All I want For Christmas

Last fall a friend of mine retired after 25 years of service with the city’s work’s department. By Christmas the novelty of being job-free had began to wear off. Time was becoming a little heavy on his hands. About the same time a local department store advertised for a man to play Santa Claus, so Bob applied for the position and was hired.

Each time the gate to Santa’s throne opened, the children came bustling into the area. They were all excited. Their smiling faces expressed their anticipation. Many had a long list of toys, books and clothes which they hoped would be under the tree on Christmas morn. Bob loved children and he was at his height of glory in his new position.

The little folks waited for Santa to lift them to his knee and then sat proudly and reverently looking into his face. The older children leaned quietly against his knees while he slipped an arm around their shoulders. Bouncing the younger ones a time or two on his knee, Santa would quietly asked, "What is your name?"

"Paulita Maxwell " or "Mary-Lou Brown" or other names slipped easily from the lips of the little girls. The boys rhymed off "Jimmy" or "Freddy", all the while their bright eyes twinkling joyfully from their freckled faces.

"How is school?" Santa enquired.

"Fine," most replied.

"What is your teacher’s name?" Santa continued to make conversation.

"Miss Lee" came some of the shy answers.

"Have you been good this year?"

Big eyes beamed even brighter and their chest swelled a bit as they answered, "Yes, Santa."

"Well," Santa shifted them on his knee. "Now for the big question." He spoke slowly. "What would you like for Christmas?"

Many of the children requested Teddy Bears, electric trains, computers, computer games and on and on the list grew. The store manager had told Santa that he was merely to listen to the children but never to promise anything. Santa fulfilled his orders to a "T" as he talked to each little hopeful.

He got a chuckle the other day, when a six year old climbed to his knee. She settled herself triumphantly and breathlessly greeted him with, "You know Santa, Christmas is not about you. Its about the baby Jesus."

Bob was enjoying his new position when the first child stunned him with, "All I want for Christmas is for Daddy and Mummy to stop fighting."

Others followed with pleading eyes, "could you please bring my Daddy home. He has been gone for such a long time. He and Mummy got into a fight and Daddy left us."

Still with others it was "Make Mom’s new boyfriend leave our house so Daddy can come home.. I miss him."

Bob and I sipped a cup of Java on a coffee break and he opened his heart to me about "my kids" as he referred to them. When he came to the children from the broken homes his eyes welled up with tears. "These are not isolated cases." Bob’s hand dashed across his eyes . "They come more often than I care to remember. Each time a child makes that request I fine myself fighting back the tears. How do you answer them?"

He looked across his coffee mug at me, and continued. "Len, I can’t really tell you the number of times I have heard those requests, but I have gotten to the point that I hear their pleading voices in my sleep and see their small faces as I go for coffee breaks.

"Don’t parents realize what spousal fights, separation and divorce do to the little folks of their home?" He shook his head as tears welled up once more on the lashes of his eyes, "Maybe they just don’t care? Maybe their own interests mean more to them than the kids?

"I’ll tell you Len, each time I hear a child pleading for me or Santa to bring Dad or Mom home, or stop the fighting, it wrenched the heart out of me. What kind of homes are our children growing up in, when parental fighting is the daily fare and separation and divorce is the only answer to a marriage problem? What can we expect of the next generation?"

Bob paused along while before he went on, "I was reading this week that 50% of Canadian marriages will end in either separation or divorce and out of those homes 54% of the children will end their marriages the same way. What does the future hold for a society where marriage is just a passing thing and children don’t have a proper example of love to follow?

"I wish God would grant me the power to answer their requests." His voice trailed off, "just this once."

Written by Len Colp
Used by permission.