claus we can become, if we choose. Santa Claus, the real one we potentially are, is always cleverly disguised. If you choose to be the real Santa you get to wear the comfy blue jeans and a T-shirt or, well, whatever. Wearing something comfortable makes the job of being Santa much easier and less distracting to others who might not want to believe or perhaps aren’t ready to believe and take on the role of Santa. We all have the potential to be Santa— in December or year ’round.

I’ve said it before, I had stopped believing in fairy-tale Santa when my older sister decided it was time to let the candy cane out of the sock. I might have been about seven. I held onto that believe for years. The idea that I could be Santa never even occurred to me until about 2001. In my 50-plus years, 2001 was a banner year filled with stress, disappointments and soot. By 2001, Christmas had become a migraine of cleaning, shopping, baking, cooking, spending, entertaining, looking for self-worth, and dread. I needed to get my mind into a better place and climb out of the dumpster my career had been pushed into. My good friend Susan more or less hinted I might consider getting off my whiny arse and help her with the CAS Angel Campaign. Well, she was a bit more polite than that and she had made it sound like it could be fun. She even promised I’d feel better if I helped her. Ho Ho Ho. Susan was, and is once again, the Chief Angel in the annual CAS Christmas Angel Campaign. My good friend, a former co-worker and a Santa Believer, needed people to physically sort, pack, wrap, and deliver hundreds of gifts to dozens and dozens of Angels in the County. Ya, what the heck, I could do something. It wasn’t like I had a job to go to at the time. If anything, physical labour might help to keep my mind off my miserable self.

No one can prepare you for a “change of heart” and I wasn’t prepared for what really happened. I had no idea how many people, with children, living in this community had only enough money for the basics and not enough for Christmas. A storybook Santa brought gifts to kids whose parents could afford to play out the tale, but there were literally hundreds of kids who knew the truth about that Santa. And it was on one of those days, while watching Susan thank a couple for their donation to the CAS Angel Campaign, that I realized she was actually thanking real, honest-to-goodness saints of the Santa Claus variety. I knew, at that moment, I had the potential to be Santa.

In a caring community like Prince Edward County, the opportunities to become Santa (the one you knew you could be) are all around us. Think about making a donation to the food bank in Picton or the Storehouse Foodbank in Wellington. Pick an angel off the CAS tree at the Angel Office in Picton and make Christmas happen for a County kid. Bring a fiver to the grocery store and drop it in the Salvation Army Kettle. Buy a Christmas tree from a firefighter— great folks supporting great causes. Shovel a neighbour’s driveway or bake them a bunch of cookies. Shop and dine locally (tip like you’re on the receiving end). Create a brand new holiday tradition with your friends, your partner or your family.

“Believing in Santa is as difficult as believing in yourself.” But, what the H E double candy canes, you can do it.

theresa@wellingtontimes.ca