It’s surprising that not everyone’s childhood recollection of Santa Claus is that of a jovial plump elf. Apparently some remember the patron saint of Christmas to be an old curmudgeonly prig who teased the children with bags of stockpiled goodies. If a child reached for a bagful of the sweet temptations, Santa would sting the eager young hand with his switch. That impression of Santa Claus would likely leave children frightened to thoughts of poisoning the milk and cookies or keeping the fireplace roaring all night in an effort to “off” the chubby fellow during his visit on Christmas Eve.
I remember the annual tradition of waiting for Santa to arrive by train (apparently it was safer than flying) into the pivotal Christmas hub of Mandan. Once the “Polar Express” braked to a halt, he jumped off the caboose, shook hands with hundreds of freezing children and then summoned his red-and-green-clad army of helpers to methodically dispense the traditional brown sandwich bag of goodies. My memory of Santa was far more favorable but I’m afraid his paper sack offering on Christmas Eve morning did nothing to improve my attitude toward unsalted, unshelled peanuts, candy canes, bruised, mealy apples or ribbon hard candy.
2 replies on “A “Mean” Santa?”
OMG Sean, that brings back memories…! We used to have a Christmas matinee in good old Glen Ullin and at the end “Santa” used to hand out brown paper bags of in-the-shell peanuts and misc. candy, which I’m sure included bust-a-tooth ribbon candy. HAHAHAH!
The guy that invented that bag of “goodies” and declared it the standard Christmas fare must be having the last laugh. I swear it’s a universal standard – chocolate be damned!